M HKA Ensembles

Installation

The New Leaders of Regional Development present a new project for the opening up of Russia’s northern territories and the reclamation of the sites of former Gulag prison camps. This is a presentation of a project for an ‘eco-friendly’ data-centre, provoking a spontaneous self-organisation of biological life on an evolutionary scale. The artists propose the erection of a source of heat energy – a data-centre in the tundra, in a virtually lifeless space. They have created a design for a social and biological utopia, comparable with that which society has tried to create in its isolating institutions. Heat is to form the boundaries of the territory, without the need for walls. The narrative in which diagrams, graphics and other indicators are laid upon subtle watercolours and map patterns is framed in the form of a presentation to persuade interested parties of its high investment appeal. The economic drawbacks of using the sites of Stalinist work camps are contrasted with the effectiveness of contemporary global economic projects, and are laid out in the language of market research.