BON APPETIT

This video is a documentation of the 2001 performance I produced after the New York disaster of September 11. The video was filmed with the cooperation of Victor Alimpiyev. Pani Bronya, Gary Assa, Aleksey Tobashov, Yelilzaveta Kozyr, Marina and Rostan Tavasiyevs and others also participated in the filming. The action took place at the Cheese Hole restaurant in the Pokrovsky Avenue of Moscow. It was based on my impression of the tragic event, but also, to a greater extent, on the reaction of the media and of the public: people literally clung to TV screens, and all the TV channels of the world joyfully broadcast the details of the tragedy as it played out wide on TV screens. The ultimate cynicism of the whole scene was in the fact that the news of the tragedy turned it into a commodity to be traded, with the suffering of people consumed by other people as food for their eyes and discussions.

I believed that the video will form a part of an installation: the screen was to be playing the video on the wall, with different smaller displays (10×15 cm) set up on various heights and at various distances around the central display. The same video is playing on all displays. A small shelf is under every display. The shelf carries a sculpture depicting people around TV screens.