"Revolution" Museum
73 min
Production Co: KinoKi Studio (Moscow)
Producers: Anatoly Golubovskiy, Denis Branitskiy
Director: Nataliya Babintseva
A revolution changes the social and political "landscapes" of a country, but first and foremost it changes the physical landscape. For centuries none of the city centers of the world capitals looked nothing like the Maidan in the last few months, which resembles a medieval town and a futuristic fantasy at the same time.. A revolution changes the functions of things, moves them from their places, mixes up the concepts. A light bulb becomes a vessel for a Molotov cocktail, car tires become building material for barricades, a shovel and a road sign become shields, and genres of contemporary art – installation, performance, happening – rule the Maidan.
Most of the artistic gestures shown in film are elementary, utilitarian, naïve: we observe art that in many cases hasn't yet divided itself from the crafts, as if aesthetics is born before our very eyes. "The New Middle Ages" – that is what artists themselves call the art that originated on the Maidan.
Catapults, shields and armor, painted batons – right after the revolution these simple items that were made by artists and members of Samooborona (Self-defence forces) migrated to art exhibits and museums. The blitz museefication of the revolution and the media images it was separated into is another theme of film. Artists, curators, museum workers, and Maidan activists speculate on what it feels like to live after the main event of your life is in the past, how to deal with trauma and preserve memories.
