Zero
MAXIM TATARINTSEV
Video inatallation 2'59'' (2014)
''Live portraits of people are embedded in posters-ads on the concrete wall. All the characters in the work are native speakers of different languages and each of them counts down from 10 to 0. As soon as a person reaches zero, the countdown starts again.''
This video installation is based on the artist's understanding of the influence of mass media on public consciousness. We live in a time of endless distribution and absorption of information flow. Information about events taking place in the world, various advertising data, obvious and hidden political propaganda, as well as untrustworthy weather forecasts – all this is part of the environment of any person living in modern society. The constant production of new information content resembles a huge machine or even a factory, whose products may have different wrappers, but its meaning is always identical and easily predictable. New information is the result of a continuous process of calculating social statistics, which helps to more purposefully shape the image of modern civilization, its values and basic aspirations. The video "Zero" makes you think about a person's place in society and their ability to resist constant suggestion from the outside. How, being an integral part of a huge social mechanism, can we preserve the right to define ourselves and our uniqueness, reducing all efforts to organize total control and widespread agitation to zero?