Hundred Stakhanov's / fragment
Copyright Gleb Kosorukov / gleb3000@gmail.com
On the night from 30 to 31 of August 1935 Alexej Grigorjevich Stakhanov established a record in coal mine production efficiency- he managed to get 102 tons of coal (14 times more than standard daily norm) within 5 hours 32 minutes. It was a beginning of the "big leap" campaign initiated and supported by the government aimed at achieving much higher levels of efficiency among workers of the heavy industries. In a matter of months "Stakhanov movement" was widely spread all over the country, hundreds of workers and farmers set multiple records in personal productivity outperforming their own recent record levels. It was since that moment, that labour achievements could be a matter of heroism (3 years later highest award "Hero of the Socialist Labour" was established).
Click on the photo to advance:
After his death in 1977 the biggest mine in Europe (situated in Eastern Ukraine, not far from Donetsk) was named after Stakhanov. It is still one of the biggest - many coal fields were temporarily abandoned with the break-up of Soviet Union and collapse of the economic relations. Today Stakhanov mine produces 6 times less than at the end of the Soviet era).
Despite loss of media attention coal is the backbone of the energy cycle of civilisation. It is responsible for more than 40 % of the energy produced by humans, more than twice exceeding respective figures for oil and gas. Because of the restrictive security limitations put on development of nuclear power plants the situation will hardly change in the near future.
Coal miners represent a "pinnacle" of the working class - they work in most unfavourable exotic conditions deep under the surface with scarce light and dust polluted air, having the highest death toll among all of the industries due to accidents and shorter life expectancy. At the same time they are responsible for by-far the biggest energy resource of today's civilisation, and to some extent their job is a sort of sacrifice in the name of humankind... They are kind of modern saints or heroes shift after shift descending to the underground with it's high temperature, dripping water, coal dust and risk to be buried alive .
On the last day of August 2009, 74 years after Stakhanov's first record I started portrait series, photographing miners after they come out of the elevator at the Stakhanov's mine, creating a hundred strong visual 'pantheon', a study on the diversity of human identity within the Archetype.
On the photographs below you see fabrics and textures which I saw at the 2000 m2 'dressing room'- miners use them to protect clothes from coal dust when they change before and after the shift.
Click on the photo to advance:
One of the final forms of exposing the project was installation in the totally dark industrial space (1300 + m2), where dozens of 2x3 meter portraits were interactively lit by industrial projectors with movement detection sensors, creating a small island of light around the viewer when he walks through the exposition. While moving between the portraits towards the end of the installation viewer was followed by the growing indistinguishable industrial sound which at the end of the hall turned out to be a soundtrack for 2 opposed screen video installation. Video was inspired by the first film in history – "Workers leaving the factory" shot by Lumiere brothers. Slow motion and low shooting point (the opposite of what was in Lumiere's film) creates an impression of giants walking towards the viewer.
Frames from the video installation (click on the photo to advance):
As well project includes 7 min. audio-visual performance - demonstration of the 14 fold incremental increase of density in audio and visual channels.
First full scale project installation was realised in May 2010 in St. Petersbourg at the Creative Space Tkachi. Video record from the installation you can see here: TKACHI INSTALLATION VIEW
In July fragment from the installation was shown at Innoprom in Ekaterinbourg (as a promotion for Ekaterinbourg Industrial Biennale). In September - October 2010 full scale installation was shown at the Ekaterinbourg Industrial Biennale , at the same time outdoors site specific 200m X 80m installation of 100 Stakhanov's was shown at Gogolfest art festival in Kiev (Ukraine).
Installation photographs (click on the photo to advance):
In 2010 project was nominated for the Kandinsky Prize (major Contemporary Art award in Russia).
Copyright Gleb Kosorukov / gleb3000@gmail.com
On the night from 30 to 31 of August 1935 Alexej Grigorjevich Stakhanov established a record in coal mine production efficiency- he managed to get 102 tons of coal (14 times more than standard daily norm) within 5 hours 32 minutes. It was a beginning of the "big leap" campaign initiated and supported by the government aimed at achieving much higher levels of efficiency among workers of the heavy industries. In a matter of months "Stakhanov movement" was widely spread all over the country, hundreds of workers and farmers set multiple records in personal productivity outperforming their own recent record levels. It was since that moment, that labour achievements could be a matter of heroism (3 years later highest award "Hero of the Socialist Labour" was established).
Click on the photo to advance:
After his death in 1977 the biggest mine in Europe (situated in Eastern Ukraine, not far from Donetsk) was named after Stakhanov. It is still one of the biggest - many coal fields were temporarily abandoned with the break-up of Soviet Union and collapse of the economic relations. Today Stakhanov mine produces 6 times less than at the end of the Soviet era).
Despite loss of media attention coal is the backbone of the energy cycle of civilisation. It is responsible for more than 40 % of the energy produced by humans, more than twice exceeding respective figures for oil and gas. Because of the restrictive security limitations put on development of nuclear power plants the situation will hardly change in the near future.
Coal miners represent a "pinnacle" of the working class - they work in most unfavourable exotic conditions deep under the surface with scarce light and dust polluted air, having the highest death toll among all of the industries due to accidents and shorter life expectancy. At the same time they are responsible for by-far the biggest energy resource of today's civilisation, and to some extent their job is a sort of sacrifice in the name of humankind... They are kind of modern saints or heroes shift after shift descending to the underground with it's high temperature, dripping water, coal dust and risk to be buried alive .
On the last day of August 2009, 74 years after Stakhanov's first record I started portrait series, photographing miners after they come out of the elevator at the Stakhanov's mine, creating a hundred strong visual 'pantheon', a study on the diversity of human identity within the Archetype.
On the photographs below you see fabrics and textures which I saw at the 2000 m2 'dressing room'- miners use them to protect clothes from coal dust when they change before and after the shift.
Click on the photo to advance:
One of the final forms of exposing the project was installation in the totally dark industrial space (1300 + m2), where dozens of 2x3 meter portraits were interactively lit by industrial projectors with movement detection sensors, creating a small island of light around the viewer when he walks through the exposition. While moving between the portraits towards the end of the installation viewer was followed by the growing indistinguishable industrial sound which at the end of the hall turned out to be a soundtrack for 2 opposed screen video installation. Video was inspired by the first film in history – "Workers leaving the factory" shot by Lumiere brothers. Slow motion and low shooting point (the opposite of what was in Lumiere's film) creates an impression of giants walking towards the viewer.
Frames from the video installation (click on the photo to advance):
As well project includes 7 min. audio-visual performance - demonstration of the 14 fold incremental increase of density in audio and visual channels.
First full scale project installation was realised in May 2010 in St. Petersbourg at the Creative Space Tkachi. Video record from the installation you can see here: TKACHI INSTALLATION VIEW
In July fragment from the installation was shown at Innoprom in Ekaterinbourg (as a promotion for Ekaterinbourg Industrial Biennale). In September - October 2010 full scale installation was shown at the Ekaterinbourg Industrial Biennale , at the same time outdoors site specific 200m X 80m installation of 100 Stakhanov's was shown at Gogolfest art festival in Kiev (Ukraine).
Installation photographs (click on the photo to advance):
In 2010 project was nominated for the Kandinsky Prize (major Contemporary Art award in Russia).
Copyright Gleb Kosorukov / gleb3000@gmail.com
