Mutation Countdown

Festival "Fashion and Style in Photography 2007"

The exhibition "Mutations 1. Contemporary European Photography" is being held at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art as part of the Moscow International Festival "Fashion and Style in Photography - 2007". All the works, and there are seven of them, according to the number of countries participating in the festival, are devoted to changes that already exist, can still exist and, perhaps, will be in our or another reality.

The dream of fans of three-dimensional graphics, embodied 3D dystopia, dominates the project “The Last Uprising” by the AES+F group. There is no history in the world created by artists. Here, Chinese pagodas coexist with windmills, castles coexist with spaceports. Only lifeless flowers bloom here. A plastic, airless world, mercilessly clear and unchanging, unfading and hopeless, a world lost outside of time. Its inhabitants are worthy of their universe - they are perfect and passionless androgynes, the last soldiers of the last war. Clutching machine guns and baseball bats in their hands, merciless young girls execute and torture without turning away their tender faces. They have no past, there will be no future for them. They are frozen in their ideal universe, forgotten children, doomed to eternal battle.

The count of those killed is carried out by Eva Frapiccini in the project “Lead Wall”. Area - Milan - Turin - Genoa - Rome, time - late 70s - early 80s, the period of greatest activity of the Red Brigades terrorist group. The artist's documentation of crime scenes: a door, a piece of the street, a fragment of a wall. Accurate data: who, where, when and how was killed. If known, then by whom. The hard authenticity of the text and the soft texture of the photographs. And I want to understand how those who join Brigate Rosse differ from others, why, after all the trials of the 20th century, someone’s consciousness is still subject to mutations under the hypnosis of ideology.

The not very scientific “Theoretical Study of the Deep Sea” is carried out by Philippe Ramette. The artist personally plunges into the abyss, deprives himself of scuba gear and solves the tasks set for himself. For example, is it good to have a siesta at the bottom of the sea? How long does the wait last if you don't breathe? Why do you need a meeting with an anchor? It can be assumed that the emergence of theoretical researchers will entail various changes in the underwater reality. And there is a lot to be interested in. For example, how will the sea inhabitants react to their new neighbors? They will probably mutate and develop reflexes of going around a person waiting and (not) joining a person resting. And the person himself will also change with the acquisition of sea habits. Developing a tendency to rest and wait will reduce the level of aggressiveness of an individual and normalize cholesterol and hemoglobin levels. The main thing is to learn to breathe underwater. The value of the artist’s research is confirmed by video documentation of the process itself.

Over the course of the year, mutations in space and consciousness, in the real world and in the virtual world, will be shown at seven photography festivals: in Moscow, Paris, Berlin, Bratislava, Luxembourg, Rome and Vienna.

Marina FOMENKO