JOURNEYS TO THE COUNTRYSIDE. VOLUME TWELVE
135. THREE (plan)
Plan of action for the spring (light snow may be expected, better not to stage it at the Kievogorsky Field, but somewhere flatter and more hermetic, somewhere just beyond the MKAD).
Main idea: to stage three simultaneous actions on one field.
The position of the audience is the same as in Russian World and Negatives.
First action (Passages). To make xerox copies of my old drawing of a map of movements of three figures along a field. Two figures already stand in their positions in the distance holding these same sheets before the audience's arrival. The third participant of the passage first distributes these maps to the audience and then, with the sheet in hand, begins his movement away from the viewers and into the forest. The two other participants begin their movements along with him and all three disappear into the forest.
Second action (Boot-2). When the three figures have almost completely disappeared in the forest, Panitkov separates from the group and moves to the "north-eastern" end of the field where a small pile of snow, no more than a meter and a half in height and nearly invisible to the audience, has been raised. There, by this hill, also invisible to the viewers lies face down in the snow a plywood cutout of a large boot, approximately 1 meter, 75 cm in height. Panitkov approaches it, lifts it, and the boot becomes visible to the audience. What is more, Panitkov lifts it from the forest side, not from the audience side, turning out to be behind the boot, so that only Panitkov's head can be seen above the boot. The boot is brightly painted black with gold "buttons," red trim, etc. (Painting of the boot by M. Konstantinova, drawing on the cutout by N. Alekseev, cutting out by E. Elagina.) (It would be better if the boot was a simple monochrome-black silhouette from the side. –AM 2013).
Panitkov begins to move the boot along the forest line to the "east" (only his head is visible) (on the map, the boot moves from north to south – AM 2013).
The boot can be attached to one ski, but this is not visible to the audience. Having moved the boot 40 meters, Panitkov comes out from behind the boot and approaches the audience. The boot continues to move as though on its own in the same direction until it disappears from the field. As in the action Comedy, another participant of the action sat hidden behind the snow hill and when Pantkov lifted the boot had inconspicuously also came to stand next to it and, bending down ("in three death-bends" – hahaha! – AM 2013), walked along with Panitkov behind the boot, and when Panitkov stopped pulling the boot and came out from behind it, this other participant continued to move it, invisible to the viewers (here we take account of Panitkov's height and that of the second participant, who could be Kiesewalter).
Third action (The Purple Glass). Before the arrival of the audience, two window panes are set up vertically on the field (next to each other so that there is an effect of only one glass, around a meter and a half in height and over a meter wide, attached using boards and two bars). This glass is set up in the "north-east" direction away from the viewers (on the map, "north-west" – AM 2013), around 80 meters away from them. It has been washed clean and is not visible to the audience. But it is turned with its flat plane towards them. Panitkov, coming out from behind the boot, walks towards the glass. When the boot disappears from sight, Panitkov uses a spray can of purple paint to evenly and densely paint the glass on the forest side, leaving below by the snow an even unpainted stripe around 20-40 cm. After which, he approaches the audience and distributes to them identical graphic sheets (my old picture with the inscription "THREE," except all of his copies have been drawn by hand on a firmer paper and slightly larger than the first xerox copies with the map of the three participants' movements). At the same time, the three "disappeared" participants of the action Crossovers (Passages? – AM 2013) approach the group of viewers and distribute to them three slingshots and lead balls, inviting them to break the purple glass using the slingshot and balls from the place where they stand. After which the action concludes.
For the duration of the entire action, a tape recorder inside a backpack on A.M.'s back plays a voice recording of the descriptive texts of the later (after the action Negatives) actions of CA.
Developed by A.M. (the first two actions and the structural passages) and N.P. (the action The Purple Glass).
2.1.1996
Translated by Y. Kalinsky
