КИНО
IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS
A study of other people’s experiences of being alone in a forest at night without light sources.
Once, while filming in the forest at night, I accidentally turned off all the light sources that I had with me. By that time, I had accumulated several trips into the night forest thanks to the PRESENCE project, and I no longer felt fear. In the absence of fear and directional light, which previously imperatively outlined the zone of my attention, finding myself in the forest in complete darkness, I received a qualitatively new experience of perception. The internal and surrounding spaces opened up differently. I wanted to share this discovery with others.
IN SEARCH OF DARKNESS
A study of other people’s experiences of being alone in a forest at night without light sources.
The thought of being alone in the forest at night initially evokes an automatic reaction: "no way." In the performance, I create conditions for overcoming this denial: leaving each participant alone without light sources, I move away to a distance sufficient for my presence not to be felt, but at any moment I could hear or see a signal and intervene.
Thanks to the unusual state of the forest and the darkness, the current moment ceases to be perceived as something self-evident and "self-apprehensible". The confrontation with reality stops, now you are only a small part of it, an object, not a subject.
Thanks to the unusual state of the forest and the darkness, the current moment ceases to be perceived as something self-evident and "self-apprehensible". The confrontation with reality stops, now you are only a small part of it, an object, not a subject.
The thought of being alone in the forest at night initially evokes an automatic reaction: "no way." In the performance, I create conditions for overcoming this denial: leaving each participant alone without light sources, I move away to a distance sufficient for my presence not to be felt, but at any moment I could hear or see a signal and intervene.
Thanks to the unusual state of the forest and the darkness, the current moment ceases to be perceived as something self-evident and "self-apprehensible". The confrontation with reality stops, now you are only a small part of it, an object, not a subject.
Thanks to the unusual state of the forest and the darkness, the current moment ceases to be perceived as something self-evident and "self-apprehensible". The confrontation with reality stops, now you are only a small part of it, an object, not a subject.
The thought of being alone in the forest at night initially evokes an automatic reaction: "no way." In the performance, I create conditions for overcoming this denial: leaving each participant alone without light sources, I move away to a distance sufficient for my presence not to be felt, but at any moment I could hear or see a signal and intervene.
Thanks to the unusual state of the forest and the darkness, the current moment ceases to be perceived as something self-evident and "self-apprehensible". The confrontation with reality stops, now you are only a small part of it, an object, not a subject.
Thanks to the unusual state of the forest and the darkness, the current moment ceases to be perceived as something self-evident and "self-apprehensible". The confrontation with reality stops, now you are only a small part of it, an object, not a subject.
Hello world!
2020, 2021
*Time spent by participants in the dark:
Natalya – 27
Lena – 16
Margo – 11
Masha – 13
Lena – 15
Vasilisa – 9
Roma – 30
Katya – 7
Maxim – 16
Irina – 16
Lena – 8
Varvara – 10
