Aleksei Taruts

Moscow’s ISSMAG gallery recently released new narrative performance video ‘АЛЕКСЕЙ ТАРУЦ | КТО ЕСЛИ НЕ ТЫ’ by Aleksei Taruts on July 23. 

The musician and artist works across performance, video and audio installation to unpick the idea of an event which he sees as “a performative medium, a symbolic object of instantaneous cultural exchange in the age of techno capitalism.” Taruts recently exhibited a series of works in mixed media for solo project respawn, exactly, if not you then who at ISSMAG which ran January 7 to 16. The term respawn refers to video game lingo and describes the way a character experiences continual re-birth after dying and re-entering back into the game.

The video was made as a spin-off to a music performance Aleksei Taruts did at Moscow’s techno club Rabitsa. It also includes footage from the Russian State Museum of the Great Patriotic War and a Sensation festival opening ceremony interspersed with sfx explosions, at the beginning of the video.  The words ‘Bol’she tvoikh neistovykh videnij’ scroll across the screen like a title, which can be loosely translated as ‘beyond your wildest dreams.’

As Taruts holds someones head against his chest with one hand, and holds the microphone in the other, explosive sounds erupt, forming a backdrop for the tender moment. Fireworks, euphoria, violence and state content are entangled. Moments of electrical shocks match a set of bass beats, as the microphone is pushed against his spine. A burnt hand holds an iPhone. A text released by the artist asks you to ’embrace the situation’ and ’embrace the affect.’ ** 

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