Esc. A performance by Ellina Gennadievna

A collective run using VRchat virtual reality technologies.

* The performance is cancelled due to the decision of the artist.

In her project, Ellina Gennadievna invites viewers to take part in recreating perfomances dedicated to the collective run. This was the artistic gesture used by the Russian art group Escape in their project Disappearance (2000), itself inspired by the 1978 work of Czech performance artist Jiří Kovanda. Anticipating the changes to come in the ways in which society connects and interacts, these artists resorted to escapism in the literal sense of the word, taking to their heels whenever anyone attempted to make contact with them.

In order to recreate these performances, Ellina Gennadievna uses virtual reality technologies. VR’s comparative accessibility in a pandemic world of closed physical borders has made it all the more popular today. One popular free-of-charge social platform is VRchat — a multiplayer computer game for virtual reality devices. Users can create their own worlds and avatars, follow game plots, or simply communicate with each other.

The hopes which accompanied the first big steps in the communications revolution of the late 1990s–foradigitalislandoffreedom, forasepa- rate world without censorship or prohibitions and offering anonymity — have not come to fruition.

Participation is by prior registration and requires access to a computer running Windows 7, 8.1 and 10 or by presence in the exhibition space.

* Video art by Ellina Gennadievna are presented on TV Samsung Neo QLED screens