The collective Chto Delat (“What is to be done?” in Russian) is named after the revolutionary novel by Nikolai Chernyshevsky. Made after Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, this twelve-episode video installation finds the artists, who were based in Saint Petersburg at the time, contending with the rapid disappearance of public space, democracy, and dissent in their society. In response to the intertitles that precede each episode, performers stage forms of collectivity inspired by a variety of precedents, from political theater to online networks. An intertitle that reads “unlucky heroes in history” prompts participants to construct a pile with their bodies, creating a monument to dissident figures throughout Soviet and Russian history. “We lost,” Chto Delat declares in a text accompanying the work. “But we are prepared to learn from our mistakes.”
Gallery label from Signals: How Video Transformed the World, March 5–July 8, 2023
