Суб 21 Апрель : (Прожить) день в деревне с завязанными глазами

Суб 21 Апрель : (Прожить) день в деревне с завязанными глазами. Место и время встречи : M. Павелецкая (в центре зала) 10.00. Приносить напитки и еду.

And here's what happened:

When I arrived –late- everybody was already there. We bought tickets and sat in the train going all stations to Domotetovo airport. Ours was Buletnikovo and it took us about 40 minutes to reach: just the time needed for exchanging a couple of riddles and explaining what was going to happen during the day. The plan was the following: we would go by pairs, half of us would be blindfolded from the station and for the first 3 hours and the other half would take its turn afterward and should be brought back to station. Meanwhile, we would walk, talk, eat, make a fire… just another day in the countryside. We were 7, 3 pairs plus Marina who was to film the whole event.

Marina

is a video artist who contacted me a couple of days before to ask if she could come and film. She was interested in making a video piece from these situations. We agreed that she could film anything she wanted as long as she would not use it for commercial purpose and allow me to use it as a documentation of the event. I find it quite interesting when a work gives birth to another one. It creates confusion about the authorship, the status of the work… Kind of an equivalent to the musical sampling.

The first group, Anton, Charlie and Arsen put their blindfold on the platform and we started walking. I didn’t know the place but on the day before someone had drawn me a very basic map showing where was the lake, forest and village. We headed for the lake.

The first 15 minutes were spent walking on a very long straight street. It had been raining the night before and the dirt track was full of mud and puddles. On both sides, datchas, people gardening, a few cars… Arsen whom I was guiding was very confident, walking straight and quickly, talking a lot. So were the others. We passed the lake –strange sound of a small artificial waterfall- and walked on heading for the woods. We eventually found a narrow path going through the field down to the shore of the lake. By that time, those blindfolded were walking nearly freely, orientating themselves by their feet or the noise made by the other. We, the guides, only prevented them from stepping in too much water or in a deep hole. We had a pause for a cigarette and an interesting moment when Anton, blindfolded, after successfully lighting a cigarette for himself tried to lit one for Charlie, blindfolded as well. It took some time and they eventually succeeded only after Arsen, blindfolded as well, offered his zippo lighter. Twenty minutes later we had found a place to rest. Everybody went looking for wood and soon a fire was burning in the center of our small camp. Lunch. While eating, Anton was surprised that without seeing it was really difficult to tell what you were eating, at least for the first few seconds. Consistency was not enough to tell and taste was not always that obvious… After lunch we had all had a few walks around and I went to the shop guiding Charlie. The old ladies in the shop were a bit puzzled. Were we a sect? Why were we doing that? they asked amused before concluding themselves that it was an interesting experience and a much better way to spend the day than drinking vodka. They guided Charlie out of the shop… We walked back, and the 3 hours were over. They all took off their blindfold at the same time and had the same reaction: “that’s what it looks like here!” We had spent about an hour and a half in the same place and they had time to “visit” it. Each of them had a mental map, had imagined what the place looked like and it turned out to be totally different.

The second group took its turn.

I spent the first 15 minutes seated next to the fire, relaxing myself, listening, trying to feel the wind, the changes of temperature… and then went for a walk alone, then for another one along with Rada guided by Anton and a third one to the lake’s shore guided by Arsen. Though I had seen it, the whole place was gradually turning out to be different,  the sensation of the ground and the sound being the main reference points. Wind which was quite cold on that day (it snowed at some point) began to be enjoyable as a sensation. After a while my voices was also different. Blindfolded we all spoke very quietly and slowly. The others sounded really loud.

After about an hour and half we packed and started our way back to the train station. Walking was a really enjoyable experience. Already used to the blindfold I felt really free, orientating myself with sensations, sounds… some kind of euphoria. When we reached the platform we seated and talked for about 15 minutes before taking the blindfolds off. The euphoria dropped and I began to feel a bit dizzy. I was talking lower and lower and I felt like a whole different range of sensation would appear if I would keep the blindfold on for another hour. Something not that physical but maybe much more intellectual. Imagination took its turn… but I took the blindfold off and resumed living in the word of light. The whole experience was really moving… Rada and Anton were already making plans for a whole day blindfolded in a country house without anyone helping…. We had a fun journey back to

Moscow

, all very tired but happy…

Text by Cedric Anglaret and pictures by Marina Fomentko