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Item: Ode

Victor Alimpiev & Marian Zhunin

2001

Video, 00:34:30 min.
Materials: dvd

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. BK007800).

Ode formulates aesthetics of conformity and uniformity. The actors, all dressed in cotton T-shirts and pants in the same light color, carry out prescribed movements that parody daily actions and reactions. Yet, choreographic perfection is interrupted from time to time. The soundtrack consists of loud, raw music and a text that could well be the ode mentioned in the title.

This is a key work in Alimpiev's early oeuvre. While avoiding a direct visual reference to the social and cultural details of post-Soviet-Russian society, the scenery evokes a ‘collectivistic’ performance of the Russian avant-garde theater from the years just before and just after the Revolution of 1917.

Ode is also a contemporary embodiment of ostranenie, the 'defamiliarisation' that the critic Viktor Shklovsky (1893-1984) theoretically described and closely related to Brecht's Verfremdungseffekt. Shklovsky writes: "Art is a way to experience the artful nature of an object, the object itself is not important."

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About M HKA / Mission Statement

The M HKA is a museum for contemporary art, film and visual culture in its widest sense. It is an open place of encounter for art, artists and the public. The M HKA aspires to play a leading role in Flanders and to extend its international profile by building upon Antwerp's avant-garde tradition. The M HKA bridges the relationship between artistic questions and wider societal issues, between the international and the regional, artists and public, tradition and innovation, reflection and presentation. Central here is the museum's collection with its ongoing acquisitions, as well as related areas of management and research.

About M HKA Ensembles

The M HKA Ensembles represent our first steps towards initiating the public to today's art-related digital landscape. With the help of these new media, our aim is to offer our artworks a better and fuller array of support for their presentation and public understanding.