Infundibulum Divo
Divo means marvel. It is the story of the myth creation. Meeting something unknown, unfamiliar, something that does not fit into previous experience causes confusion & need for explanation. And trying to explain the unknown within the existing mythological background gives rise to a new myth.
In the world of the Russian village the mythological worldview is still alive although the inhabitants of this world are disappearing. In their eyes all new and unusual turns into a marvel. And what is ordinary for them becomes a marvel for us.
In search of the Russian myth, the Infundibulum team joined forces with the Swiss designer Gerold Brenner, an apologist for humanistic fashion and upcycling.
“So you hear, it happened, they told so. Now it has become less, but before the were gelders, so oh, they knew! You live a hundred kilometer from here, but they blow it to the wind, and that's all. Words, tay say the words and that's all.”
(Recorded in 2008 in Oshta from Z. M. Antyufeeva, born in 1922)
“There was a big stone behind the bridge. It seems it is still there. And they say that the official comes out of this stone - in a white uniform, with shiny buttons. And everyone who passes by him, he grabs them all and put them into this stone, takes them to the kingdom.”
(Recorded from A.V. Shkvorova in Belomorye, Belomorsky District of Karelia in July 1982. N. Pidchenko, M. Busareva, D. Suyargulova, E. Sorokina (headed by T.I. Senkina))
“Also in one region there live agromet people. They have a great heat inside. When they come together in one place, they burn themselves up, burn their relatives and eat them.”
(A.S. Arkhangelsky. On the History of Old Russian Elucidarius. Comparison of Slavic-Russian and Ancient German Texts. 1899)
“Krivolutsky went into the water. Serve him a drink - he will go. He sat here, in the prison, began to disassemble the pipe (he wanted to go into the pipe). They took him away from it. Then he pretended to be sick, shout: “ Give some water!” They gave him a dipper. He dived into the dipper - gurgle! - and swam away. He walked all the land. He was the only one like this in the Altai district. If he does not want to stay in jail he lets the water in. Everybody yells: “We drown!”The water washes them and he stands and laughs. And gone. And he knew the water well, he sailed the seas."
(A. Misyurev, Siberian tales and legends. 1959)
“And let me tell you too, Marfa Ignatievna, ma'am, a vision I had in Moscow. I went out early in the morning, it was just dawn, and on a high, very high house, on the roof, I saw someone standing, with a black face. You understand whom I mean. And he kept moving his hands, as though he were scattering something, but nothing fell. Then I divined that he was the enemy sowing tares, and the people in their blindness see it not, and gather them up. And that is why they run to and fro so, and the women among them are all so thin, and never get plump and comfortable, but always look as if they had lost something, or were looking for something, and that careworn they are, you feel sorry for them.”
(A.N. Ostrovsky, The Storm, 1859)
“And if you listen to it for three hours and I will not play your mind out, you will get a self-playing dulcimer for free; if not - will take your head off… The soldier could not listen to it for more than a quarter of an hour and was played out of his mind: it means he became insane.”
( D.K. Zelenin, Great Russian fairy tales of the Vyatka province, 1915)
The video story about a marvel in the Russian village was created by Andrew Kovalev. We went deep into the Ryazan region, to the village of Izhevskoe - once the richest village of the Russian Empire. Over the twentieth century the population of Izhevskoe steadily declined. Now there are many abandoned and dilapidated houses in these places. The village disappears, but the myth remains.
Director: Andrew Kovalev
Camera: Nikita Goryachkin, Andrew Kovalev
Editing: Andrew Kovalev
Sound design: Olya Lopina feat. Sophie Petkevich and Johann Nikadimus
Technical director: Timur Ivanov
Producers: Anna Bednieri, Polina Efremenko, Kristina Kryzhanovskaya
Director's assistants: Kristina Kryzhanovskaya, Svetlana Pavlova
BTS-videographer: Elina Wexler
Models: Evgeni Zamyatin, Evgeny Pogonin, Ilia Kuznetsov, Johann Nikadimus, Vladimir Tilinin
Shoes & accessories: Drasvi Venn
Camera: Nikita Goryachkin, Andrew Kovalev
Editing: Andrew Kovalev
Sound design: Olya Lopina feat. Sophie Petkevich and Johann Nikadimus
Technical director: Timur Ivanov
Producers: Anna Bednieri, Polina Efremenko, Kristina Kryzhanovskaya
Director's assistants: Kristina Kryzhanovskaya, Svetlana Pavlova
BTS-videographer: Elina Wexler
Models: Evgeni Zamyatin, Evgeny Pogonin, Ilia Kuznetsov, Johann Nikadimus, Vladimir Tilinin
Shoes & accessories: Drasvi Venn
Thanks to Elen Panteleeva and Elizaveta Sokolova for their invaluable input
Special thanks to Evgeny Pogonin and his horse riding camp in Meshchera Lowlands
