The videos are static and reflect fragments of an unknown interior with everyday objects — a table with a plate and a mug, a window with a view of bad weather, an old chair and a battery, a bed in the soft light of a night light, etc. The static image is disrupted by a voice-over repeating a phrase with different intonation, from soothing muttering to nervous irritation, almost breaking into a scream. Persistent obsession reflects an attempt to gain a foothold in the surrounding reality and, ultimately, to understand one’s place in it. The palpability and visibility of material objects indicate the conditional stability of the environment, but at the same time, this stability can be disrupted by a person at any time and to the extent that he wishes.

World
2013
Performance art

The videos are static and reflect fragments of an unknown interior with everyday objects — a table with a plate and a mug, a window with a view of bad weather, an old chair and a battery, a bed in the soft light of a night light, etc. The static image is disrupted by a voice-over repeating a phrase with different intonation, from soothing muttering to nervous irritation, almost breaking into a scream. Persistent obsession reflects an attempt to gain a foothold in the surrounding reality and, ultimately, to understand one’s place in it. The palpability and visibility of material objects indicate the conditional stability of the environment, but at the same time, this stability can be disrupted by a person at any time and to the extent that he wishes.

The video explores the psychological influence of a person and the environment on each other, and in the end, the last word, according to the author, remains with the man whose victory is celebrated by a shot of a figure running with a lighted torch into the night, which ends each fragment of the video. The project takes on additional meaning in the exhibition space. By moving from monitor to monitor, the viewer sequentially puts each video into action, thus reducing the separately pronounced phrases into an uncomfortable polyphony. The increasing cacophony of sounds literally pushes the viewer out of the hall, vividly demonstrating the ability of the outside world to disrupt the inner world. The ability to restore it is a personal matter for everyone.

Andrey Kuzkin was born in 1979 in Moscow. Graduated from Moscow State University of Printing (2001). Selected solo exhibitions: "Earth" (together with Chaim Sokol, Stella Art Foundation, Moscow, 2008), "ZHZN" (ARTStrelka-projects Gallery, Moscow, 2009), "Heroes of Levitation" (Stella Art Foundation, Moscow, 2010), "Everything is ahead!" (Open Gallery, Moscow, 2011). Participant of the 6th Berlin Biennale (2010) and more than 30 group exhibitions in Russia. Winner of the Innovation Award in the New Generation nomination (2008, performance "In a Circle"). Three times winner of the Companion Award (2009, 2010, 2011). Longlisted for the Kandinsky Prize in the nomination "Young Artist" (2010, the object "Odin, or the Secret Life") and in the nomination "Project of the Year" (2011, the project "Everything Ahead!"). Lives and works in Moscow.