20 YEARS OF METAMETAPHOR
October 2004

in the dragonflysaurs' installation

+ presentation of the "Through K" –
K is the booK's Key of
Kedrov
Katsyuba
NarbiKova

        Dragonflies
                   fly
        through eternity

In 2004 DOOS – the Voluntary Society for Protection of Dragonflies – marked its 20^th anniversary. At the origins of its foundation stands poet Konstantin Kedrov, Ph.D., cultural studies scholar. In 2003 he became the GRammy.ru prize winner. 11 500 Russian-speaking Internet users chose his poem "Computer of Love" to be the main poetic event of the year.

The poem was written in 1984, the year DOOS was founded. It is now translated into world’s main languages. At the same time, 20 years ago, Kedrov invented the notion of "metametaphor".

We consider dragonfly to be a symbol of poet. First period of its life dragonfly is a ravenous maggot. It lives at the bottom of a lake and devours everything around. But the moment comes and it appears from the depth and flies skyward being already a creature with transparent wings and large eyes containing the entire world. Poet feels the same when inspiration comes.

At first there were 3 of them: Konstantin Kedrov, Elena Katsyuba and Lyudmila Khodynskaya. In 90s, when other poets started to affiliate with DOOS, an idea to grant all the members special titles appeared. Dragonfly is one of the most ancient winged creatures. It is said to be the contemporary of dinosaurs. That’s why all the men in DOOS do have such exotic names. Due to their own request, Andrey Voznesensky and Genrikh Sapgir were granted titles of dragonflysaurs, Kedrov is a versesaur. All the poetesses are dragonflies.

One of the most famous European Slavonic scholars, professor Willem G. Weststein called DOOS’ poetic language "the star esperanto". Kedrov’s poem "Astral’" arose from constellations, the root "astr" and "stars" (zvezda): "ZVEzDa VEZDe (star is everywhere) – that’s the scope of the verbal sky".

Dragonfly Elena Katsyuba was at that time occupied with linguistic realism and palindronautics, i.e. she was re-reading Russian language invertedly. As a result, 2 palindrome vocabularies, a great number of poetic palindromes and palindramas – witty palindrome plays – appeared.

Linguosaur Willy Melnikov creates his unique "muftalinguas" where words grow one from another and form chains in about 100 languages.

Firesaur German Vinogradov proceeds with his fire-water mysteries.

Alexander Bubnov, palindrosaur, defended his thesis in palindromes and created a peculiar "periodic table" with free squares for new, not yet created types of palindromes.

Professor at Martin Luther University (Germany) and Zaum’ Academy founder Sergey Biryukov – zausaur – published zaum’ anthology "Roku ukor".

Poet-alchemist professor Vadim Rabinovich, doososaur, prepared a monograph about Russian avant-garde. "Avant-garde is always the first verse on the first page", – stays there. It is absolutely right also for DOOS.

At its 20^th birthday Dragonflies Protection Voluntary Association was filled up with new people. Nina Zaretskaya – companion and participator in association’s activities was affiliated with DOOS at "TV Gallery". She was the first to put the flock of dragonflies on air as far back as 1991 when she overcame the resistance of TV bosses who supported the poetic mainstream of that time. The symbol of Nina’s affiliation became a TV camera. Alina Vitukhnovskaya joined DOOS as a friend. What unites her with the association is her willing to make everything in poetry in her own way, without glancing back at authorities. Antique dagger became that symbol of division, unification and affiliation.

The earth always follows
its orbit.
The dragonfly, however,
chooses its own way.

(K.Kedrov)

One of the last DOOS’ actions was publishing of "Through K" by three members of the association: Kedrov, Katsyuba and Narbikova, a book that contains the history of the society beginning from the moment of its foundation.

The site has been created with the assistance of the "Open Society Institute" (Soros Foundation). Russia