Impakt Works: Artist-in-residence Victor Alimpiev  Alimpiev’s work explores the relationship between the individual and the crowd. In close-up shots and moving image Alimpiev shows large groups of people at very close range. And although the individual actors are sometimes filmed at only a few inches away, Alimpiev represents them principally as part of a collective. Alimpiev reinforces this feeling of collectiveness by having the actors execute the same, often monotonous movements at the same time. In addition, Alimpiev focuses on the gestures and facial expressions of the actors. The gestures often are small and subtle like a stealthy glance. At the same time, the actors sometimes ventilate emotions in a highly expressive manner in their performances. Sound plays an important role in the work of Alimpiev. A remarkable element is the application of the so-called Sprechgesang (recitative) which was created by Arnold Schönberg (Gurrelieder, Pierrot Lunaire). This vocal technique amounts to singing in a declamatory manner. Alimpiev often has the groups of actors sing choirs. In ‘Wie heist dieser Platz’ (‘What is this place called’, 2006) a choir sings in a monotonous and declamatory manner. In ‘Whose is this exhalation?’, ten choir singers will sing an extended tone which gradually rises in pitch. One of the actors holds his breath and upon exhalation seems to want to speak out. But apparently, the singer is exhausted and slowly staggers to the ground. The worried choir singers help him up. And although they surround him with friendly gestures, they never make eye contact. This peculiar interaction between the choir singers and the staggering soloist is pivotal in this work. Impakt featured work of Alimpiev before. ‘Rock Music’ was screened in 2004 and also formed part of the Impakt Highlights of that year. Alimpiev’s installations ‘Summer Lightnings’ and ‘Sweet Nightingale’ were shown as part of the Impakt Festival 2005 exhibition, and ‘Summer Lightnings’ is also included in ‘Adventures in Sound and Image’, one of the Impakt Touring programmes. The artist currently receives increasing international acclaim due to his participations in the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (2007), the Berlin Biennial (2006), a solo exhibition in Linz (2006), and his exhibition in the SMAK in Ghent of last summer. |
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