FALSE SUN. THE CATCHER
Research-based multimedia installation
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, 2024
The project—an artistic investigation based on the archive of Soviet philosopher Georgiy Kursanov, who explored questions related to truth—emerges from reflections on fundamental issues concerning the interweaving of human destiny and world history, the nature of power, and the relationship between the past and the present. Within the complexities of this Marxist nomenklatura figure’s biography, Hanna Zubkova uncovered not only his personal story but also key moments in the history of the USSR and Western Europe that are reflected therein.
Hanna Zubkova’s research focused on the chronotope—a spatiotemporal map shaped by the topology of discovered documents, the moment of their creation, and their intersection with European and Soviet myths, as indicated by the archive materials.
The research is expressed through a device comprising seven documents that recount attempts to capture the sunset, as well as a meta-archive of a travel journal, highlighting the nature of each myth and its connection to specific places and artifacts.
6. Myth of the End of the World /
Video, 28:56
Sunset Recording, 2021
Coal mine tunnel between the entrance and the coal seam boundary,
filmed in Severnaya, the last operating coal mine in the Pechora Basin.
Video recorded with a special camera enclosed in a fireproof case
5. Myth of the North /
Video, 33:36
Sunset Recording, July 12, 2021
Filmed from the northernmost building in the abandoned settlement of Rudnik, the ruins of a former kindergarten.
Rudnik was originally part of the Gulag coal mining system.
The video captures the sun at the moment of the supposed sunset: but it only disappears behind the structure of Severnaya, the last operating coal mine.
4. Myth of the Greatness of the City /
Video, 18:36
Sunset Recording, July 13, 2021
The video was filmed with a drone-mounted camera above a rooftop platform once used to film military parades of the Peace Square, Vorkuta.
The drone faces the direction of the supposed sunset on the trajectory that passes through the ruins of a former kindergarten and Severnaya, the last operating coal mine.
3. Myth of the Border /
Video, 02:54
Sunset Recording, August 5, 2021
The camera was placed at a point marking the border between Europe and Asia to film a passing train.
However, due to the overlap of time zones at this location, it was impossible to accurately predict when the event would occur.
The video was shot on 16mm film using a camera found in Vorkuta.
Without knowing for certain what the film had captured, the developed footage revealed the images the material itself had chosen to record.
2. Myth of the Source /
Video, 00:31
Sunset Recording, June 24, 2022
Hall of Antique Sculpture Casts, École des Beaux-Arts, Paris – Paros
The video was filmed within an installation where the viewing trajectory of the plaster cast of the Discobolus passed through a dual-purpose optical sight.
1. Myth of History /
Video, 16:42
Catcher Installation, 2021
Video documentation of a performance in which I install a transparent screen onto the ruins of a former kindergarten in the abandoned coal-mining settlement of Rudnik.
The screen is mounted on a north-facing wall of the building. The direction of the supposed sunset beyond the Arctic Circle.
The installation is positioned in anticipation that this dispositif may one day bear witness to the setting sun.
False sun. The Catcher
installation views
photodocumentation by Alexei Naroditsky
Garage museum of contemporary art
