Catalogue > At random

This project is the result of an investigation of the borders of psychological perception of the urban environment while at the same time exploring and testing the frontiers of the language of video as the medium for its artistic representation. The project operates in the zone between the perception of real documentary images of the urban environment, the common knowledge about it and individual everchanging memories. It is an attempt to translate the perceived energy from the city into an energized perception of the city. The accelerated navigation of urban dwellers through the cityscape, like surfing on an ocean wave, leaves them, focused as they are on their daily duties, only time for the associative scanning of striking details and the landmarks linked with it. Video fragments of the urban landscape of Berlin, Kiev, Moscow and Paris are united into one stream. Seen as it were while moving they seem chaotic and accidental. The images overlap, rescale and establish new formations. Recognizable and logical architectural elements become transformed into abstract structures. As a result the generally accepted concept of a city as a clearly structured architectural ensemble gives way to a dynamic, fragmentary and individual perception of the urban environment.

Marina Chernikova (multimedia artist) Moscow ? Amsterdam/ holds a Master of Media Arts from the University of Portsmouth (EMMA HKU) and an MFA in painting from Moscow State Fine Art Academy (Surikov?s). Her photographical and video works are based on the exploration of the kinetic visual structures of megalopolises of various cultural traditions. She took part in numerous festivals and exhibitions including VIPER Basel, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin, Kandinsky Prize Moscow, 2nd and 3rd Moscow Biennale, FiLE Sao Paulo, and WRO Wroclaw