Description: sound by Wouter Van Veldhoven
Video documentation of the process of making black bread production, its maturation, dough fermentation at one of the oldest bakeries in St. Petersburg, “Darnitsa”, which fed residents during the Siege of the city 1941–1945. As a result of gentrification, the old plant was closed in 2012 and Darnitsa has moved to a new building due and is fully computerized now.
It consists of 3 parts:
- Part 1 (18 min) — the processes: mixing, kneading, molding, baking and unique mechanisms in action.
- Part 2 (5 min) — the processes of fermentation
- and Part 3 (11 min) — Darnitsa factory: architecture & mechanisms
“Darnitsa” is a unique factory for the production of bread, a monument of constructivist architecture. The round shape corresponded to its content. All production processes moved along a circular conveyor. Electro-mechanical machines have now been entirely replaced by computer production.
The installation provides an opportunity to view the old process of the unique production of black bread (all its technological stages)
This plant operated during the Siege of Leningrad and saved the lives of many people. Engineer Georgy Marsakov, in the late 1920s, developed a new type of mechanized bakery following the concept of production on the principle of a circular conveyor stage. The whole process of baking bread moved in a spiral of a circular constructivist building. Flour raised to the top was kneaded into dough, then baked in ring ovens, and the finished bread was unloaded along inclined slopes into the bakery.
Now the Darnitsa plant has moved to a new building due to gentrification and is fully computerized. Documentary filming was made in 2012. The dynamics of the processes of fermentation and kneading of the dough, baking bread, the operation of the mechanisms of the circular conveyor is enhanced by the sound compositions of sampled magnetic tapes (one of the first ways to work with sound in electronic music) by the composer Wouter van Veldhoven.
Vika Ilyushkina Born in 1971 in Leningrad, USSR.
Victoria Ilyushkina is a media artist and curator. She graduated from the Academy of Arts Russian in Saint Petersburg, where she studied art history and theory, hold a degree New Media program of the Pro Arte Institute.
Currently she is the program curator of the CYLAND Video Archive and International Cyfest video programs.
As an artist, she presented her video works at numerous solo and group exhibitions such as On My Way parallel project to the 56th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Manifesta 10 Parallel Program “The Other Home”, at The State Russian Museum, at The Hermitage Youth Education Center, “Russia contemporary exhibition” Galerie Gmurzynska (Switzerland), Anna Akhmatova Museum, Al Gallery in St. Petersburg, Russia; Iragi Gallery (Moscow), Gislaved Kunsthalle (Sweden) etc.
Artist and curator with a diploma in Art History and Theory of the Academy of Fine Arts and in New Media Programs from the Pro Arte Institute; St. Petersburg, Russia. 2009-2022 curated Videoforma International Video Art Festival at the Sergey Kuryokhin Art Centre, St. Petersburg. In 2023 Co-curator Gyumri Art Week, Republic of Armenia. She was part of the jury in several international film and video festivals.
She is currently the program curator of the CYLAND Video Archive and International Cyfest video programs. Featured screenings at the Made in New York Media Center, USA; at Platoon Kunsthalle in Berlin, The Short Film Festival Oberhausen-66, Germany; Videoformes Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France; Empire Projects, Istanbul; programming at the parallel events at Venice Biennale; Youth Education Center of Hermitage museum, St. Petersburg; video festivals in Sweden, Poland, at SOFA festival in Bogota, Colombia; in Brazil; Dartington, UK; NPAK Contemporary Art Center, ICA Institute for contemporary Art Foundation, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia and more.
Her curatorial research interests are aimed at studying the mutual influence and transition from analogue media in film and video art to digital media and its further transformation with using 3D and AI technologies in time-based art. She curated numerous of video exhibitions and projects among them Video /Text/ Art; Screens; “Seeking for the keys” Andrey Krisanov artist and musician. Curator of the project and author of the introduction article “A History of the Development of Media Art in Leningrad — Saint Petersburg, 1985-2000”, 2021. Author of the publication “Aspects of the digital fermentation of moving images” in Leonardo journal V55/6, 2022.
I try to transfer the subconscious into day-to-day life through the plasticity of motion, to reveal the hidden psychological processes. Dance and teamwork with the choreographer has become a fundamental element of my work. In my films I address modern dance including it into daily environments as a contrasting element.
