B/W – Cyland Video Archive

Loving Letters

Darya Cherkashina — Sat, 15 Feb 2025 16:27:01 +0000

Love-Letters for loving, HD b/w digital video of scanned documents, silence, 2’ 58”, 2024.

The letters were written by the visitors as part of their participative act within the ambientation of “loving” at CYFEST 16: Archive of Feelings. A Journey, HayArt Centre, Yerevan, Armenia, 2024. This participative act constitutes an ongoing core-element of “loving”.

More than 130 letters were collected.

An environment with desk, chair, lamp, paper-sheets with printed letterhead (the title “loving” and references of the Cyfest festival) and pen was installed in front of the projection of the video “loving”. The visitors were invited to sit at the desk, write a love-letter and deposit it in the drawer.

The letters are written in many languages, such as Armenian, English, French, German, Indonesian or Russian, some are drawings or empty. They are dedicated to various subjects, such as a never forgotten love story, a newborn nephew, the first ABC learned at school by a little boy, the eternal love, a husband, a wife, a singer, love itself in our times, the exhibition and myself, an imaginary or ended love, mama and papa, life, love, justice, freedom, Armenia and Armenian people, peace and the end of the Russian war, special persons or situations. They also describe episodes, like the falling-in-love just by looking into each other’s eyes, which happened during the opening of CYFEST 16.

The handwriting is a significant element in my œuvre. The inspiration to invite the visitors of “loving” to write a love-letter originated from the exhibition at the Nuit Blanche Paris in 2018, where many people left heartfelt comments in the guest book. This indicated a widespread desire to engage in what was once an important habit in relationships but has largely diminished due to faster and more convenient forms of communication. Writing a “real” letter to the beloved one means putting one’s sentiment black and white, a signed confirmation of love. The sentiment becomes tangible and eternal, as we all desire.

Digitalizzato_20241124 (24)

Digitalizzato_20241124 (21)

Digitalizzato_20241124 (20)

Digitalizzato_20241124 (41)

Digitalizzato_20241124 (25)

Digitalizzato_20241124 (30)

Digitalizzato_20241124 (34)

Digitalizzato_20241124 (35)

The post Loving Letters appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

Forest Patrol

Darya Cherkashina — Wed, 20 Jan 2021 13:43:08 +0000

Andrius Venclova – Forest Patrol1

Andrius Venclova – Forest Patrol2

Andrius Venclova – Forest Patrol3

The post Forest Patrol appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

Version

Darya Cherkashina — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 15:17:00 +0000

16mm

In 1987, Andrius had the idea to make a film “Version” re-enactment of the revolution of the 1917 year. It was filmed on a Krasnogorsk 16 mm movie camera in an abandoned Apraksin yard together with the “Total Jazz” group, which brought together guys from different parts of the city, known each other from concerts in the rock club and the Palace of Youth (youth center designated for the creative work, sport training and after-school clubs). Several film screenings of the Version were held at the LOMO Progress Culture Center, at the Textile Institute (State University of Industrial Technologies and Design) and at the Bonch-Bruevich Institute.

The post Version appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

Resurrection

Darya Cherkashina — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 04:32:10 +0000

Ilya Gaponov was born in 1981 in Kemerovo, an industrial mining town in the Novosibirsk region. His monumental and intensely detailed paintings are created with bitumen and Kuzbass varnish, both byproducts of coal mining. The monumental scale of Gaponov’s work recalls the epic paintings of historical revolution but with entirely contemporary content. His unaffected observation combines with his superb academic craftsmanship to create deeply moving images of unparalleled sincerity. Frequently working in series and large narrative cycles his paintings are cinematic in scale, but the subjects are rendered with such extreme pragmatism that the paintings themselves ultimately become oddly distanced commentaries on spirituality and morality.

Gaponov graduated from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris in 2004 and continued his studies at the acclaimed Mukhina Academy in St Petersburg, graduating in 2007. He continues to live and work in St Petersburg. Until 2010 he worked in partnership with Kirill Koteshov, also from Kemerovo.

The post Resurrection appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

Refraction

Darya Cherkashina — Thu, 14 Mar 2019 18:42:35 +0000

Lurie depicts his own private landscape on Super8 film and then transcribes the imprinted lit images within the prism of his memories and sensations. Here the black and white, urban, dreamlike scenes from the flatland of St.Peterburg and Kronstadt – the old Russia’s marine fort – refract into subdued colors of the pristine mountain terrain … Continue reading "Refraction"

The post Refraction appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

NAINE

Darya Cherkashina — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 11:00:12 +0000

Olga is in her fifties. She has both Estonian and Russian passports, she speaks only Russian. She was born in Narva (now Estonia) and lives in Ivangorod (now Russia), two cities facing each other on either side of the river. Olga speaks about herself as a woman of Perestroika. In this film she talks about going through these times with two children. She raises the issue of living on the very edge of Europe and tells about her relationship to work then and today. Olga used to work in a factory that closed in the mid-eighties. More than a personal portrait, in this film, her voice speaks for numerous women of her generation, living in between the former Eastern-Soviet States and Russia, imagining day to day solutions to survive in this precarious and constantly changing status.

I filmed Olga and her friend, another Olga, bathing in the border river Narva. Their bodies reflect the strength that they have needed till now. These images are b&w in order to link them to the archive images.

Sound: monolog by Olga, a woman with both Russian and Estonian passports, making a living by crossing the border daily. Olga was born in the fifties in the Soviet city of Narva-Ivangorod now split between Estonia and Russia.

Music: composed by Tanja Kozlova (Estonian contemporary composer, who was born on the Russian side of the border and lives now in Tallinn)

naine2009montesquiou1

naine2009montesquiou2

naine2009montesquiou3

The post NAINE appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

Spring

Darya Cherkashina — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 15:28:28 +0000

Spring demonstrates the precision of Yevgeni Yufit’s structural and editing techniques. It was conceived as a manifesto of necrorealism. The film combines intuition, an interest in the unconscious mind and shock tactics (traditions of the 1920’s avant-garde) with social issues of Soviet Russia.

The post Spring appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

Woodcutter

Darya Cherkashina — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 14:56:39 +0000

An eccentric and absurd comedy with endless non-stop fighting, chasing, murders and suicides which are intercut with Soviet symbols of peace and freedom – white doves flying away from the hands of ‘pioneers’ – and documentary footage of the pioneers’ everyday lives.

The post Woodcutter appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

They call us the enemy

Darya Cherkashina — Wed, 08 Apr 2020 19:23:48 +0000

Shining boots and buttons, epaulettes and stripes on shoulders and sleeves, medals pinned to the chest, a confident look in the eyes and belief in their own supremacy. The theatrical pomp and circumstance, ceremonial traditions, spotless uniforms and accompanying attributes, which the military uses to present itself, contrast sharply with the devastation and chaos it causes.

They Call Us The Enemy still 01 Gr

They Call Us The Enemy still 02 Gr

The post They call us the enemy appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.

Lullaby

Darya Cherkashina — Thu, 13 Jun 2019 14:13:40 +0000

Video performance

Apocalypse Lullaby project / in cooperation with Nail Baiburin

Lullaby was shot in Bashkortostan in the steppe near the village of Kargaly, in Blagovarsky district. The song is a common lullaby sung in Tatar by an old Tatar old. “Eli-vyeli” means “Rock-a-bye”.

The artist is interested in the problem of the duality of the world. He bases this work on the controversy of the state of absolute bliss conveyed by the song and the dynamics of the performers in the snow among gigantic rolling wicker balls that symbolize the tangles of the universe.

The post Lullaby appeared first on Cyland Video Archive.