Category Archives: Moscow / Russia

Transformer House Wall / Neon Light

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Transformer House Wall. Wall / Neon Light
Transformatoren-Haus-Wand. Wand / Neonlicht
Daniel Marzona. Berlin. 2017
Video Projection / Exhibition View

The video work Transformatoren-Haus-Wand / Neonlicht (transformer-house-wall / neon light) shows the wall of a house with large surfaces painted in different colors, photographed in downtown Moscow. There are traces of graffiti, which the authorities do not tolerate and have tried to expunge by painting them over with oil and emulsion paints in various tones. Wolf’s media artworks are created successively. First, she photographed some of the overpainted house walls in Moscow, part for part, and put them back together as large pictures on a computer. As a video level, the photo of a neon light going on and off is laid over the wall photograph with its various degrees of brightness. The changes produce the actual video image: the colors of the wall flicker rhythmically in the light of the malfunctioning lamp. This simple combination of the static and the dynamic is characteristic of Wolf’s works.

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Repainted Graffiti

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Despite their prohibition, graffiti advance further towards Mos­cow’s city centre. As a kind of non-conformist expression, graffiti are not tolerated. Instead of taking costly restoring measures, the public authorities have the house walls partially repainted in different colour shades of oil- and dispersion paint. Structured house walls come into being through these large multi-coloured sections.
Some house walls are systematically photographed, section-by-section, and then digitally pieced together to large formats. The texture of the wall and the paint structures are meticulously captured. A strong illusion of spatial depth is achieved by combining numerous individual perspectives. The wall sections with their repainted traces will be brought to other (exhibition-)spaces as large-sized photographic works/objects.

Wand 1. Übermalte Graffiti  Wall 1. Repainted Graffiti
Moscow. August 2009


Red Painting  Rote Malerei
Green Painting  Grüne Malerei
Garage Compounds  Garagenkörper
Green Chequerd Courtyard  Grünbunt im Innenhof
Gray in the Courtyard  Grau im Innenhof
Sheet Metall Wall  Blechwand
Pastell Colours  Pastellfarben
Yellow Pink Wall  Gelb-rosa Wand
Stained Wall  Bunte Wand
Transformer House Wall  Transformatoren-Haus-Wand


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Day of Victory

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On May 8th and 9th, on the Day of the Victory over Fascism, a national holiday in Russia, Moscow’s huge video screens in the city centre do not display any advertising spots but show dramatic film scenes from the Second World War, the triumph of the Red Army. From a stationary camera position the large screens are recorded as an essential component of the city.
In the year 2009, the war events on the screens, the urban traffic and the flying flags blend rather naturally into parallel processes. In the year 2010, the house on the riverbank – residence of the Muscovite nomenklatura during the thirties – serves as background for the war events on the screens and the urban traffic.

Day of Victory. Moscow, May 9, 2010
Tag des Sieges. Moskau, 9. Mai 2009
Apple HDV / Quicktime Movie
H.264 / 1920×1080 / 25p
Mute. 14 min 56 sec. Loop

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Day of Victory. Moscow, May 9, 2010
Tag des Sieges. Moskau, 9. Mai 2010
Video Stills
Apple HDV / Quicktime Movie
H.264 / 1920×1080 / 25p
Mute. 17 min 56 sec. Loop

 

Transformer House Wall / Two Doors

Transformatoren-Haus-Wand_Moskau-2010_front

Despite their prohibition, graffiti advance further towards Moscow’s city centre. As a kind of non-conformist expression, graffiti are not tolerated. Instead of taking costly restoring measures, the public authorities have the house walls partially repainted in different colour shades of oil- and dispersion paint. Structured house walls come into being through these large multi-coloured sections.
Some house walls are systematically photographed, section-by-section, and then digitally pieced together to large formats. The texture of the wall and the paint structures are meticulously captured. A strong illusion of spatial depth is achieved by combining numerous individual perspectives. The wall sections with their repainted traces will be brought to other (exhibition-)spaces as large-sized photographic works/objects.

 

Transformatoren-Haus-Wand_Moskau-2010_OFD-Frankfurt-2014_Installation_frontal

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Notes

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Slips of paper are pasted to the rear walls of Muscovite supermarkets or at bus stations. The public authorities remove them again. New slips of paper will be applied: These concern private offers and wanted ads for rooms, apartments, massages, computer assistance and instant loans. These notes built a thick layer of paper, which is fraying on the edges.
For the photo installation a section of the wall has step-by-step been recorded and digitally assembled. The composition of numerous individual perspectives translates the spatiality of the frayed paper to the illusion of the montage. These unofficial ads arrive as printout in another space.

 

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Notes  Zettel
Moscow. March 2010
Weißfrauen Diakoniekirche Frankfurt 2011
Installation / Exhibition View 
Photographs / Digital Montage
Pigment Print on adhesive-backed Film
500×150 cm

Bus Station

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Slips of paper are pasted to the rear walls of Muscovite supermarkets or at bus stations. The public authorities remove them again. New slips of paper will be applied: These concern private offers and wanted ads for rooms, apartments, massages, computer assistance and instant loans. These notes built a thick layer of paper, which is fraying on the edges.
The video work shows the rear wall of a bus station, pasted with slips of paper, which gently rise and fall in every gust of wind. Simultaneously, the observer perceives through the glass or reflected in it the movements of the city. In this video installation the projector’s fan seems to generate the wind stirring the slips of paper.

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Bus Station  Bushaus    
Moskau 2010
galerie baer. Dresden 2013
Video Installation / Exhibition View
Apple HDV / Quicktime Movie H.264 / 1920×1080 / 25p
Mute. 60 min. Loop

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Storming of Berlin

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The Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Poklonnaya Gora, in Moscow is devoted to the commemoration of the victory of the Red Army over fascism in World War II. The gigantic building in the western part of the Russian capital was inaugurated in 1995, during the Yeltsin era. However, the decision for constructing such a memorial had, already been taken by the Central Committee back in 1957. Even in Russia 2.0, this symbolic place represents the heart of the post-communist official state policy, as the ceremonies of the anniversaries of the victory over Nazi Germany allways show.

The video work Sturm auf Berlin (Storming of Berlin) is based on one out of six battle dioramas, exhibited in the basement of the intensely frequented Poklonnaya Gora. Combining paintings and real objects, the museum’s installation depicts a fight scene of the Soviet Army in Berlin with bombed-out houses and the burning Reichstag in the background. The historical reference is the final battle of Berlin, which lasted from April 16th until May 2nd 1945. On April 30th, the Red Army had occupied the Reichstag building and on May 2nd, 1945 World War II. had ended, upon the final surrender of the German forces.

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LENIN

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The video shows a bust of Lenin full-screen standing at its place in the main hall of the Leningradsky Railway Station in Moscow. The bust is bathed in a storm of ever-changing colourful light of promotional video clips cast from the huge video screen opposite. The bust is highlighted in the colourful illumination and vanishes again in the dark, thus it oscillates between sculpture and two-dimensionality.

LENIN
Moscow 2009
Capture 10
Digital Video (XGA or PAL)
Mute. 8 min 5 sec. Loop