| “Degree of increased danger” by Irina Nakhova at the Center for Contemporary Art Small screens blink in the dark hall. This is a slideshow. Shown are New Jersey single-story American homes decorated for Christmas. People walking around the hall suddenly fit into the given video sequence. Their silhouettes are projected onto two huge screens, where the entrance to an ordinary supermarket is filmed with a stationary camera. Here is an American lady pushing a cart with groceries. Her image is combined with your own silhouette, and you are already inside that one-story reality that was brilliantly reflected by both the philosopher Baudrillard and the film director Lynch.
The password word is emptiness. Behind the facades of the gingerbread houses there is darkness. A nightmare of well-being. Hopelessness is the norm. City streets with Christmas garlands, fir trees and Santa Clauses spin like a magic lantern. And in the kaleidoscope of cheerful pictures, tongueless horror writhes. And close-ups of gasoline brands at gas stations inspire sticky fear.
However, the perfectionism of the installation itself calms and gives hope. We were let into this luminous urban space, and what adventure will happen to us in it is a matter of taste and imagination. After all, America does not live by Lynch alone. Touching monsters from Tim Burton's films are also visible in the magic lantern bulb of one-story America. Terrible on the face, kind inside. The just released film “Big Fish” is proof of this. Irina Nakhova's installation is an excellent postlude to it. Sergei KHACHATUROV |
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