Brave
2022
Video, 103 minutes
In 1996-1997, Rineke Dijkstra made a series of video portraits in two nightclubs. She asked people to express themselves on camera in any way convenient for them. As a rule, they all began to dance awkwardly, gradually liberating.
I turned to this work, but changed it. Instead of asking to dance in front of the camera, I asked people to just look at the camera for a minute. Do not dance, do not succumb to external stimuli, and try to freeze, stop for one minute.
The work was created in 2021 during the Brave Festival in Kyiv. The festival took place on the territory of the Metrobud factory, the main purpose of which is the production of subway wagons. An improvised photo studio was set up right in the middle of one of the factory's premises. In total, I shot a little over 100 people.
My initial idea was to study how the presence of a camera and a photographer affects behavior, how the relationship between a model and a photographer (videographer) is formed. I did not plan to work with the received materials or to edit them in a separate film. In fact, the work itself was the process of its creation. However, with the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, these videos seem to have gained new meaning. I have no idea what happened to these people in the mostly silent video portraits, whether they are safe and alive.
Installation shot from "No Dancing Allowed", Frei_raum Q21, Wien
