ephemeras
HD Video, Color, Sound
14:20
2018

The video features various images of Kolomna along with fragments of texts in English and Russian. The Russian-English and English-Russian texts are a record of translations done in Google Translate during actual conversations. They represent the speakers' awareness of the possible failure of language as well as their mutual efforts to communicate with each other. The audio is the artist copying the text of Moscow-Petushki by Benedict Erofeev, making reference to the history and culture of the city, Kolomna. ephemeras addresses both the physicality and ephemerality of the act of speaking and writing.

This project was supported by the museum residency “Artkommunalka. Erofeev and Others.”

Artkommunaka is a museum and an artist residency located in Kolomna, Russia, and it is where a kommunalka (communal apartment from the Soviet era) and artifacts from the 60s have been "preserved." Artkommunalka present, re-present, and document histories of communities and individuals who (have) lived in the region through excursions, theatrical performances, and performances of everyday life. Narratives are mostly presented in the form of spoken words. There are artifacts and physical objects, but there is always a live person or persons to tell the stories behind these objects. When stories are delivered as spoken words, they strongly represent the mutual efforts of communication. Stories told at museums in Kolomna are often prepared from a script, but they are retold, reinvented, and even personalized for different audiences—constantly crossing over between speaking and “rewriting.”