Nicolas Cilins
Conquest
Site-specific performance for eight performers, 50’
2021
Conquest is a site-specific performance designed for the Moscow Planetarium’s museum through conversations with its scientific and curatorial team. Those who are oftentimes rendered invisible by the museum’s gravitas were asked about their personal dreams and daily routines, triggering musings on the history of space conquest – what it has become and what it continues to represent for the country and its people –, faith, ideology, and the construction of a national identity. These testimonies were then embodied by eight visitors-turned-performers, capturing the ambiguous relation between the institution and its guests, as well as providing the ground for reflection on the role of the museum as a public and social space.

Conquest est une performance conçue pour le musée du planétarium de Moscou à partir d’entretiens avec ses scientifiques et conservateurs sur leurs désirs, routines et ambitions personnelles. Leurs témoignages mettent en lumière ce que la conquête spatiale continue de représenter — entre foi, idéologie et identité nationale. Ils sont lus et interprétés par huit performers recrutés parmi les visiteurs comme une invitation à une réflexion sur les liens entre institutions culturelles, vie sociale et politique.


Short presentation on Mir TV (RU)
Short presentation on the festival website (RU)


Photographs: Nicolas Cilins
With Maria Bolshakova, Alexandra Veselova, Tatiana Voronina, Iriną Gorodzyskaya, Natalia Grigoryeva, Marcela Akhmedova, Nikolaï Mamonov, Yuri Sorokin
Production: Theatrum 2021, Golden Mask Festival
Curator: Anton Fleurov
Production manager: Marina Kozlova
Assistant director: Julia Ryabova
A special thanks to Ponomarenko Marina Vladimirovna, Maksimov Igor Borisovich, Sukhobokova Elena Arkadyevna, Rubleva Faina Borisovna, Reznik Margarita Iosifovna, Yakunina Galina Valentinovna, Belous Irina Nikolaevna, Alexander Perkhnyak, and the whole team of the Moscow Planetarium.
Supports: the Vladimir Potanin Foundation and Pro Helvetia Moscow — Swiss Arts Council