KOLLEKTIVNYE DEYSTVIYA (COLLECTIVE ACTIONS). THE DESCRIPTIONS OF ALL THE ACTIONS, Photo and Video

JOURNEYS TO THE COUNTRYSIDE. VOLUME ELEVEN

123. Panitkov’s Progress

The participants arrived at the clearing from the action Library and used white string to connect the three trees bearing objects from the SEH: circle “113” from the action Translation-3, the object “Red Wrapping” from AM’s action Journey to the West, and the tree with the object “Tractor” from the action Tractor-pizdets. Then, a glazed, framed photograph (size A4) was hung in the tractor tree depicting the group of participants from the action Tractor-pizdets standing under this same tree.

Wearing on his back (as a backpack) his own framed portrait with the image facing out (D. Novgorodova’s photo, sized 60x80cm; black-and-white xerox of the original photograph) and continuing to unwind the bobbin with the string (already connecting the three trees with the objects), N. Panitkov moved deeper into the forest, winding string around some of the trees in the course of his progress (he wrapped 16 trees). E. Elagina walked immediately behind Panitkov with a turned-on tape player. The soundtrack consisted of a reading in A. Monastyrski’s voice of a fragment of text from Kukai (8th-9th c.), The Meaning of the Word “HUM,” processed by S. Zagny (prolonging the sound “U”). The duration of the soundtrack was 16 min. 23 sec.
In the course of Panitkov’s progress, A. Malyshkin secretly hung on two of the wrapped trees glazed, framed photos, each sized 30x40, of the covers of non-existent books. One of these, colored red and with the inscription: “N.S. Panitkov. Selected Works. 1. Haystacks.” The second, colored blue: “N.S. Panitkov, Selected Works. 2. Minor Essentia.” These collages were made by A.M. in 2000 on the basis of the scanned covers of two volumes of the selected works of G.Ts. Tsybikov, A Buddhist Pilgrim to the Holy Places of Tibet – vol.1, and On Central Tibet, Mongolia, and Buryatia – vol. 2, published by Novosibirsk: “Nauka” Siberian division, 1991.

Not long before the conclusion of the soundtrack, Panitkov found a suitable tree and hung his portrait on it, removing it from his back. Upon the return movement along the strings stretched through the forest, Panitkov and the other participants of the action discovered the aforementioned photos of the two book covers hung in the trees.

In the course of the action, A. Monastyrski (sick with the flu and for this reason unable to participate in the action, but constantly in touch with the participants via mobile telephone) and S. Haensgen (from Germany) conducted a reportage of the action’s progress on Skype chat (see attachment).
Moscow, forest alongside Kievogorsky field

04.11.2010
A. Monastyrski, N. Panitkov, E. Elagina, A. Malyshkin, I. Makarevich, D. Novgorodova, M. Konstantinova, Yu. Leiderman, G. Titov, Vl. Malyshkina, M. Sumnina, M. Leykin, Yu. Ovchinnikova, S. Zagny, S. Haensgen.