On the 9th of June 2009 art magazine Mr.Motley (http://www.mistermotley.nl/) presented a new issue, dedicated to Folk Art. Several contributors were asked to submit a 10-minute presentation connected to the Folk Art theme. I presented a self-running slide show on three large interconnected screens. I chose to highlight the exceptional research by Danzig Baldaev, a police investigator and prison warden who collected thousands of Russian criminal tattoos in the course of forty years. The slide show was accompanied by a Vivaldi aria from his opera La Fida Ninfa.

1. gecodeerde lichamen de russische criminele tatoeage
(volks-)kunst en (anti-)propaganda in de gulag
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2. coded bodies the russian criminal tattoo
(folk) art en (anti) propaganda in the gulag
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3. danzig baldaev
1925-2005
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4. Veertig jaar lang verzamelde de cipier en politieambtenaar Danzig Baldaev tatoeages van criminelen. For forty years prison warden and police investigator Danzig Baldaev collected criminal tattoos.
Met uiterste nauwkeurigheid legde hij met behulp van schematische tekeningen een verzameling van With utmost precision he redrew tattoos, and built a collection of over three thousand examples.
duizenden tatoeages aan. Zijn encyclopedie van gecodeerde lichamen toont de precisie én perversie His encyclopedia of coded bodies shows both the precision and pervesion by which somebody’s
waarmee zowel iemands plaats in criminele pikorde werd gefixeerd, als de haat en het cynisme position within the criminal hierachy was literally fixated, and the hate and cynicism towards the
jegens de gevestigde orde in de toenmalige Soviet-Unie letterlijk werden vereeuwigd. communist regime were perpetuated.
Baldaev maakte zijn tekeningen niet alleen in de Gulag; hij bezocht ook mortuaria waar de lijken van Baldaev made his drawings predominantly in the Russian Gulag, but also in the morgues, where
vermoorde of overleden criminelen werden afgelegd en legde contacten met de Russische onderwereld murdered or deceased criminals were ‘processed’. He also maintained contacts with free members
buiten de gevangenis. Fotograaf Sergei Vasiliev maakte de foto’s voor de encyclopedie tijdens zijn of the Russian underworld. Photographer Sergei Vasiliev made portraits of tattood criminals
jarenlange rite de passage door het Russische gevangenissysteem. throughout his long rite de passage both inside and outside the Russian Gulag system.
De Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia bestaat op dit moment uit drie delen.
At this moment the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia consists of three volumes.
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50. deh ti piega, deh consenti, ah, I beg you, consent to my request:
mira il pianto, odi i lamenti, see our tears, hear our laments,
e ti muova oro, o pietà. and be moved either by gold or by pity.
In sciagure sì infelici, into such dreadful misfortunes,
in disastri sì funesti such dismal disasters,
anche tu cader potresti, you also might fall;
anche noi fummo felici, we too were happy,
ma sua sorte uomo non sà. but no one can know his destiny.
Antonio Vivaldi
La fida ninfa, aria, atto primo, scena 3
Jean-Christophe Spinosi & Ensemble Matheus, Topi Lehtipuu, tenor
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