Power Struggle

Photo: Olga Kisseleva
© performance view, Contemporary art museum Errata, St Petersburg, 2013 ; Photo: Olga Kisseleva

Olga Kisseleva

Power Struggle ,
Co-workers & Funding
Tate Modern
Documents
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Description
Power Struggle is a live battle between four anti- viruses commented by an actor using the tone of a live football game report, a family altercation or a political confrontation.
Each one tries to destroy the other three, eradicating everything in the computer until there is only one left. A beautiful metaphor for the struggle for power currently taking place between politicians, as unproductive as it is dangerous.
The fight becomes visible to the spectators thanks to lines of code racing on the screen. In order to enable them to monitor the progress of the fight and visualize the strategies of the protagonists, Olga Kisseleva has had a specific program developed that assigns a colour to each anti-virus, red, green, blue and yellow, in reference to the Malevich painting “The Red Cavalry”. Four colours representing political parties, but also symbolic of dogmatic texts.

Not being sure if she will be able to improve the world, the artist highlights with humour and mockery its paradoxical twists, thus attempting to raise our level of consciousness.
Keywords
  • aesthetics
    • real-time
  • genres
    • performance art
      • multimedia performances
  • subjects
    • Art and Science
      • dynamical systems
    • Arts and Visual Culture
      • music
      • theater
    • Media and Communication
      • communication
    • Power and Politics
      • nationalism
      • politics
  • technology
    • displays
      • electronic displays
        • computer monitors
        • projection screens
    • software
      • software interfaces
Technology & Material