Bulat Ibraimov Biography

Information on the website of the Golden Mask festival Bulat, the performance "And is this life? How did you work this time, what were the basic requirements for you as an artist? The first joint work with director Aydar Zabbarov was a chamber performance. Interestingly, so fifteen years ago I already started working on the same work, but the project remained unrealized. It turned out again: he worked for some time, rehearsed with the actors, and had some wishes for scenography, and I then offered my developments.

And everything turned out. The play “And is this life? We needed to combine several stories. The idea to use the “Kipa hay” in the design was born in the first conversation with the director.

Then it remained only to consider all possible options. A combination of geometry and free life in the space of the scene. Until the performance of the performance, they were invented, added and changed places of the scene. In the play, it was interesting for me to flow one story into another, the existence and accommodation of several stories at the same time. The performance is called a new word in the Tatar Theater.

Has this reflection in the scenography? I cannot judge my work. I can only say that the creation process was interesting to me. What is the reason for the minimalism and such symbolism of the decoration? At the first meeting with the director, we agreed to do with minimal means: the texture of the hay of twenty identical hay modules, three wooden poles, a huge wooden coil, village sleigh and the black space of the stage.

Nothing else was needed, with the exception of several details, the props. The director also told me to choose costumes if possible. The main colors are black and white. And only in one scene does a red color appear. Do you think the concept of "experiment" in the scenography exists? Are you striving for experimentality yourself? What is an “experiment” for me in scenography?

Probably, work on any interesting work for the director and artist is an experiment, first of all, for himself. When you start work, you never know what to do, in front of you is a white leaf. Each time you have to start over again, study, find out. Moreover, if the work is known or previously worked on it. And your task is to use the objects that are understandable to all, with their known properties and functions, try to involve the viewer in history so that the viewer becomes a co -author, connected his fantasy.

Continuing the theme of the experiment. You work both with world classics and with national and modern plays. Tell me, do you feel certain restrictions in the production of national plays, determined, including by spectator preferences? Working on world and national classics, I think about finding a new look, a way to talk about the work. And a lot depends on the director.