Chthonian Portfolio
The Mainline Group actively opposes any kind of military action, genocide, or invasion into sovereign states, especially the imperialist war the Russian Government has unleashed on Ukraine. We stand in solidarity with the people of Ukraine and those protesting around the world.
The Mainline Group supports Helping to Leave charity — an evacuation helpline for Ukrainians. Find out how you can help by visiting helpingtoleave.org
︎No to war. Нет войне. Ні війні.
︎At the moment we are reading the Nuremberg trial documents
︎ and listening to Ukrainian folk music collective Dakha Brakha
RUSSIAN TOAST, 2022
Online performance & video
Chthonian profile:
Western: ♈︎ [Aries]
Slavic: Lada
Chinese:虎水[Water Tiger]
Toasts are an invaluable part of Eastern European and Asian cultiures — a moment to address the gathering at a wedding, anniversary, birthday and say something crucially important or wish someone well. This culture is very evident in contemporary Russian politics, specifically, in the style of politician’s addresses to the nation.
Russian Toast — is a series of online performances and videos aimed at exposing the absurd, fascist, and discriminatory dialectic of the present Russian officials, including the President (ex. KGB officer), the Patriarch (ex. KGB officer too), and others. The scripts of performances are almost completely unaltered from its source — notable and even historic addresses of the Russian officials to the nation.
The series was born as a response to the Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and will continue running until the war is over.
Russian Toast — is a series of online performances and videos aimed at exposing the absurd, fascist, and discriminatory dialectic of the present Russian officials, including the President (ex. KGB officer), the Patriarch (ex. KGB officer too), and others. The scripts of performances are almost completely unaltered from its source — notable and even historic addresses of the Russian officials to the nation.
The series was born as a response to the Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine and will continue running until the war is over.
NEUROTIC CITY, 2022
audio-visual experiment
Chthonian profile:
Western: ♈︎ [Virgo]
Slavic: Svarog
Chinese:虎水[Water Tiger]
The worlds of anthropology, art and, architecture are well aware of the revolutionary Situationist exercises of Guy Debord (1958), which invited the citizens to explore the terrain psycho-geographically and resist the mental economy of pre-decided urban movement as much as possible. The idea of “dérive” — letting go of the reasons for walking and being drawn by the affordances of urban terrain — is a centrepiece of the philosophy. However, dérive was designed for the first-world people, unbothered by threats of policing, crime and suspicion, living in the clean and safe first-world cities.
What would happen if we attempt to practice dérive in the cities no less big than Paris of Berlin, yet much less safe, white, and privileged? In this video art we invite you to a Situationist follow-along, a journey through urban and political fears, exercises and stories of 2 citizens of Sao Paulo and Moscow. These 2 drifts in one of the world’s most policed city and in one of the world’s most criminal city will merge into a social and urban mirror, reflecting the true progress of our societies.
Shot and performed by the Mainline Group (Lena Kilina and Sofya Chibisguleva), sound design by Yuri Bruscky.
What would happen if we attempt to practice dérive in the cities no less big than Paris of Berlin, yet much less safe, white, and privileged? In this video art we invite you to a Situationist follow-along, a journey through urban and political fears, exercises and stories of 2 citizens of Sao Paulo and Moscow. These 2 drifts in one of the world’s most policed city and in one of the world’s most criminal city will merge into a social and urban mirror, reflecting the true progress of our societies.
Shot and performed by the Mainline Group (Lena Kilina and Sofya Chibisguleva), sound design by Yuri Bruscky.
VERSATILE
MATERIAL, 2020
Three-channel audio & installation
[concrete, plastic plant bases, assorted seeds and pulses].
Chthonian profile:
Western: ♍︎ [Virgo]
Slavic: Maya
Chinese: 庚子[Metal Rat]
Versatile Material is a sound-sculptural installation studying the phenomenon of sonic erosion by the Mainline Group and AUTOTURK [Adam Synikin & Lena Kilina].
Versatile Material was on show at Frequencies exhibition at Khodynka Gallery (Moscow) from 1 Sep to 29 Oct 2020.
CHTHONIAN
REHAB, 2020
single-channel video, 7m 51s
Chthonian profile:
Western: ♊︎ [Gemini]
Slavic: Veles
Chinese: 庚子[Metal Rat]
The Mainline Group invites you to stick your shovels into the space between the waves of the pandemic and embark on a supermythical trip to analyse the post-COVID condition of distance.
Chthonian Rehab is an anthology of grief, tension and internationalism during the pandemic, following the digital dialogue of the Mainline Group members – Lena and Sofya.
"Today I had a dream I was at Lena's place in Sao Paulo. It had ceilings like courtyards of St Pete's and the rooms reminded me of the warehouses in Seven Sisters. The living room was colour green... with no dimensions.
In the middle of it was an altar-like sculpture made of wax and coated in gold. It was humid and hot in Brazil, so the centrepiece lady streamed down on the floor, mixing with wax and revealing the grief which was nothing but vicid."
"Today I had a dream I was at Lena's place in Sao Paulo. It had ceilings like courtyards of St Pete's and the rooms reminded me of the warehouses in Seven Sisters. The living room was colour green... with no dimensions.
In the middle of it was an altar-like sculpture made of wax and coated in gold. It was humid and hot in Brazil, so the centrepiece lady streamed down on the floor, mixing with wax and revealing the grief which was nothing but vicid."
YOU SHOULD DIG RIGHT HERE, 2020
Zoom performance @ Khodynka Gallery
Chthonian profile:
Western: ♋︎ [Cancer]
Slavic: Veles
Chinese: 庚子[Metal Rat]
What if you start digging right here and now? Could you end up puncturing the surface of the Turkish seaside beach with your shovel, where the Kremlin-like hotel sunburns its brightness away? Perhaps you’ll float up the Iguazu falls? Or would you prefer to tear through the plastic snow of the Australian Zoo penguin pool and join in the game of nature imitation? Aren’t you surprised that these options do not appear so absurd to you? What about 5 months ago? “Absolute mythology is absolute existence, a kind of existence, which has achieved the mythical state. To unwrap this mythology is to expose each step of the journey from the absolute state of being and the absolute mythology, its development.” – Alexey Losev, Myth Dialectics, published in 1930. The Mainline Group invites you to stick your shovels into the space between the waves of the pandemic and embark on a super-mythical trip to analyse the post-COVID condition of distance.
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