Ufa & Sterlitamak 2018

On the trail of Russian born, German painter, choreographer, writer, musicologist, composer and curator Walter Spies (1895-1942) who lived in Sterlitamak under Ufa in the Ural plateau region in 1916. Ufa, capital of Bashkortostan, is the city where legendary Tatar (Bashkir)-Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Khametovich Nureyev (1938-1993) spend his youth and childhood and learned his first ballet steps.

My visit to Bashkortostan took place during Muslim fasting month, Ramadhan 2018. Bashokrtostan is an autonomous Russian republic of multi ethnic diversity in which people of different religious and non-religious backgrounds live peacefully together. Bashkortostan was the historical stage of some of my inspiring heroes: Salavat Yulaev, Bashkir poet and rebellion leader and artists of equal international importance: Rudolf Nureyev and Walter Spies.

All these grand characters are connected to this Eurasian/Indo European vast, ancient land in which Europe seems to meet and merge with Asia.