Is it possible to cope with boundless, uncontrollable fear? With the fear that pervades many generations. With fear for your own life and mental health, or for the future of your comrades and relatives. With the fear of what has not happened to you yet, but what definitely can happen.
I'm talking about the fear of a totalitarian state, a repressive system that crushes everything in its path. In my personal case, it is the fear and powerlessness before the Russian state, its police, and its judicial and prison systems. My tactics of withdrawing, ignoring, protesting, fighting, or migrating have not alleviated this fear.
In the Parallel Universe, I create an imaginary world where I directly face the system by following my fears. A world in which everything is possible and impossible at the same time. A world where my action or decision can be a link in a chain, also would not change anything in the system. A world that represents reality and is not reality. A world in which I can and cannot cope with fear and powerlessness.
Being in this fictional world I can prepare myself for facing the system’s violence in the real world.
Eto Zdes', St.Petersburg, 2021
Live meditation
Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, 2021
4-channel video installation
