faces of the civilized world
- This project is an artistic inquiry into the environment created by our modern civilization. Our little theatrical sketches are an open reflection on some of the main functional elements that constitute this environment, and on the logic behind some of its common routine.
Our setting is Japan, and that is not without a reason.
In terms of technological development, infrastructure, social welfare systems Japan may be considered one of the most progressive countries in the world. In many ways it presents a favorable example for the most developed countries to follow. This is also why even very particular forms and shapes that civilization acquires in Japan can be seen as symptomatic in a global sense: they are all related to essential trends that take effect all around the world in one way or other. Japan's scenarios may be unique in the details, but with certain adjustments it's not all too hard to project them on the situation of many other countries.
Apart from thinking Japan to be a particularly colorful "civilization's case", simply being foreigners played a key role in the inception of this project. One is more susceptible of noticing peculiarities in the most common of things when they are a stranger to their surroundings, and are conditioned to look at everything around as alien.
Common things are things we don't easily subject to critical reflection. We are suggesting to take an estranged look at the environment that we interact with every day, as if it was something alien.
Victoria Yakovleva
(photography, concept)
Daria Shakisheva
(original idea, concept) 
The main character of our stories ends up being a plastic bag. Or, more generally, just plastic. There is hardly any other agent inside the civilized space that is as tightly involved in virtually all of its systems. Plastic is one of the most frequent mediators of our interaction with the world around us.
That is why we chose plastic to represent civilization as its acting subject, assuming for it qualities of a human individual.
prologue
whatever is the origin of plastic, it feels at home everywhere.no environment is a better illustration of its nature than the other, because it blends in in any environment
birth
arrival
equation- discovery
- self-consciousness
- endeavor
- integrity
- solitude
obtaining forbidden knowledge, exile from eden and the origin of civilization - verticality / society
- technologies / onto the assembly line
- no identification
- living space
- acquired locality
- healthy lifestyle
- jogging
- gymnastics
- swimming
- soccer
- aberration / search for perspective
- culture
is what we consume - being on the same page
- relaxation
- corporate life
overtime + night out with colleagues - corporate life
- salvation
search for happiness + fear of death - birthday
with friends - return to the origins
rejoicing in nature's primeval harmony of existence - escape
setting off into endless wanderings - like you do
- arrival into endless nowhere
- search for one's self / mineral water
- intermission : summertime
- deviation
an experience of a strange shift in all perceptionsidentity crisisgeneral confusion - out of the depths of one's familiar self emerges the Other
- moon
reclaiming once lost reality - sky
- Matisse's "Dance"
celebrating the recovery of the joy of life - appropriation
water and wind - appropriation
all elements - PS:
Japan is a nation of an outstanding concern for recycling civilization's waste. Few other nations put as much effort to keeping one's surroundings clean. It is a country where people carry all their garbage with them for as long as is needed until they can properly dispose of it.
At the same time Japan may be the champion in the amount of plastic daily utilized and disposed of by an average person.
Multiple Owners
Multiple Owners
Multiple Owners
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