In "materials" we ask filmmakers to send us images, statements, stories, videos or quotes that were important for creating their work or are a documentation of it.
I already had tickets to Apatity for my very first research, during which we were going to film one patriotic event with a military show and the war games for everybody as an after party. It was a rainy evening and I walked into one gallery, where I met Arseny Zhilyaev's body for the resurrections:
"The idea of the work is based on an artistic interpretation of a human body in the philosophy of another proponent of Russian Cosmism, Alexander Gorsky. His text from the 1930s, “Phallic Pupil,” describes the evolution of the human body as a transformation into a sun-fed creature without the usual digestive apparatus. According to Gorsky, in the future human body, two main parts will play a large role: the pupil, as the organ that is the most sensible and responsive to sunlight, and the phallus, as the most active organ. The combination of those two parts will provide for endless reception and creation of the world. Additionally, the light body without inner organs will be able to overcome gravity and learn to fly. The perfect body manufactured with the face of Yuri Gagarin by the Cradle of Humankind corporation represents the first experiments in this field. Tourists are offered a unique service: they get the chance to resurrect their ancestors, thus performing an operation advertised as the highest aim of any living human being."
It gave me a good push of laughter. My imagination started to work with a power of a cosmic shuttle. I immediately imagined immortal heroes invading the eternal cosmic spaces and digesting by the method of “Phallic Pupil”. I found it very precise description of a propagandistic mechanism though deeply rooted into patriarchal system. Moreover, much later we found exactly this process in spontaneous reality, not on the stage. So, you can see it now in the film.
This golden body travels from one to another Arseny's exhibitions. Here is one of it. Cradle of Humankind.