Beacons

Beacons – is the first artwork in a collaboration between Sasha Kojjio and Alisa Davydova. Duo creates installations at the intersection of land art and audiovisual art and puts them in significant landmarks and cultural locations. Characteristics of each installation such as shape, dynamics, light and sound are inspired by the place itself and highlight special aspects of it.

Beacons premiered in a birch grove in Nizhniy Novgorod during INTERVALS 2024. The grove initially was a tree nursery-garden, and birches there were alike and had been planted in a perfect grid. This brought a very surreal and unnatural aesthetic and the artwork only escalated this effect. The birch tree is a strong and important symbol of Russian culture, and by emphasizing the artifition and the unnaturalness of it, artists created an unsettling and uncanny feeling of dualism to reflect on their personal experience of emigration and the search for cultural identity.

Technically light installation consists of 10 custom made pillars assembled from 800 video pixel bars. The movement of light among the pillars is accentuated by a multi-channel sound system. Animations of light are created in real time by feedback-loop algorithms that replicate natural processes such as ocean waves, rock formation, movement of sand dunes and birch tree patterns. Because of the generative origin of the algorithm each iteration of the narrative is unique and slightly different from the previous one.

// CREDITS

Year: 2024

Location: Intervals Festoval

Artist: Sasha Kojjio

Producer: Alisa Davydova

Curator: Ksusha Chekovskaya

Tech support: Dreamlaser