VOYAGE
A temporary art installation submitted in the 2020 Nikola Lenivets Maslenitsa open competition.
Voyage was our entry for the 2020 Nikola Lenivets organized competition for an art object to be burned down during maslenitsa (a traditional pagan/slavic celebration). Our proposal told the story about the Little Blizzard, a winter ship village. Frozen for generations, it has known glory and misery, life and death, sweet and bitter. This performance is about the last journey of the little blizzarders, a voyage in search of the lost winter, a trip into the unknown, where they will try to find out who and why is melting everything forever. In this performance we see the little 'blizzarders' get rid of that which they don’t need, and reject the parts of their life which have caused the ice to melt, setting ablaze in funerary manner the only ship they have, similar to what their kin are doing to the only land that can be called home.
A performance was also part of the competition submission, describing the last voyage of the Little Blizzard.
ACT 1: Preparation
Through the voice of a narrator we learn that preparations are being made by the little blizzarders, as they move busily in and out of the ship, loading into the little blizzard all the unnecessary supplies. Unnecessary because these supplies are just the things they never really needed on the first place. This act is a rejection of unnecessary consumption, of excess without balance, an act where the little blizzarders show they want to live more with less.
ACT 1: Preparation
Through the voice of a narrator we learn that preparations are being made by the little blizzarders, as they move busily in and out of the ship, loading into the little blizzard all the unnecessary supplies. Unnecessary because these supplies are just the things they never really needed on the first place. This act is a rejection of unnecessary consumption, of excess without balance, an act where the little blizzarders show they want to live more with less.
Act 2: Embarkment
The little blizzarders are hardy peoples. They’ve lived through hard and easy, felt whole and broken. But both the little blizzard and the little blizzarders are to be no more. As they perform their last walk around the little blizzard carrying freshly lit torches, the narration walks us through their final thoughts before the journey. The little blizzarders are sad that the balance of seasons is under threat, that even the strongest ice is thawing under their own fault. Upon the realization that their very way of life, and that of their brothers has led to this, they shout in anguish the agony of the land.
Act 3: Departure
Little Blizzard and Little Blizzarders must move on. As frozen gives way to liquid, so must the storm cease, so must the seasons change. After christening the ship with a bottle of fire, little blizzard and little blizzarders disperse, walking away slowly and ritually from the freshly lit fire, each in a different direction. The little blizzarders have set ablaze the only ship they had, much like we are doing to our very own big ship. As the flames spread, and the ice under the hull becomes a sea, both people and ash move into the voyage carrying with a message: that there is hope in change, that we can mend our wrongs, that we can learn and overcome, that we must keep our ship at sail, as it carries more than just us, and more than those who come after.
FIRE:
The afternoon transitions into the twilight, as the little blizzard burns, the snow deposits under it thaw and become a sea in the middle of the forest. Flames and ship, hull and masts reflect upon the waters, giving observers a new chance to connect with the cycles of nature, and make viral the fact that there is still a future.
END
The little blizzarders are hardy peoples. They’ve lived through hard and easy, felt whole and broken. But both the little blizzard and the little blizzarders are to be no more. As they perform their last walk around the little blizzard carrying freshly lit torches, the narration walks us through their final thoughts before the journey. The little blizzarders are sad that the balance of seasons is under threat, that even the strongest ice is thawing under their own fault. Upon the realization that their very way of life, and that of their brothers has led to this, they shout in anguish the agony of the land.
Act 3: Departure
Little Blizzard and Little Blizzarders must move on. As frozen gives way to liquid, so must the storm cease, so must the seasons change. After christening the ship with a bottle of fire, little blizzard and little blizzarders disperse, walking away slowly and ritually from the freshly lit fire, each in a different direction. The little blizzarders have set ablaze the only ship they had, much like we are doing to our very own big ship. As the flames spread, and the ice under the hull becomes a sea, both people and ash move into the voyage carrying with a message: that there is hope in change, that we can mend our wrongs, that we can learn and overcome, that we must keep our ship at sail, as it carries more than just us, and more than those who come after.
FIRE:
The afternoon transitions into the twilight, as the little blizzard burns, the snow deposits under it thaw and become a sea in the middle of the forest. Flames and ship, hull and masts reflect upon the waters, giving observers a new chance to connect with the cycles of nature, and make viral the fact that there is still a future.
END
