Bergen Kunsthall presents a live stream of the 2013 film “A Border Musical” by Chto Delat (Tsaplya Olga Egorova, Dmitry Vilensky) followed by a talk by Dmitry Vilensky and Tsaplya Olga Egorova.

A BORDER MUSICAL by Chto Delat
48 min 30 sec, 2013

A story of two neighbouring yet philosophically opposing nations – Russia and Norway – are in the centre of the film project, based on an extensive sociological research. Taken through a love-story of the main character Tanja and her newfound Norwegian husband, the film deals with issues of individual in society, family and moral values, and entices the audience to consider the nuances of these two contexts. Realised in the manner of Bertolt Brecht’s “songspiel”, the film is interwoven with music interludes and constructed with polished language and sharp definitions, exaggerated images and characters, bizarre movements and eccentric scenes.

Direction / Screenplay: Chto Delat (Tsaplya Olga Egorova, Dmitry Vilensky) in cooperation with Jesper Alvær.
Photography: Artyom Ignatov.
Actors: Anna Bulavina, Haldor Lægreid, Ketil Høegh, Maryon Eilertsen, Kristine Henriksen, Camilla Wiig Revholt, Ann Christin Elverum, Egor Semenkov, Nikolay Kurbatov, Mikhail Baranov, Andrey Molodchinin.
Composer: Mikhail Krutik.
Choreographer: Nina Gasteva.
Producer: Pikene på Broen, in cooperation with: FilmCamp, Filmgården, Bergen Assembly, Border Aesthetics (UiT), and many others.

CHTO DELAT
Chto Delat (“What is to be done?”) was founded in 2003 and consists of a group of artists, critics, philosophers, and writers from Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod. Fusing political theory, art, and activism, this group works as a self-organizing platform for reflections and re-examinations of “knowledge production” of cultural workers. The name of the group comes from a novel by the Russian 19th century author Nikolai Chernyshevsky, and is inspired by the first socialist workers’ self-organizations in Russia. Chto Delat is one of the most widely-exhibited group of Russian artists, participating at an average of 30 exhibitions worldwide per year. Chto Delat works across all media ranging from installation to film/video and audience-engaged performance.

ZOOM is Bergen Kunsthall’s programme of artists’ films and videos. This season features talks and screenings with artists, looking from different angles at how various social dynamics and power relationships are being produced, negotiated and performed.

Photo Courtesy of the organisation