One of the key themes in Polina Kanis’ research is compromise, or accepting the state of affairs faced by society. According to the artist she is interested in the perverse practices and adaptive mechanisms that appear when a person comes into contact with various political regimes or social structures. One result of being forced to conform to repressive standards is alienation, which can lead to inaction and timelessness.
The video installation The Procedure was created in 2017 with the support of Garage. At that time it was shown at the artist’s solo exhibition at the Haus der Kunst in Munich and in 2019 it was shortlisted for the Kandinsky Prize. In 2020, The Procedure was part of the online program of the Russian Pavilion at the 17th Architecture Biennale in Venice.
The plot of the video unfolds in an imaginary museum that is in ruins after an unnamed catastrophe. Access to the external world is only allowed after going through a specific “procedure” and a personal examination in the border zone to which everyone who may have been a witness to this mysterious event is subjected. The spiral composition of the film constantly returns the viewer to the same scene, “I Did Not See Anything.” It represents the authoritarian mechanism of relationships between the individual and institutions of power. At some point the reason for the disaster fades into the background and it ceases to matter whether something happened or not. It is the procedure of inquiry that is important. It becomes a self‑sufficient process without cause or effect.
- / Author