KOLLEKTIVNYE DEYSTVIYA (COLLECTIVE ACTIONS). THE DESCRIPTIONS OF ALL THE ACTIONS, Photo and Video
JOURNEYS TO THE COUNTRYSIDE. VOLUME ONE
13. FOR N. PANITKOV
(Three darknesses)
Footnotes for descriptive text (plan of action)
1. Unaware of the action’s plan, Panitkov and V. D. arrive at a snowy clearing in a forest in the daytime. A small hole is dug in the snow and a chair is put inside. Panitkov sits on the chair, other participants cover Panitkov with a board using wooden posts at the hole’s corners and bury it under snow. A hill of snow is formed, Panitkov is sitting under it in darkness.
Before the action’s start other participants instruct Panitkov to stand up and rise the board above his head when silence falls for the second time (in the course of the whole action there are six radios around, tuned to different waves and working at full volume)
2. When the hill with Panitkov inside is ready, a similar one is built next to it. Inside the second hill V. D. is sitting. (Panitkov is unaware of the second hill, as the noise produced in the course of construction is dampened by radios).
Before the action starts, other participants instruct V. D. to stand up and rise the board above his head as soon as silence falls for the first time.
3. When the hill with V. D. inside is built, Panitkov’s hill is covered with black opaque cloth of size no less than 4x4 meters.
4. A black box (sized 2.5 meters in height, 4 in width, and 5 in length) is built over the two hills, using black opaque paper or cloth and ropes attached to trees.
5. When the black box is built, a participant steps in, holding a camera with flare.
All the radios are turned off.
V. D. stands up and rises the board above his head. At the same time the participant with camera makes several photographs, and they both leave the box after destroying the remnants of second snow hill.
Radios are turned on again.
6. Three or four minutes later after two participants leave the box, radios are turned off for the second time.
7. Panitkov, having spent all the time in darkness inside his hill (the first darkness), stands up and rises the board.
8. After unsealing the hill, Panitkov is still surrounded by darkness (the second darkness of the cloth), as the hill is covered with cloth.
9. After dragging off the cloth, Panitkov still finds himself in darkness (the third darkness of the cloth).
10. Further action is undertaken by Panitkov at his own discretion.
Descriptive text
The action’s elaborated plan could not be realized as expected. Only Panitkov’s hill was built; the black cloth turned out to be too small and failed to produce any darkness when Panitkov had thrown it off together with the board. The darkness of the outer box was penetrated through small holes in the paper.
Moscow region, Rizhskaya railway line, Snegiri station.
17th February, 1980.
A. Monastyrski, N. Alexeev, E. Elagina, S. Romashko, I. Makarevich, I. Yavorsky.
