The first film project of the V – A – C Foundation film almanac “Dreams in the Area” consists of 13 works by various authors and is compiled as a single kaleidoscope of urban life. The main theme of creative comprehension for the workshop participants was personal dreams and collective urban myths. Intertwined with each other, the plots of individual short films are combined into a single narrative field, combining meanings and images in a bizarre manner.
The plot of the film is based on the large-scale reconstruction of the historical building of the HPP-2 power plant on Bolotnaya Embankment under the direction of architect Renzo Piano and the transformation of the power plant into a cultural institution and a cultural house of the V-A-C foundation, founded by Leonid Mikhelson. For five years, the process of fixing this reincarnation was carried out. The basis of the shooting method was the desire to show big events through the prism of the interaction of art and life of the construction site and the V-A-C foundation, through small details, through the people who are doing it all.
Aggregate States of Matters highlights the ambiguous relationship between humans and nature. For her new 35mm film shot in Peru, Rosa Barba worked with communities that are affected by the melting of a glacier and geological time becoming exposed. Barba shows the slow disappearance of the glacier and the perception of this fact within the Quechuan population in the Andes. While exploring different local myths, she outlines the possibility of translating ancient knowledge into the present time.
Big Clay #4, a 12-meter sculpture by Swiss artist Urs Fischer, was installed in Moscow in August 2021 and caused a mixed reaction. Gradually, the Russian context supplemented the work with two new parts – thus, from a single work, Big Clay turned into a triptych.
The Kaddish film is dedicated to rethinking the catastrophes of the XX century through an Event that reveals itself in the face of an empty grave and acquires a different meaning and eschatological responsibility for it. Hiroshima, the blockade, the GULAG – three catastrophes that are associated with modern reality, carry genetic memory and are combined in the numerical value of one century and year XX020.
