The Altai Files

View of the installation, the Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, 2016

View of the installation

Detail of the installation,
"Since 2011, Galina Kushka has been making slippers with the slogan: "Russia, forward!". She regularly sees slippers like these in her hallucinations".

Detail of the installation

View of the installation

Detail of the installation,
"The carpet from the home of Irina Drozd. Irina has been flying on this carpet for nine years already",
acrylic on canvas, 200 x 250 cm

Detail of the installation,
"Irina Babkina has been making these giant "President" sweets for almost ten years. She says she sees sweets like these in her hallucinations every time space debris falls on the village".

Detail of the installation,
"The carpet from the home of Eugeny Delarov with the inscription "Crimea is ours". Eugeny has been flying on this carpet since 2011",
watercolor and pencil on paper, 60 x 100 cm

Detail of the installation,
"The carpet from the Morozov family home. Grandfather MOrozov, his daughter and his granddaughter have flown together on this carpet once in a while since 2008",
oil and acrylic on canvas, 120 x 200 cm

Detail of the installation,
"The carpet from the home of Viktor Kim. He has been flying on this carpet regularly sincsce 2001",
oil and acrylic on canvas, 100 x 200 cm

View of the installation

Detail

View of the installation

Viewl of the installation,

Detail

Detail,
"The Space hunter"

1/21

We have always been interested in the origins and functioning of collective mythology.

For the public, we continually try to construct myths that are deeply rooted in reality and then visualize the process of this construction. This also applies to our project The Altai Files. Russia is, of course, a classic example of a society that has a tendency to mythologize its own existence.

The total installation The Altai Files can be seen as a report of our expedition to the Altai region of Siberia. Paintings, drawings, objects and videos tell the story of the unexpected consequences of space programmes in the Altai, where debris from rockets falls back to earth with great regularity. It appears that every time space debris lands in the village, the villagers go into a trance. In their hallucinations, they race on a flying carpet through the cities of countries they have never seen in reality. Even more remarkable, however, is that all these cities in their visions belong to the "Russian world". The villagers record their illusions in a variety of ways, the results of which we are also presenting to the public.