Nine

2016 Moscow museum of modern art, the 5th Moscow Biennale for young art special project

Photography series
Dimensions: 40 x 40 cm
Camera: Alexey Yeliseev

One-channel audio
Duration: 56’47”
Recorded live by Г5—54

Entry stelae are important Soviet legacy signs fronting almost every city, town, big enterprise or state farm. Today part of them are abandoned, some are almost demolished, but others continue their lives, surviving transformations and redevelopments.

These nine monuments can be found along the M17 highway, which crosses the Crimea from north to east.

The work was completed remotely with the instructions given to a performer, Alexey Yeliseev, who took photos and controlled the recording of his car’s engine hum. Later the drone composition was written based on that sound.

Following the entirely delegated production concept, a text about the work was ordered and completed by an anonymous freelance copywriter. Here it follows.

Entry stelae are large, freestanding structures. An entry sign is a visiting card of any large and small settlement: a city, a village, a town. Competently and aesthetically elaborated, an entry sign not only informs about the name of a given settlement, but also provides a symbolic summary of its history and modern aspects, geographical features, and also to a certain extent characterizes its leaders, their patriotism, artistic taste, and economic conditions. As a rule, entry stelae are installed at the driveway to a town and intended to indicate crossing the borders of its area and provide a little greeting to its guests.

Entrance stelaes are generally made of concrete and metal; their height is not less than eight meters. Currently, the design of most of the entry stelae is not very spectacular, but in some areas, their boring variants are being occasionally replaced by more eye-catching ones.

During the conceptual development, project designers and architects take into account history, traditions, achievements, national and local symbols, and other information about a settlement where a stela is planned to be erected. After the sketches have been approved by the leadership of a settlement, they are embodied into a full-scale artwork. An entry sign is an artistic work that has not only informational but also aesthetic significance, which creates a good mood and good prophecy for a person who passes by it.