< Program overview

Mikhail Tolmachev's new adaptation of the multi-channel video installation The Feat, challenges legitimised and state-sanctioned forms of violence by addressing cross-regional military histories that are presented in museums. In this complex work, the artist questions the ambiguous influence of visual languages and narratives surrounding contemporary wars on visions of a safer and more reasonable future. 

Tolmachev's long-term artistic research focuses on a war diorama depicting one of the fierce military battles during the Chechen War (2002), currently displayed at the Airborne Forces Museum in Ryazan, Russia. To illuminate the manipulative nature of Russian imperial and nationalist historiography, and to explore the interplay between war art and civil society, the artist has developed The Feat to deconstruct the creation and presentation of the diorama within the museum. By employing documentary footage, archival research materials, 3D modelling and performance, the artist sheds light on the construction of military mythology that leads to a specific political present. While closely studying the diorama he interrogates notions such as heroism, dedication, and self-sacrifice, which were deliberately used to fuel the state propaganda machine, despite deviating from factual evidence. The work also addresses urgent contemporary issues by highlighting the continuity between the Chechen War and the ongoing full scale war in Ukraine, which fuels regional tensions and contributes to global militarization.