KOLLEKTIVNYE DEYSTVIYA (COLLECTIVE ACTIONS). THE DESCRIPTIONS OF ALL THE ACTIONS, Photo and Video
JOURNEYS TO THE COUNTRYSIDE. VOLUME NINE
108. "К"
In a forest clearing (at the same site where “Slogan 2005” took place) a music centre with an MP3 player was buried in the ground. The buried music centre played an audio-CD reading of the Castaneda book “The Journey into Ixtlan” (duration 10 h: 50 m).
Then, high above this site (using two violet ropes) a glass frame was hung between two birch trees. The frame (A3 size), contained a photo of “The Altar of the Enlightenment of Brains” (a fragment from the Moscow Paleontology Museum exposition: which consisted of a gigantic chandelier above dinosaur’s skulls which rested on podiums). To the right of the “Altar”, and attached to another birch tree, was a portrait of Kant in a small decorative glass frame; whilst to the left two frames were affixed which contained portraits of John Cage and Ilya Kabakov.
At the moment when the viewers-participants - I. Kulik and S. Sitar - arrived, the buried MP3 player’s mechanism broke, and we were forced to replace the underground recording of Castaneda’s book with a radio “Culture” translation. (Whilst the recording was replaced, a process which involved digging out the MP3 player, tuning it, and reburying it, Kulik and Sitar were asked to wait at a distance).
Once this was done, we attached a video camera on a tripod and placed it in front of the installation. We asked I. Kulik to turn the camera on every 15 minutes and to leave it recording for 5 minutes. Then we left the scene, walked to Rogochevskoe highway, got into a car, and headed towards Rogochevo, to Podjyachevo village (approximately 30km from the site of the performance). This village is named after the writer Podjyachev, 1866-1934, who was born, lived and died there.
On the way there, and then once we arrived at the village, A. M. called Sitar and then Kulik alternately using cell-phones, as if he was reporting from this landmark site.
Afterwards we returned to the space of the action and showed Sitar and Kulik digital photos taken in Podjyachevo. These photos were of the places A.M had described during his phone-reportage conversation – e.g. the cemetery with Podjyachev’s grave, the church, etc.
The performance continued for 3 hours. Sitar and Kulik were offered the opportunity to reassemble the installation and to take objects from the site. The music centre, which continued to transmit the translated radio transmission of “Culture” was left at the scene.
Moscow region, forest near the Kiovy Gorky village,
28.08.2006
A. Monastyrski, N. Panitkov, S. Romashko, D. Novgorodova, M. Sumnina
