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"Eternity"
/45.00/HDV/Ch1Ch2/
script:G.Myznikova,S.Provorov/
directors:Galina Myznikova & Sergey Provorov/
camera:Andrey Skvorzov, S.Provorov/
cast:Veronika Starostina
edit:S.Provorov/
administrator: Andrey Nosov
support: Openspace project
production:Provmyza2011
Eternity is a child playing… (Heracletus of Ephesus)
In the system of culture, eternity is perceived as something transcendental and which is beyond human understanding. Circumstances, that devour life, and beings, that are doomed to live, are metaphorically brought together in the ‘Eternity’ project. A metaphor of Eternity is a little girl who mentally withstands and resists destructive force and always wins a victory over it. This is the Eternity of an absolute and timeless being. The project shows a number of deadly circumstances that the little girl finds herself in, but her ‘life appears to be Eternity, and her death appears to be only an instant’.
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“ Lullaby ”
/37.00/HDV/Ch1Ch2
script:G.Myznikova,S.Provorov/
directors:Galina Myznikova & Sergey Provorov/
camera:Andrey Skvorzov, S.Provorov/
cast: A.Tolkachiova, A.Inkin, A.Tatarov, D.Korytov, D.Klukin,
K.Frolov, K.Smirnov, A.Nikiforov, P.Belov, D.Otladnov/
music: O.Shaydulina/
edit:S.Provorov/
administrator: Andrey Nosov
support: NCCA (Volga region branch),
The Cultural Capital of the Volga Region Foundation,
PRO ARTE foundation,
NCCA (Ekaterinburg)/
production:Provmyza2011
The film director’s message addresses the modern world’s vital problem of loss
of consideration for an individual man, who is an object requiring global-scale compassion and contemplation. The scenes that were made in a pseudo-documentary manner of the rebellious 1970’s remind of medieval Pieta exalting self-sacrificingness, pain, suffering and religious ecstasy. Richard ‘Hell’ Meyers,
one of the representatives of the rock culture of the 70’s, came up with
a term of ‘blank generation’ (the term may evidently be interpreted as a ‘lost generation’) to describe himself and his friends and thus advanced a philosophy
of people seeking self-destruction. They get involved in meaningless and deadly situations to find a justification for living their lives. The film represents
a story about wounded young men, who find themselves on an island and meet there
a girl sailing the seas in a military launch, as a metaphor for an attempt
to save the ‘blank/lost’ generation.
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“ Snowdrop ”
/40.00/HDV/Ch1Ch2
script: G.Myznikova and S.Provorov/
directors: G.Myznikova and S.Provorov/
camera:Andrey Skvorzov, S.Provorov/
producer: A.Gor/
curator: E.Belova, A.Savitskaya/
cast: V. Maximov, D.Stepanov, A.Kuritsyn, Chak/
music: Paraphases on “The Well Tuned Piano” by La Mont Young/
edit: S.Provorov /
administrator: A.Nosov, O.Muromtsev/
support:NCCA (Volga region branch)/
technical support: Roman Alexsanin studio/
production:Provmyza2011
PROVMYZA's statement
Human beings are able to distance themselves from their immediate environment
and perceive the world as something bigger than self. A man has been gifted
with vision as an act connected to remoteness, to distance, as the point
of view turns from multiple and close to a united remote world view like
painting of “packed space” turns gradually into painting of the “empty space”.
It is important to squint in order to see better the demonstrated tragic picture
of the world. The thinline of the leash, connecting dog and man, appears and disappears from view, defining the fragility of their relationship and preceding their break-up. The helicopter jarring with nature in a split second tears apart
the connection between the dogand the man. Its powerful energy field is vested
with a specific performative task — to destroy the harmonious architectonics
of the natural state. Formally it forms the individualized space of a snowstorm
as some special place with its own history and simultaneously creates a special
and temporal border between the calm of nature and an artificial chaos (blizzard). The polyphonic interweaving of natural, human and technological images creates
the principle of defamiliarization (ostranenie), of combining the incongruous,
of incommensurability of logical, sensual andchaotic thinking
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“ Inspiration ”
Russia-The Netherlands
support:NCCA (Volga branch)and KW14
production:Provmyza2010
PROVMYZA's statement
A certain expression philosophical views about the Nature, making impression of inner and immanent unity, essential sameness of Man and Nature. The Nature here is not so much part of space with the figures of people located in him. There is the certain environment reproducing a certain state of soul. It is the world of slowed down time, metamorphoses of space, tense silence and, at last, poetics of anxiety.
Narration here is dissolved in system of visual images, leaving only sensations.
Steered only by the river current the boat is left to the mercy of wild Nature. The people have stiffened in tense expectation and stare into the water depths. There arises certain tension between the water and the people in the boat and expectation that something is about to happen. The river tempts the people to be forever upset, lost and drowned in the strange and restless environment.
The people veiled by trees and bushes, a strange creature hiding in the water, the faces covered by hair – all of these create an atmosphere of obscurity, secrecy and invisibility. The vagueness and mysteriousness of the actions as well as the unsteadiness of the arising images create an effect of anxious observation of Nature and represent the theme of human hopelessness and despair.
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Galina Myznikova and Sergey Provorov's Voodushevlenie (Inspiration).
Mysterious human figures, head down, are moving along the river. "The colors of their clothes are mixed with green and brown muddy water and mud. The gestures and choreography of their bodies and the elements of nature mark the slow passing of time. Powerful, disturbing and incomprehensible, with an extraordinary technical and formal care, the new video of the pair of Russian artists and Myznikova Provorov (together they [are known as] Provmyza) is a new chapter in their creation, a primitive apocalyptic dimension, in which humanity and its rituals seem to [appear] for the first time; Man and Nature and celebrate the ritual of their meeting."
announcement of Venice International Film Festival
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“ Confusion ”
/22.00/HDV/Ch1Ch2
script: G.Myznikova and S.Provorov/
directors: G.Myznikova and S.Provorov/
camera:D.Maximenko, S.Provorov/
curator: A.Savitskaya/
cast: A.Tolkacheva, E.Blagodarjschev, A.Pomilov,
I.Mironova, A.Remneva and others/
edit: S.Provorov /
support: NCCA /Volga region branch/
production: Provmyza2009
GRAND PRIX
of National Russian award of S.Kuryokhin
in contemporary art
Screening/Concerto
"Three string quartets for one video" is the first project under the program "Synthetic" of Center of Contemporary art begun in 2007. New video "Confusion"
by The Provmyza group as a field for music reflections was offered to three
composers - Georgy Dorokhov, Alexey Nadzharov and Alexey Shmurak. The string
quartets written by three composers excercise a function of soundtrack, but additionally they become a result of the different interpretation of the visual
art-work, its synopsis, emotional mood, metaphors, narrative accents. The presentation of the project is thrice premier showing of the video "Confusion"
to the accompaniment of Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble.
Brief Synopsis:
It exploits the plot of a strange situation that arises at a party of young people. What happens there stirs some vague feeling, curiosity and fear in those present, i.e. those feelings that constitute confusion. This mysteriousness and secrecy gradually become so intense that the girls cannot bear the suspense and faint.
Their fainting fit resembles a prolonged performance. The girls hang on the boys’ arms for a long time and in an expressive manner. The scene does not receive further development, it virtually freezes and turns the people into sculptures.
The girls’ confusion ends in a passive form of ‘self-oblivion’, an extreme form of anxiety – a fainting fit. The boys’ confusion transforms itself into fast-growing aggression. The initial cause is the ‘living-dead’ bush hidden behind the hanging theatrical curtain.The boys inflict certain actions upon the object of nature which may be interpreted as humiliation or abuse. The cruel joint deformation and gradual destruction are the fate of the ‘stranger’ that has made a sudden appearance at the party.Throughout their lives humans are at odds with the surrounding nature. They are in constant conflict with each other, and this is where life dramaturgy lies.
The Confusion focuses on an individualized natural object – the bush – which was originally believed to pose potential threat to the people but fell victim to the feeling of confusion after suffering the unexpected aggressive will of the crowd.
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“ Pitter-Patter ”
/30.00/HDV/Ch1Ch2/Serbia-Russia/
script:G.Myznikova,S.Provorov/
directors:Galina Myznikova & Sergey Provorov/
camera:Branko Sujic/
cast:Ana Bastac,Dubravka Subotic,Lidija Antonovic,
Predrag Radovancevic,Branislav Jeremic, Emilija Kavic,
Aleksandra Sekulic,Isidora Ilic, Bojan Radanov/
edit:S.Provorov/
support:Academic Film Center of the “Students’ City” Cultural Center,
Belgrade,Serbia/
production:Provmyza2009/
The plot of the video is based on the famous photograph by the well-known English photographer Henry Peach Robinson who created his works in the middle of the nineteenth century. The action is centered around the sick girl lying in bed and the crowd of people who have come to bid farewell to the dying girl.
The sunlight and wind with their metaphysical qualities, which keep appearing in the room throughout the plot, make it possible to perceive the video work through sensory, existential and poetical associations.The end is not far off. But the living process does not come to an end. It takes the shape of water which slowly fills the bed and, in a way, continues the sentimental and lyrical plot, running pitter-patter.
In yet another of their artistic studies the artists touch upon the very nature of the mechanism of communication, expressed through the original visual aspect, contact performance and an affective model of communication. Their creative expression touches upon such a vital problem of Contemporary Art as the loss of the lyricism
and the poetics of artistic form, more and more often they focus the attention
on the human as an object, requiring universal empathy and contemplation.
“ Despair ”
/29.45/HDV/Ch1Ch2/Russia/
script:G.Myznikova,S.Provorov/
directors:Galina Myznikova & Sergey Provorov/
camera:V. Skuchaev/
cast:A.Kurizyn,A.Nosov,I.Yeroshovets and others
edit:S.Provorov/
support:National Center for contemporary art, Volga branch/
production:Provmyza2008/
-Winner Tiger Award for Short -
38th International Film Festival Rotterdam
There is an incredible artistic wit of mimicry, that can not be explained
by the fight for life, and is too refined to cheat casual enemies….,
and that seems to be created just for sensible human
eyes by an amusing artist.
/Vladimir Nabokov, writer, philosopher/
The most radical manifistation of the mentioned three elements: minimalism,
subject turned into object by the context and image outside of symbolic dimension – is project of Provmyza devoted to problems Of Mimicry. Being unable to endure the intensity of light and aggressive visual aspects of the environment, the organism assimilates to its surroundings, becomes a spot in the picture, mimicries. In the work “Despair” the environment takes a group of people into possession, they become “objectified” i.e. turn into a part of the total scare, but not less powerful because of that visuality. The visible is not significant or colossal, but its impact is total and omnipresent.
Rodi On, art criric /Japan/
PROVMYZA art group is two artists – Galina Myznikova and Sergei Provorov who have been working together for nearly 15 years. In spite of their constant and
intensive artistic search in the area of video art, they manage to preserve
their own distinctive style based on metaphoric presentation of the permanence
of objective reality in visual forms.
Their new Despair video project is ambivalent. Primarily, this applies to the content: we are told a story, although devoid of either concrete daily-life, historical or other links, yet quite comprehensible: a bird, saved by people, survives in human hands, stays free and flies away. The story is quite ordinary
and very humane – the plot of a timeless parable. On the other hand, it is not a story, but a kind of dance – figures on the snow that either mimic the poor monochrome landscape or, on the contrary, display the plastique of unusual
postures and indefinable movements. The potential discord between man and nature gives rise to their internal suspense. The stream of man and the stream of nature
are separated rather than united, but the drive to unification takes place
in performance. The term performance, as one of the main genres of modern art,
quite precisely defines the meaning of this strange show: this is performance
proper, the extras’ movements along the designated trajectories, submission
of the group of people, filmed by the camera, to a certain external will, shown through a perceptible degree of suspense. The beginning and end of the performance resemble ‘a still life’ suggesting Accord – it is ‘stasis’, a form which may
absorb a deep and contradictory feeling and transform it into the expression
of something united (accordant) and reinforcing the life concept.
The bird’s transformation from a still life to a living being resembles a dance.
That is, in terms of the plot, it is a discourse on the most important subject
of art, on the eternal and insoluble issue of life and death, on their, at times, elusive borderline, on the transition of the material to the non-material and contrariwise sometimes. The Despair is the artists’ desperate attempt to speak
to the utmost generally, simply and clearly. But as it may be expected, in modern
art (because it is also typical of the modern world), nothing turns out so simple, but ambiguous: dark and concealed, hidden and beautiful, mysterious,
unseen.
The ultimately simple but monumental landscapes and interiors are a kind of signs, almost formulae due to their characterlessness and emptiness. The black-and-white colour scale totally devoids the image of all ‘support’ that might suggest links
to certain recognizable objects, but, at the same time, the two spaces – the inner and the outer – are easy to recognize and identify as they simultaneously resemble both all ruins in the world and all snow-covered fields with lonely trees. Every frame is a preparation for the exit or the exit itself into the extra-frame
field of timelessness: nowhere means everywhere.
PROVMYZA belong to those authors who rely on the classical tradition and do it deliberately and fearlessly. The Despair reveals a distinct influence of Dreyer
and Bruegel, 17th century still lifes and Tarkovsky’s rhythmic. This is the choice declared by the artists who rely in the 21st century on culture per se
without stylization and direct quotation.
Anna Gor, art criric /Russia/
“ Fugue ”
/19.05/HDV/Ch1Ch2/Russia/
script:G.Myznikova,S.Provorov/
directors:Galina Myznikova & Sergey Provorov/
camera:V.Skuchayev/
cast:A.Silichuk,P.Kotov,P.Sinchenko and others/
edit:S.Provorov/
support:PRO ARTE/
production:Provmyza2007/
Award:
- Best Experimental Film -
Chilean International Short Film Festival /Santiago, Chile/;
- Special Prize of Jury -
The Open Film Festival of CIS countries, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia
/Anapa, Russia/;
- Special Prize of Student Jury -
“Brno Sixteen” International competitive festival of short fiction films
/Brno, Czech Republic/
Nomination:
Nominee of National Premium of Contemporary Art “Innovation” /Moscow, Russia/;
Nominee of National Premium of Contemporary Art “Kandinsky Award” /Moscow, Russia/
BRIEF SYNOPSIS:
The metaphysical story, which has happened at
a concert, forms an outline of the film. The young people who have
come to the early music concert instead of taking pleasure from instrument
fine sounding, have to struggle with a wind forced by the organ into
the music hall. The air streams subjected to musical impulses, run
into a listener in spite of his will. Voices are not audible, but
they sometimes break through noise of the wind and music. Force of
an air influence gives compound psychophysical experiences. Something
tries to establish a certain transcendental dialogue, which sets in
for a moment, but then disappears… At one time the wind accompanied
by low monotonous organ noise, brings motionless sitting people to
certain unconsciousness, to mad activity: fight is started at the
concert. The authors into a space of compelled contact locate characters
of the "Fugue" and they must participate in individual and collective
events, experience art by their own bodies. The constant provocative
authors' position induces to remind spectators that the most harmless
subjects and phenomena conceal unexpected perils.
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