Page - 47 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Volume 4/2018

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 4 2o18 Tuulikki Kurki | Border Crossing Trauma 47 new world appeared to Riikka as a place where the previous forms of harmony and balance had disappeared, and this was akin to how Black Square had deviated from previous art forms (Perttu 2014, 50). “She felt that she was on the shore, on the edge of an abyss, ready to fall into the emp- tiness, death and eternity that would not give her oblivion, but eternal pain. In St. Petersburg, almost three years ago, she stood in the front of Malevich’s Black Square for a long time, and did not understand it. Now she knew that the war had changed the world entirely, and it could not be described with the traditional means of art, because the world had contracted or expanded into a black square. In her case, it was bloody red.” (Perttu 2014, 12.) As the chaos of the war continues, the painting Black Square starts to represent the world in which Riikka acts and orients herself. In her mind, the geometrical shapes and colours of the painting parallel the world around her that has become incomprehensible in her experience. The young men who she is about to execute parallel cardboard pictures, inanimate targets, and shooting them does not disturb her conscience. “Somehow, it was connected with this time, this space, and the war. She felt that she was inside Malevich’s painting, the world around her was like even, bright surfaces: red, black, squares, circles, and sharp lines piercing them. The former harmony had disappeared, and could not exist anymore.” (Perttu 2014, 50.) “These young men were only cardboard figures, just like targets. She tried to look inside them, but she saw through them like a bullet.” (Perttu 2014, 50.) During the fighting, the enemy captures Riikka. During her captivity, she falls in love with one of the enemy, a Karelian named Santeri. For both of them, the situation stirs up contra- dictory and frustrating feelings of simultaneous love and hatred towards each other, as well as simultaneous feelings of fear and pleasure. However, the relationship inevitably leads to their ultimate destruction. Experiences of frustration and the impossibility of their relationship are summarized in the metaphor of a red square that also refers to Malevich’s painting. Riikka and Santeri had voluntarily locked themselves inside the building to fulfil their sexual, sadomas- ochistic fantasies, but they wake up as a fire rages outside, and the flames become visible in the window revealing the red square in front of their eyes. The enemy is outside, there is no chance of escape, so they face their inevitable death. Thus, the red square becomes the ultimate symbol of destruction, death, eternity, and of simultaneous pain and pleasure. “The window looks red, was it the morning sun? Santeri woke up, but it felt like the dream was continuing, and now turning into a nightmare. Angry shouting and random gunshots were audible outside. [...] The smoke became thicker, and it entered the room through the same cracks in the wall where the freezing breeze had entered earlier. Smoke came through the broken window where the flames were now visible. [...] The world was not black any- more, but it was in the colour of blood and fire, and it was hot. The red square was a burn- ing window, an entrance to death, coloured with blood.” (Perttu 2014, 389.)