Video, 56 min, 2014
(Chto Delat?, 2003, St. Petersburg, Russia / Sankt Peterburg)
The group Chto Delat was founded by artists, critics, philosophers, and writers from St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod. Its activities are varied— the members make films, stage productions, publish a newspaper, run the School of Engaged Art, and organize discussions and educational programs around the world. Owing to a creative method based on combining political theory, art, and activism, the group's work is highly critical with regard to the world around it. One of the main genres in which the group works is the social musical, the "songspiel" in Brechtian terminology, where the actors play out the most critical political issues of the day. As a rule the main narrative in the work is a specific historical event, which the artists subject to analysis and interpretation; they propose that viewers take a new view of recent history.
The film The Excluded. In a Moment of Danger is based on a theater performance by members of the School of Engaged Art. Thematically the work is connected with the recent social situation in Russia—the failure of citizen-led initiatives, government repression, and the overall sense of depression that has overcome people. The closed space where the action takes place evokes the claustrophobia that has paralyzed the country's public space with fear. The immutability of politics, the dashed hopes and futile expectations of which the actors speak, are also manifested in their movements and gestures, which convey a sense of the collective social body, laden with emotions.
Film concept, design and editing: Olga Egorova (Tsaplya) and Dmitry Vilensky
Director: Olga Egorova (Tsaplya)
Choreography: Nina Gasteva and Mikhail Ivanov
Made with the support of Secession (Vereinigung bildender KunstlerInnen Wiener Secession); Kunstbunker — Forum fur zeitgenossische Kunst Nuremberg: and Fundacao Bienal de Sao Paulo
Courtesy of the artists
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The Excluded. In a Moment of Danger is a new acquisition to the Arteast 2000+ collection and the first joint purchase within L'Internationale. It was purchased by Moderna galerija (Ljubljana, SI) and Van Abbemuseum (Eindhoven, NL).
