Interactive video/sound AR installation
production: Adem vzw
Apps : AURASMA STUDIO, HP Reveal
Previous Apps. BlipArt with #Cyland Lab
The appearance of human descendant is created with a help of Igor Molochevski.
With support of La Commisssion Numerique de la Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles

Photo: M. Ragozina
Photo: M. Ragozina

The core element of the “Sleeper” installation is a tapestry. Le Corbusier referred to it as a “portable form of mural”. During the Middle Ages and Renaissance these handwoven wall-hangings, in which the interweaving of threads forms not only the design but also the fabric itself, were in high demand particularly thanks to their portability: they could be easily rolled and transported from one place to another. Amongst other subjects, tapestries featured power symbols including mottos and coats of arms of noble families. Aside from their practical function, which is to preserve warmth, they allowed, for example, a spacious throne room to be easily set off. Traditionally tapestries featured religious, mythological and allegorical plots, hunting scenes, triumphs, battles and other motifs.
In the “Sleeper” installation Alexandra Dementieva considers tapestry a form of picture. It is worth noting that the size that she chooses, 55х77 cm, corresponds not only to the average size and aspect ratio of a cabinet easel painting but also to one of the typical television screen ratios of the last century. The tapestries arranged along the whole perimeter of the space imitate a picture gallery. Each of them is based on a still image from Woody Allen’s film “Sleeper” (1973). However, the stills serve only as a basis for the images since all of them have been completely transformed — “glitched” — practically beyond recognition as though resulting from a computer breakdown during the viewing of the film. However the order of the narrative development is rigorously preserved — still images are arranged in the same sequence that they appear in the film. In some of them one can discern particular scenes and characters, however the tapestries gradually turn into something similar to abstract painting. Using the iOS or Android platforms one can link up to the work to clearly hear the soundtrack of the film and a story of this tapestry. All in all we are presented with a picture gallery, each tapestry of which is both an interactive symbol of the past century and a certain prospect for the future. It is no coincidence that currently abstract painting is again of interest.
(Text: Elena Selina)


Alexandra Dementieva – Interview (2020)


Alexandra Dementieva

Alexandra Dementieva (Александра Дементьева) (born 1960, Moscow, USSR) is an artist who has been creating works of electronic, video, interactive and installation art since 1992.

Studied journalism and fine arts in Moscow (USSR) and Brussels (Belgium). Her principal interest as an artist is the use of social psychology, perception theory and behaviorism in her installations as well as the development of film narration through the point of view of a subjective camera. She has been an active participant of the CYLAND Media Art Lab since 2008. Professor at the Royal Academy of Arts (Brussels, Belgium). Dementieva received the first prize for the best monochannel video at VAD Festival (Girona, Spain). She is a participant of numerous exhibitions in major Russian and international cultural institutions, including Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art (Russia), Centro de la Imagen (Mexico City, Mexico) and others. Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.

www.alexdementieva.org