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PRESENSE
History of creation
...you enter a shimmering, pulsating space, shadows and glare flickering around you. Unfamiliar music plays. Your hearing and vision groove along the polyrhythm and your body begins to resonate with this micro-reality. You notice others around you, equally mesmerized, now and then illuminated, then disappearing into the shadows. You dare to step into the center, where sound and light finally engulf you....
We are the media.tribe collective. We choose media art because its tools can erase the walls between the artist and the viewer, the work of art and personal feelings.
The installation PRESENSE is a transcendent experience beyond grossly semantic. Perceiving traditional art, people have to delve into context, grasp references and deconstruct metaphors. PRESENSE invokes pure emotion through physical impact - the play of light and sound. We don't try to predict the viewer's feelings, but guide them straight to catharsis.
The concept is everything here. The laconic set-up and content are subordinated to it. The script and performance are created by an equally minimalistic crew of three people, capable of fulfilling the original idea without any losses.
Art knows no formal limits. The very first version of PRESENSE originated in 2019 in an ordinary St. Petersburg flat. We assembled it from acrylic tubes and diod tape. The project turned out to be the most convincing expression of our ideas and our art visions. It made us grow as a collective. PRESENSE was shown for the first time at the Gamma Festival in 2019.
In 2022, Ksusha Chekhovskaya, curator of the international media art festival INTERVALS in Nizniy Novgorod, invited us to take part and make an outdoor installation.
At the INTERVALS festival PRESENSE became twice as large. LED screens replaced the diode tape, and the installation was seen by 100,000 people. With Nizhny Novgorod hills as a background, the installation revealed itself from an unexpected side, adding a futuristic vibe to the cityscape.
The installation involves the viewer in an interplay. The sound moves around the viewer along with the light. The viewer not only sees the direction of sound, but literally feels it with the vestibular system.
LED screens used as light sources, shifting the plane of interaction between the installation and the viewer deep into the subconscious. Despite the seemingly rough techniques (sharp flashes and loud sounds), the installation does not trigger fear and anxiety in the viewers. They explore its space with pleasure.
It's kind of like a rave with the structure of an avant-garde performance, but with one difference - the viewer here always has the opportunity to stop, to dwell in the moment. The narrative of the installation fits into 4-5 minutes, but people often stay in PRESENSE for hours, experiencing new sensations with every other loop.
The narrative has no emphasized beginning or end. It unfolds before the viewer's eyes, like the scores of American minimalists, where each iteration of material generates a unique figurative dreamscape.
The installation has been performed at festivals in Russia: Gamma Festival 2019 in St. Petersburg, INTERVALS 2022 in Nizhny Novgorod, Night of Light 2023 in Gatchina, and has been consistently successful. PRESENSE was also appreciated at the TELEPORT expirium in Hong Kong (2021) and Sydney (2023).
