Ghost ship

The project ‘House of impressions — classic and contemporary media art’ at Golitsyn Manor was a meeting point of nineteen outstanding 20th and 21st century video and media artists, such as Chantal Akerman, Mona Hatoum, Irina Nakhova, Bruce Nauman, Bill Viola. It was dedicated to the collision of the past and present, to the innovative processes that took place in the 20^th century connected to the ‘liberation’ of artistic tools and mediums. Video work ‘Princess Nocturne’ by Tanya Akhmetgalieva was commissioned for this project.

‘Princess Nocturne’ stands as a poignant video installation dedicated to the memory of Princess Avdotya Golitsina. Following a prophetic utterance by a fortune teller prognosticating her demise during slumber, the princess elected to forsake nighttime rest, earning her the moniker ‘Princess Nocturne’.

In a bid to defy her predestined fate, the princess, instead of surrendering to sleep, occupied her nights with hosting guests, curating literary salons, and engaging in impassioned dialogues. Her gaze, marked by an irrational dread of mortality, ascends heavenward, reaching towards the ceiling, where it alights upon a composition of a meticulously arranged and harmonious garden.

A succession of images, akin to digital frescoes, traverse the continuum of time, plunging us into the recesses of our own reminiscences and sentiments. Within Tanya Akhmetgalieva’s oeuvre, the world materializes in an altered state — as though it has undergone a ruthless retransmission through the lens of chromatic filters.

By employing intensely vibrant hues, deformation, and the dissolution of pixels, Akhmetgalieva weaves a narrative detailing the intricate interplay between contemporary individuals and their reality; an exploration of their estrangement from both the external world and their internal selves.”