Taulant Salihi

Painterly Transmediality in an Intersemiotic Space

Victory over the Sun: The World’s First Futurist Opera

"All is well that begins well and has no end…". I would like to start this paper with the
quotation from the final part of the opera, acknowledging the limitless possibilities of outcomes
from the interpretations of this excessively avangardist “open work” of the past century.

This (journey) is an attempt to examine the intersemiotic space of the conceptually

radical and revolutionary futurist opera Victory over the Sun (1913). Although other futurist
operas were taking place at the same time (ex.Vladimir Mayakovsky’s “A Tragedy” played a day
earlier and considered as a prequel to it), headlined as “The World’s First Futurist Opera”, with
its uniqueness and radical concept, it indisputably constitutes one of the first – if not the first – of
its kind performances. The paper focuses on observing the transmedial potential of the painterly
segments found in the integrated intersemiotic production of the experimental opera
performance, materialized through the costumes and set design, which in the case of this
performance is the contribution of Kazimir Malevich, coinciding with the conceptual turn in his
theory of painting and artistic culture, from 'cubo-futurism' to suprematism – the concept of pure
abstract non-objectivity in art.

A radical cultural turn for the modern future: The First Futurist Opera
Victory over the Sun, created in a joint effort by the futurists Aleksei Kruchenykh (in
charge of the libretto), Kazimir Malevich (set and costumes design), Mikhail Matyushin
(composer), and also Vladimir Mayakovsky (with the prequel performance) and Velimir
Khlebnikov (prologue), is considered to be the most influential of multiple Russian futurist
operas at the beginning of the 20th century. With its revolutionary and extremely non-
conventional content, it exercised a major impact on other artists who acknowledged this new
irregular and radical narratorial approach as an attractive method of creating artworks. Being a
complex artistic project and combining different artistic practices, it was founded on new radical
ways of thinking, in terms of fine arts, as well as other artistic and cultural expressions. It
constitutes one of the central futurist creations, representing a dynamic conceptual shift in ideas,
which were fundamentally tied in the concepts and motifs of rejecting the old in favor of a
modernist technological future, with a new sense of the spiritual, while also positioning itself in
leading the revolutionary ideas of an advanced human future in contrast to the old social norms
and morals.

Mikhail Matyushin, Kazimir Malevich and Aleksei Kruchenykh, 1913. Found in the Collection of State Mayakovsky
Museum, Moscow.

According to some historical reports (Bartlett, 2012; Gurianova, 2012) the opera
premiered at the Luna Park Theater in St. Petersburg, either on 3rd or 5th of December 1913 and
by being immensely ahead of its time (in its ideas), some studies suggest that it wasn't well
received by the wide public, but applauded by the few avangardista followers (Ostashevsky,
2014). This was perhaps meant to be the fate of such futurist 'provocation', however, in the
metaspace of historical events and that of the artistic and cultural paradigms, it represents a
courageous revolutionary step towards the modernist future, embracing the world of technology
as the epitome of humanity's victory over nature and its laws of constraint – in the opera gravity
and death are seen as naturally binding antagonists. A nature personified in the old conventional
world that the artist with the advent of new technological discoveries could not justify anymore.

To technically transmit these non-conventional ideas, the opera included different artistic
methods and expressions. In line with libretto’s anti-discursive narrative, the experimental Zaum
language employed in parts of the script, the visual cubofuturist abstraction (conveyed in
spatiotemporal/kinetic modality), and the atonality, irregularity and dissonance of the musical
composition (which due to the shortage in funds was solely performed by a piano), the opera
represented an integrated intersemiotic (scenic) performative concept, where each unit is aiding
each-other and at the same time travelling freely in the intermedial space reliving their
transmedial potential.

By being a short play and featuring only two brief acts with an all-male cast, it doesn't
provide an easily detectable plot, except the one driven by the main course of the topic "the
capture of the Sun by the Strong Men of the future”. It points to the evident dominant motif of
the embracement of the technology-driven human future and modernization, in contrast to the
conventional morality of the old norms. Through its omnipresent anti-discourse (expressed in
different semiotic systems), it could unmistakably be referred to as an anti-opera, provoking a
critical review on the conventionalities of culture. Remarks portraying it as a reflection of the
socio-political realities of the early 20th century Russia and Europe would not be mistaken too,
as does Eugene Ostashevsky (2014) with his reflection in politically categorizing it as an anti-
bourgeoisie artistic work/protest.

What the opera offers through its intersemiotic combination is the totality of anti-discourse,
through all its units; in the text, visuals, act/gestural/dance and music. Through these channels, it
aims to destroy the old built norms and conventions, making way for a new reason and
perspective of looking at the world and arts. Motifs of radical change and negation of the
established conformism follow in all possible forms of signification. The universal motif of the
sun as a light, reasoning and the ultimate goodness, here is downplayed in an anti-discursive
order by the act of capturing the sun and the phenomena of time traveling, which also seem to be
suggestive of the technological developments witnessed during that time by the creators, as the
new protagonism. The technological advancements are preferred instead of the outdated notions
of the Sun and light, radically exposed as the agent of antagonism representing the old world.
The futurists were aiming for a strong counterculture stance by questioning universally
established norms, beliefs and knowledge (Larionov & Goncharova, 1913). In the opera, time
stops. The new time (count) is linear. Everything seems to be restructured and the sun of the old
world of nature is captured ... and so, death, as the ultimate human mystery, is canceled!
Painterly transmediality in the intersemiotic and intermedial space
Theatrical performances as such, comprise a fully integrated intermedial production, be
that classification based on qualitative interpretation, modalities or technicalities (Elleström,
2010). However, on the recipient side of the production, it constitutes a singular spatiotemporal
audiovisual performance with a dominant visual component. By categorizing it in this order, we
establish the understating of the main channel of mediation to be the visual one.

Transmediality has largely been addressed through different conceptualizations in regard

to its terminologically specific components, but the ones that would necessarily preserve, would
constitute its denotative character of beyondness and freedom of media dependence. The
material and qualitative components of intermedial phenomena have been examined and
reviewed as well, and in such pre-existing notions it is essential to begin with the defining stance
regarding the transmedial character as such. Transmediality can be understood as a narration
phenomenon, or a narrative, that is able to float freely between media (Evans, 2011; Rajewsky,
2005). This free float between media borders, be they of material character or a qualitative one,
is not restricted, or exclusive, referring to its ability for a multiple parallel activity.

In this case, the study is concentrated in examining the painterly transmediality in the
intersemiotic space of the opera performance. As such, it would also be necessary to clarify the
notion of the used term painterly, which in this case refers to the two-dimensional
pictorial/painting medium as we know it, as well as on its definition of abstract coloring surfaces
acting as the main subject of a painting. While the term keeps the exclusivity to the painting
medium and its technicalities, here it is also used as a reference for both the technical-media
origin and its conceptual implications. On the other hand, we consider the opera – like any other
theatrical performance – as an intermedial and intersemiotic product, which as earlier mentioned,
due to its vital dependence, is dominated by the visual unit, constituting a predominantly visual
medium.

Recognizing that we are dealing with an intersemiotic space, where individual semiotic
units retain the possibility to function both in a single unitary mode and separately at the same
time, it abides to the well-known definition of the theatre as an intermedial platform with open
possibilities for transmedial phenomena to take place (Elleström, 2010).
The image becomes performance – how the painterly idea transforms into a transmedial
narrative

The main transmedial point is to transform the concept of the painting into a form of art
performance within the opera. Although the visual domain dominates and helps framing the anti-
discourse narrative of the libretto, the dissonance/atonality of the musical composition and the
irregularity of the verbal sounds and dance acts, (thus participating at the same time in the
intermedial course of the performance) its painterly concept has the potential to use this space
and media combination for a parallel narrative.

First degree of transmediality takes place naturally due to the dominant function of the
visuality in the intersemiotic space of the opera, instantly suggesting a possible visual
transmediality independent of the integrated work. Through its various micro-units and their free
scenic movement, the theatrical performance offers an overall visual composition and
independent conceptual story open for interpretation. In a deeper observance, we recognize the
painterly transmedialia inside this visuality, where compositional order and stylistic painterly
elements (of cubofuturist and suprematist style) are evident and shape the visual perception.
Colors, shapes, movement, all contribute to the transmission of the painterly conception of the
scenic performance. This evokes the typical compositional narrative of the painterly media
conception and ideas, adding to it the spatiotemporal modalities later present in what would
become/generate the performance art of the conceptual art paradigm.

The episode of painterly transmediality in this intersemiotic space portrays the ability of
the futurist and – here planting the seed for – suprematist painterly and cultural ideas of pure
abstraction, non-representationality, disappearance of the natural forms and a new cultural
thinking. It also points to the ability to transgress between media boundaries and freely circulate
in the intersemiotic space of the scenic performance taking different roles, while at the same time
helping other sign systems to enhance their expressive joint intermedial performance. This
painterly transmediality, in a performative combination, dominates and makes use of the dances,
gestures and movements, using them for its transmedial structure composition and thus operating
a separate independent performance art narrative of its own.
 A reconstructed performance by Stas Namin Theater

From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism – from the radical to the beyond

It seems that from all the authors of this revolutionary futurist opera, Malevich ended up
harvesting its fruits the most. By continuing on the lines of dynamic negation of the
conventionalities of painting (and culture), he finally realized what his earlier works were aiming
for and were the representatives of. Understanding that what he was creating – and aiming
towards – was the birth of a new purely non-objective art, referred to as new painterly realism.
As suggested by Malevich himself, in his breakthrough introductory essay of 1915, “From
Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism”, futurism has completed its mission of fast-forward
dynamism and the challenge to objective form, and by doing so, its true followers by “spitting on
it” have to transcend to the new formless beyond of suprematism, where creation is absolutely
new, non-objective and innovative. By framing it as a new painterly realism, he was indicating
its strong character as the new state-to-be of arts and painting, retaining its links to the painterly
character as point of reference for other cultural practices.
 Taking as an example the concept of the positioning order of the artworks in the
introductory exhibition of Suprematism, conceptually named as “The Last Futurist Exhibition of
Paintings 0,10” (image below), the idea of radical non-objective abstraction is an evidence for
how the logic of Malevich’s suprematism operated in the early days. The supposed cross spot in
a traditional Orthodox Christian home is substituted with the famous Black Square, while the
cross imagery is positioned in the bottom left as if representing a different secondary dominion.
To add to it, Malevich’s death ceremonial included the Black Square instead of the cross, clearly
indicating once again its relation to the non-objective representation of any visible conventional
phenomena and what was central in the idea of suprematism, that anything imitating objective
reality is the art of the savage, which suprematists have now completely renounced (Malevich,
1915).

The Last Futurist Exhibition of Paintings 0,10 (1915-1916). Dobychina Art Bureau at Marsovo Pole, Petrograd,
from 19 December 1915 to 17 January 1916

It is this fundamental detail that distinguishes futurism from suprematism and which
suggests for the latter to have transmedialy shaped the opera by independently (spatiotemporally)
performing its idea. Futurist painting offered the reflection of movement in the visual painterly
medium. Its preferred topics were cubist technological objects rather than natural landscapes.
Suprematism exhausted the use of this technological dynamism in paintings and gave birth to the
representation of pure subjectivity with no relation to objective reality. In the design set of the
opera we see 3-dimensional geometrical shapes taking the form of the futurist characters; or the
sun being represented as a black square, black circle, or as a wheel (Crane, 2013). Suprematism
is not only participating/aiding as one of the units in the futurist anti-discourse narrative of the
opera, rather it is fundamentally debuting its conceptual painterly idea of representing reality
through pure subjectivity in the form of art performance.

To reiterate, in intersemiotic (audiovisual) performances – this anti-opera being one – the

dominant unit of signification – as in any other theatrical performances – remains the visual
mediation. By examining what it adds, the intensity with which it does it, and the ability of the
painterly elements in it to act as transmedial referenta of the cultural idea behind the overall
mediated narrative, we deconstruct the independent stories told through it. In 1916 Malevich
outlined the importance of subjectivity in arts: In the forms of Suprematism, the new realism in
painting, are already proof of the construction of forms from nothing, discovered by Intuitive
Reason. It is this painterly (and cultural) idea, unconsciously inhabiting the visual space of the
opera, that could be accounted for a transmedial art performance, leading not only itself, but also
the author in his quest for the meaning of purely subjective art. The inherent travelling attribute
of transmedial content (Rajewsky, 2005) is centrally related to its performative act, through
which it surpasses borders and adapts to new forms, as do the opera visuals with both the
adaptation to the main narrative and its independent performance art activity.

Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, Suprematism, 1915. Some reports argue that a proto-version debuted in the
curtain set design of the opera
 We can now conclude that what was created unconsciously gave birth to a new concept
of painterly idea, providing an example of the independent life of the artwork leading the artist.
This type of 'meta-transmediality' acts as a leading-transmedial narrative, where the artwork
leading the artist develops the subject of its own. Similar subconscious artwork-creation
performance is known as action-painting, widely present in abstract expressionism – Jackson
Pollock being one of the most notable practitioners – where the artist paints on the canvas
without presupposed intention, letting the feeling/action to lead him and the outcome instead.

As in most of the literary works, here too, the cultural memory is a dominant factor in the
reading and interpretations of artistic expressions. To fully grasp and understand the levels of
visual (and painterly) transmediality and performance art inside the opera, requires a familiarity
with the painterly and artistic 'intertextualities' involved. The anti-opera was a multidimensional
artistic channel for new art forms to take place, giving birth to new ideas that will shape the
future. When the interpretation is open, the transmedial potential is limitless, just as the futurist
strongmen in the last part of the play conclude:”... the world will end but there is no end to us!”
Consulted sources:

Crane, A. (2011). “Malevich and the American Legacy” exhibition at Gagosian Gallery Madison
Avenue, pt. 1, as filmed by GagosianGallery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqmH-
vwn6Tw&list=PLzrcuYhjOSHxIkac0sa5pbHy551dEsUcH

Eco, U. (1989). The open work. Harvard University Press.

Elleström L. (2010) The Modalities of Media: A Model for Understanding Intermedial Relations.
In: Elleström L. (eds) Media Borders, Multimodality and Intermediality. Palgrave
Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230275201_2

Evans E (2011) Transmedia Television: Audiences, New Media and Daily Life. New York:
Routledge.

Kruchenykh, A. Victory Over the Sun: The First Futurist Opera. Ed. Eugene Ostashevsky; tr.
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Larionov, M., & Goncharova, N. (2019). Rayonists and futurists: a manifesto (pp. 669-672).
transcript-Verlag.

Matyushin, M. (1913). Victory Over the Sun. Score. as scanned in Bartlett, p. 70-86

Malevich, K. (1959). The Non-objective World (1924), trans. Howard Dearstyne.

Malevich, K. (1900). From Cubism and Futurism to Suprematism: The New Realism in Painting
(1915). Art in Theory, 2000.

Ojamaa, M., & Torop, P. (2015). Transmediality of cultural autocommunication. International

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Seed, D. (1997). The Open Work in Theory and Practice. Reading Eco: An Anthology. Rocco
Capozzi, ed. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
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