Gorchakov’s Wish

Overview

Gorchakov's Wish engages with the penultimate scene of Andrei Tarkovsky's 1983 film Nostalghia. Tarkovsky's syntax of the extended tracking shot induces a contemplative state from which to observe the movement of a figure through an atmospheric Italian landscape, over a prolonged time.

Taking this nine-minute four-second scene from Tarkovsky's film as a site, its material and symbolic qualities are transformed into architectural performance through various forms of production: performance, installation and video production. The project develops a method extracted from – and combining – architecture, film and poetry. Its objective is twofold: to extend the language of performance and documentation by enacting each through interdisciplinary practice, and to expand upon a theory and practice of the 'film-image,' as initially suggested by Andrei Tarkovsky.

The work has been developed and presented in differing formats through performances, exhibitions, talks and a residency between 2008 and 2011, culminating in a screening of the 20-minute HD video work Gorchakov's Wishat the San Sebastián Film Festival in Spain.

People

Kristen Kreider
Royal Holloway, University of London

James O'Leary
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