Mafiya

Mafiya is a videoinstallation based on the artists encounter with a sub-section of the Russian mafiya, comprised of a group of deaf and mute people who had made the trainstations and local railwaylines in Moscow into their own territory. The installation is an act of illusion both in form and in narrative, both of which the audience will physically move themselves through and simultaneously re-edit. Part of the illusion stems from the use of actors playing both themselves and a character at the same time, and also from the use of locations which are geographically and esthetically distant from but economically linked to Moscow.
Recorded fall 2009 during the artist's residency at the IASPIS studio at Platform Garantì in Istanbul. Premiered at Kalmar konstmuseum.
 
Curator: Martin Schibli