Toothless resistance 1
2020
Video installation, color, sound, 17”00
Russian spoken with English subtitles
Courtesy of the artist
This project looks at the idea of artificial landscape as a tool with which to explore the privileged representation of the illusion of a stable, normalised and globalised society. “Artificial landscape” in this context designates a landscape that has been extensively shaped by human intervention. It is based on structures of power that operate within society, rooted in historical brokers of power; while it retains this outer structure, it is actually hollow.
Mutation enters as a main means by which these structures have adapted within society based on the historical control of power. What are the processes through which they have created an illusion of stability? The project refers to this illusion as an “immortal hero” (akin to the typical computer game hero endowed with unlimited lives), or a mythical image that has been so built up over time that it appears unbreakable. The safety and stability of this illusion operates on an international scale in neoliberal, globalised society with its neo-capitalistic system in that it tries to perpetuate an idea of solidity and strength amidst unprecedented economic collapse, social divides and political upheavals.
The project questions how these structures, at once both globalized and local, cement their power through landscapes and by trying to regulate nature. How have landscapes been adapted, or mutated to adapt to, these specific, very artificial needs? How does the landscape itself represent power?
Artist’s Bio:
Kanis was born in 1985 in Leningrad and graduated from the Rodchenko Art School, Moscow, in 2011. That same year, she was awarded the Kandinsky Art Prize in the Best Young Artist category for the video Eggs (2010). Her work has been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions and screenings, including a solo show in Haus der Kunst Munich (2017), the VISIO program in Palazzo Strozzi in Florence (2019), the parallel program of Manifesta 10 and the 2015 edition of the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art.