Elèna Nemkova

SERIOUS ATTACK

Elèna Nemkova’s practice in 2004 developed scenarios that condensed phenomena and situations of contemporary everyday life into prototypes presented as minimalized, experimental set-ups. Her interest focused on the research of human behavior patterns within an idealized, utopian space of action, where living for tomorrow seemed the only feasible guideline. The fixation on a present whose paradoxical sense consists only of a preparation for the future, originated in the artist’s experiences with the “great socialist utopia” during her socialization years in the former Soviet Union. The performative installation Serious Attack was developed in Innsbruck and contextualized this space of action in a site-specific way. Serious Attack consisted of a video work and an invitation to the audience to don cheap house slippers and glide over the polished wooden floors of the Büchsenhausen Lab.