2022, video, 6 min
Woman travelling alone on the train departing from the “War” station to the “Death” station. She recites the Songs of Maldoror by Comte de Lautréamont: “Throughout my life, I have seen narrow-shouldered men, without a single exception, committing innumerable stupid acts, brutalizing their fellows, and perverting souls by all means. They call the motive for their actions fame. Seeing these spectacles, I wanted to laugh like the others but I found that strange imitation impossible. I took a knife with a sharp steel cutting-edge on its blade and slit my flesh where the lips join. For a moment I believed I had achieved my object. I looked in a mirror at this mouth disfigured by an act of my own will It was a mistake! The blood flowing from the two wounds prevented me from discerning whether the laugh really was the same as the others’. But after comparing them for a few moments I saw clearly that my laugh did not resemble that of human beings, i.e. I was not laughing at all.”
A video made with a KUKA Robotics machine controlled by the Unreal Game Engine.
- Cast: Eugenia Panina
- Camera: Mikhail Bodukhin
- Kuka Master: Aleksander Lysov
- Line Producer: Katerina Zueva
Trailer:
Making Of:
The Grin is exhibited in 2022 at Digital Art Zurich Festival >>>