Just outside the Kremlin walls, in the centre of Moscow, is a large traffic square: Manezh Square. In September 1990 it was the scene of a massive demonstration for democracy. A historic event, as the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics was in a period of 'glasnost' (openness), a transitional phase where the superpower was balancing on the edge of either reform or disintegration and it was as yet unclear which was to prevail: 'perestroika' (reconstruction) or communism. Images of the demonstration and the contributions of those who were present (which are still being collected today) became the starting point of this website, a black & white panoramic photo composition (you can also see it in 3D with special glasses), now combined with music and parts of radio broadcasts from that day. You find yourself in the middle of the crowd and you can 'look round'. The people 'next to you' are watching something happening off screen: the reason they are all here. The image of this huge crowd is frozen, but with a click of the mouse the people come to life and you hear fragments of their stories and interior monologues as their thoughts are visualized beside their heads. Sometimes you hear Russian, but English subtitles make the text accessible, like the captions in a photo album. In this way a historic moment is placed within the different personal thoughts, memories and contexts and it becomes clear that everyone has their own reason for being there at that particular moment. We see captions/images dealing with what is going on at the moment, but also with things that come from daily worries and that hover between hope for the future and fear of what is to come.
– Carla Hoekendijk
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Art director: E. Jay Sims, Technician: Bill Waldman
Ken Kobland ° 1946, New York (USA)
Lives and works in New York (USA)
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