Series of 4 videos displayed within the installation (drywall, wood, acrylic, household items). 300*300*400 cm (2023-2024)

In February 1888, Vincent Van Gogh moved to the south of France to realize a dream: to create a place where like-minded artists could live and work together. He rents, furnishes a house, and soon depicts his bedroom in a painting, telling his brother Theo in a letter: “The view of the picture should calm the brain, or rather, the imagination. The walls — pale purple, the floor — of red tiles. The wooden bed and chairs — yellow; the sheet and pillows — lemon-green, very light. The blanket — scarlet red. The window — green. The washbasin — orange, the basin — blue.”

In October 2023, I got a personal studio at Winzavod Open Studios. Here, perhaps for the first time in the last 2 years, I felt as if in complete safety, surrounded by the care and support of the community. By that time I had already started working on a series of short videos about fear, based on proven ways to survive a critical situation. When there is no more strength — to imagine oneself as an Olympic athlete, who will perform the anthem at the end of the distance; if lost — to light the way with a synthetic heart, like Danko; I hoped to prevent the threat of violence with wit, because aggression breeds aggression.

Today, when you try to just live, happiness and fear too often replace each other. To refuse, not to feel does not work. Every day we create our bright world, not to be afraid. But it is fragile. The six-month residency at Winzavod is approximately equal in duration to Van Gogh’s bright period of life in Arles. While it is so dark around, I can’t get rid of anxiety completely, but, as it turns out, I awkwardly hide them in the room where “the furniture is of large size and with all its appearance expresses unshakeable calm.”

Stories, acting and editing by Olga Mikhalchuk, music by Antonio Vivaldi.

My deepest gratitude to: Roman Mokrov, Sasha Marinchev, Anton Loskutov, Artem Gorkovsky, Bob Tkachenko, Natalia Grishina, Dasha Antsiferova, Lyudmila Shevchenko and Ksenia Lyashchenko.