GES-2

In 2014, V–A–C Foundation acquired the 20,000 sq. mt. former power plant, GES-2, tasking the Renzo Piano Building Workshop with its transformation. Over the next five years, the cameras followed the construction works along with the cultural initiatives of the Foundation. In the film, these events are interlaced in an unconventional non-chronological order. To use the words that Francesco Bonami says at the beginning of the film while seated in the window of Moscow’s biggest department store: “As you are filming me now, it may seem that I am reality. But as you take two steps back, you start to realise that I’m in the shop window. So, I am art. Because as soon as you put a frame, a threshold, between reality and what is inside, you are perhaps creating a work of art. Not everyone can succeed in that, but it’s really important to start with creating an invisible frame, or threshold, between reality and something else.”

I spent five years in the middle of a majestic transformation: a power plant that used to provide energy to the Kremlin was being regenerated to provide cultural energy to the people. The film consists of art experiences materialising in the most unexpected moments. It assembled itself like a kaleidoscope, where apparently unrelated episodes came together in a wonderful pattern of people with the most diverse ambitions and aspirations joined together in an effort to make a new, global cultural institution in the heart of Moscow. The greater the event, the more important it was for me to show it through trivial incidents. Because life would not be possible without a touch of absurdity.

PRODUCTION 1: Nastia Korkia – Nastia Korkia
Malaya Sukharevskaya ploshad, d.1, str.1
129090 – Moscow, Russian Federation
Tel. +7 9035571614
nastia.korkia@gmail.com

PRESS OFFICE: Helen Weaver – V-A-C Foundation
35-47 Bethnal Green Road
E1 6LA – London, United Kingdom
Tel. +44 777 2159219
helen.weaver@v-a-c.org