Dear readers, we bring to your attention an interview with the jury member of the third season of Gaudir, Elena Kunina.

"Elena Kunina is an art critic, teacher, author of teaching aids, laureate of many prestigious professional awards, her dolls are in private and museum collections around the world ..."

Elena, you were born and raised in Moscow at the Patriarch's Ponds, but today you live far abroad, in Israel. Some part of your biography was associated with Russia, but then life was divided into "before" and "after". What happened ?! What was the reason for your departure? Are there any regrets that you left here?

I don't tend to dramatise emigration, my life is not divided into "before and after" at all, it's just that in addition to Russia, it includes Israel and, more recently, Spain.

I work a lot, I like to travel, I have four grandchildren - I don't have much time for regrets. But if I have them, I can always go to Russia. For the time being, at least.

Your education is related to history (graduated from the Department of History and Theory of Art of the East Faculty of Moscow State University) We know that you worked in Moscow museums, specialized in arts and crafts and the history of costume, were engaged in classical painting and restoration of icons.

Why polymer clay ?! Traditional techniques and materials with which you worked did not meet the requirements of the time ?! Would you like to test your capabilities in new modern materials?

I like polymer clay for many reasons. First, there is no trail of historical associations behind it like old materials. For example, porcelain inevitably brings to mind small sculptures, like Meissen figurines. The widest range of associations is associated with wood, from Niccolo del Arco to Permian sculpture. And I must admit that all these comparisons are almost always not in favor of dolls.

Secondly, I like complex, detailed images, and polymer clay is perfect for them. This moment is perhaps the most important, because the material that we choose for the sculpture largely determines the entire style of the work.

Thirdly, polymer clay can imitate almost any material - from fabric to metal, from flowers to semi-precious stones - without their inherent disadvantages: brittleness, difficulty in processing, short-livedness, etc.

 Fourthly, it is possible to paint polymer clay with the finest glazes, a covering layer, and even relief strokes, which gives a lot of scope for creating textures. It is ideal for painting with Genesis low-temperature paints, which are very durable and do not require fixing with varnish.

Fifth, polymer clay is very durable, unless, of course, the technology of its processing and firing is violated.

Did you create your first dolls in 1987? It was a difficult period when the country was on the verge of great political change. Have you ever felt pressure from the outside? Someone else's dictate? Did you have to work on orders ?! What were your first dolls like?

As all Soviet citizens knew, “you cannot live in society and be free from society,” and living under a totalitarian regime, it was necessary not to distinguish the country from the government at all, so as not to feel any dictatorship. Nevertheless, the Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, in which I worked then, was very far from the ideological front, and nobody was interested in dolls at all from the point of view of compliance with the party line. But seriously, I very early mastered the art of living in "internal emigration", which, of course, did not save me from collisions with Soviet reality, but made them less painful.

My very first doll was The Old Man, an image from my childhood, appealing and scary at the same time. When I was about five years old, his van stood in our Moscow courtyard, on Patriarch Street. Huge, fat, shapeless, like a sawdust-filled doll, he sat in his van, legs overhung, while behind him piled treasures lit by a dim bulb: old perfume vials glimmering with multi-coloured lights, velvet hats with feathers and veils, some faded silks and crumpled yellow lace, large books in frayed leather bindings, defenceless porcelain bowls with chipped handles. I even dreamt of a stuffed fox without a front paw, but with perfectly lively eyes. In the dream this fox spoke to me in a terrible bass voice. The van smelled of damp, mothballs, dust, and medicines. I particularly remember one day when the junk man, sitting on the edge of his van, tore photographs out of a bald velvet album and threw them on the ground. It was raining, and the water poured over the smiling, unwanted faces, and I felt sorry for them for some reason. 

At first, I had the idea to make both a van and a stuffed fox, but then only the junk dealer remained.

Since 2002, you have constantly participated in International exhibitionstions. At the 5th International Art Dolls Exhibition you won a prize in the Modern Original Doll category, and at the 6th International Art Dolls Exhibition you won a prize in the Best Character Doll category...

What do you think participation in exhibitions gives?! Can an artist create masterpieces from home, or do they need "feedback" from colleagues, viewers, connoisseurs of dolls as art? Is an exhibition an invitation to the world of your art or a place to make useful acquaintances, conduct business negotiations or sell your work? Is an exhibition a way to be recognised or a venue for sales?

I participated in a variety of exhibitions: the world's largest "Toy Fair" in New York, a sophisticated exhibition of curators in the Castle Farrakh in Austria, the exhibition-contest "Eurodoll" (where twice, in 2001 and 2002, I won the Grand Prix for the best doll made of polymer clay) and many others. Each of these exhibitions has its own purpose: for example, the Toy Fair is not for the public, but for professionals - gallery owners, collectors, curators, and so on. That is, by participating in this exhibition, the artist gets to know collectors, finds new venues to sell his work, receives orders and invitations to other exhibitions, competitions and shows, and, of course, sells his work.

Curatorial exhibitions are a completely different format; participation in such exhibitions is often free (unlike large shows, where participation costs from several hundred to several thousand dollars). The artistic level of such exhibitions is quite high, and participation in them is prestigious in itself, which does not rule out successful sales.

There are also exhibitions of various associations of puppeteers, for example, Dabida, Niada, DollArt; their level directly depends on the level of members of each association.

Personally, I'm not keen on the very idea of an artists' association; I'm an individualist by nature and don't like commitments, and membership of all kinds of organisations always involves them. That's why I turned down an invitation to join Niada - you have to participate in conferences, business meetings, online discussions, committees of all kinds, do critical analysis of works, vote for new members - just listing these responsibilities makes me feel bad.

As for the need for "feedback", I think it depends on the temperament and character of each artist. There are people who need active communication with colleagues and viewers, and others for whom an exhibition is a tedious job.

Among your works there are characters from the Bulgakov series ... This year we are celebrating the 130th anniversary of the birth of the great writer. You are planning to resume the project on "MacTeru and Margarita "?! Perhaps with students (in the form of "live courses" or online)? How are the heroes of Mikhail Bulgakov close to you? Are there any "mystical" stories associated with their birth ?!

No, I don't plan to, I don't usually go back to old projects. "Close" is not the word I would use to define my attitude to Bulgakov's characters, whether negative or positive. They are interesting, funny, scary, repulsive, talentless, brilliant, stupid, wise, mysterious, but I do not associate myself even partially with any of them, which is what I think is needed to feel the hero "close to me". But I really like Bulgakov himself: his paradoxical thinking, his unique ability to verbally convey the visual, his unobvious but deep connection with tradition, his weaving of mysticism and satire; his views - on literature, society, the social order - are close to me.

I constantly have all sorts of mystical cases, unlike Berlioz, my life has developed in such a way that I am used to extraordinary phenomena. I started the Bulgakov series with Azazello, made it very quickly and sold it, barely finished, I didn't even have time to take a photo. He simply did not have time to particularly swear, well, something fell, something broke, I did not attach any importance to it. Azazello was wonderful, with a bone in his pocket. But right after Azazello, I started doing Woland. I work mainly with baked polymer clay, and so, Woland's head cracked three times in a row during baking, I have never had such a thing. I was surprised, but did not heed the warnings. When I started to paint it, the troubles worsened: the TV broke, then the refrigerator, one after another the bulbs began to burn out. Then it finally dawned on me: I remembered that "Messire does not like electric light" and threw away this unfinished head. She wrapped it in a newspaper and took it to the trash heap of the next house. Immediately, as if by magic, everything started working by itself, of course, except for the burnt out light bulbs. This is true, so I never did Woland. I learned my lesson, stopped flirting with mysticism.

But the mystical stories about the dolls don't stop. Here's the latest one: I was taking pictures of Ao Andon, a Japanese ghost, and among the ordinary pictures was a ghost image - as if my doll had turned into the real Ao Andon.  

What is your general attitude to the creation of episodes? What makes you be in a state of creative immersion in images (after all, creating a doll is a long and costly process) ?! If one doll has to be nurtured and created for more than one month, then what about several, connected by one storyline? What does it depend on? From the strength of the emotional impact of the character himself? From talented stylizations of other authors who challenge you (in cinema, animation, theater)?

Series come in all shapes and sizes, sometimes based on a common theme (illustrations from a literary work), sometimes based on an idea so complex that it's impossible to express it in a single work (like my "Kintsugi" project for example). In any case, I try to make the characters in the series interact, complement each other and make a whole, and preferably more than the sum of its parts. I don't find it difficult to work on series, you just need a high degree of concentration, and the ability to enjoy the process itself. I have no problem with this. I create most of the subjects for the series by myself; when it comes to illustrations, I always have to go back to the source material, the text. I don't take other authors' interpretations as a "challenge", I just enjoy seeing talented work, and I generally like it when people know how to do something well.

It is known that you and your husband, Boris Kunin, recently became the "parents" of the first in Izraile of the exhibition-competition of author's dolls. This year the second one took place ... Please tell us how the idea of such a large-scale event came about ?! How did you handle the organization? What were the most difficult moments and you don't want to remember them? What, on the contrary, awakens warm and kind memories?

We do just exhibitions, we have no competition, but the exhibition is curatorial. I select works, guided not so much by my personal taste as by the desire to show the whole variety of doll art: a wide range of materials and techniques, interesting figurative and stylistic solutions. In fact, as a curator, I have already done several exhibitions in Israel, but exclusively using local material. We started doing international exhibitions after seeing the interest in the art of dolls in our country. And since we have few puppeteers of our own, although there are very good masters among them, we decided to try to invite artists from abroad. Almost all of them, with rare exceptions, agreed to send us their works, thanks to which the level of our exhibitions turned out to be very high.

Despite the fact that both of our exhibitions were held, one might say, in extreme conditions, there were very many visitors. The second exhibition even had to be extended. By the way, our viewers love dolls not only platonically: we sold more than a third of all the works. But the main thing is the reaction of the people: I have not seen so much joy, so much genuine interest, so much openness to wonder and children's ability to marvel in a long time. There was, of course, a lot of work before, during and after the exhibition, especially since the exhibition is being done by my husband and me. But we had a lot of help from our artists, without them it would have been much more difficult.

Many difficulties were associated with customs, and at the first exhibition also with observance of covid restrictions: this was generally the first exhibition at which I was worried that too many people came. During the second exhibition, Israel was subjected to massive shelling, and, nevertheless, there were even more visitors than at the previous one. I can't say that we have implemented absolutely everything that we have planned, this rarely happens at all, even without any force majeure, but to be honest, I am very pleased with both of our exhibitions.

As far as organisation is concerned, my husband is the main organiser, and I only deal with contacts with artists, selection of works, exhibitions, exemplars, labels, press releases and some advertising. I also pack all the parcels to send back to the artists myself, it's very important to me that this is done as well as possible.

When an artist begins to engage in large exhibition projects, there is no time and energy left for creativity. How do you cope with “multitasking”: being a wife, curator and organizer of exhibitions, artist, public figure ?!

I'm doing poorly. I haven't made dolls for almost a year now, maybe now, after the end of all the post-exhibition work, I will be able to return to them.

If not dolls, who would you like to become: an actress, a theater artist, a designer who produces your own clothing line ?! Do you have a dream and what is necessary for it to come true ?!

Actually, I became an art historian before the dolls, and even managed to work in my profession for a few years. But I think I would have ended up as an artist anyway, most likely as a miniaturist or a jeweller of some sort. In any case, not as a fashion designer or a theatre designer, because you have to be able to work in a team with other people, which is not for me.

It seems to me that a dream differs from plans in that a miracle is necessary for its realization. Miracles don't happen by order.

Your developments are a great contribution to the puppetry technology, a teaching aid for new generations of young masters. The name of Elena Kunina is synonymous with high professionalism and unsurpassed skill. Do you plan to republish your textbooks with additions, new editions and sufficient circulation around the world ?! Traveling around the world and giving master classes? Do you realize the importance of your educational mission and the need to transfer experience and accumulated knowledge to others ???

My textbooks are electronic, so their circulation is unlimited. So far I do not see the need for a new edition, but I am going to make two additional volumes.

At one time, I taught quite a few courses and master classes in different countries, now I give only private lessons, including an intensive course for foreign puppeteers.

I do not see my teaching as an “educational mission”. My task is much more modest: to teach my students to translate from verbal into visual, translate an idea into an image, understand how artistic means work, and achieve high technical quality. So that in the end they could not only mechanically reproduce this sample, but create their own unique art dolls.

Questions were prepared by Irina Panfilenok.