In the series, I work with geographical points, which in themselves create meaning. The image of a person munching popcorn is not the most pleasant image in this context, but it’s a necessary self-criticism in this difficult situation. I am myself in the frame, although I felt it was not easy to accept this role, but I am one of the people involved in the situation, at least as an observer.
POPCORN-14. Video | looped | 2022. There is a cemetery right in the center of the Olympic Park in Sochi, Russia. This is all that’s left form the settlement of local Old Believers during construction. This place and event as a manifestation of the cult of self-assertion at all costs. With worldwide support. In addition to the 2014 Olympics, the 2018 World Cup was also held here.
POPCORN-22. Video | looped | 2022. Screen caption: Images from the scene of intense fighting near Schastye | In the world. Schastye (Ukr. – Shchastya, the name means Happiness) is a town in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. The catastrophic morning of 24 February. How to fill the world with happiness? This place is like the last drop in a stream of completely intolerable news this morning. Maybe it’s just a wicked irony, a bad dystopia or a pathology that can no longer be ignored.
POPCORN-23. Video | looped | 2023. ‘No rus no problems’ sign on Anna Politkovskaya Street in Tbilisi, Georgia. One of the many anti-Russian inscriptions. But why is there not a single street named after Anna Politkovskaya in Russia? Because she was killed according to the principle ‘no man — no problem’? Because she was killed for her journalistic work on the principle ‘no reporting the problem — no problems’? This place is my temporary home, after emigrating from Russia. I am still the same observer in relative safety. I am still the same observer of various manifestations of the universal errors of humanity.
POPCORN-99. Video | looped | 2024. ‘The Why? Monument’ The remains of the television headquarters in Belgrade after the NATO bombing in 1999. This place does not simplify the history. Why?
POPCORN-93-23. Video | looped | 2026. The half-destroyed monument to the Soviet soldier is closed to skateboarders and ordinary pedestrians, and is defended by an ice rink. Only traces remain of the zoo’s former population. This is definitely a historic battlefield.