It is December 9th of year 2003, Moscow, Russia. I am student, heading from my dormitory to the academic building in the center of the city. My lectures start afternoon. As always - i go much later. I arrive to the subway station and walk up to the street. Right near the Hotel Nazional Building. My faculty - is behind the Hotel. I see safety barriers, police cars. Glass and smaller pieces of stones on the street. Huge windows of the Hotel's facade are destroyed. I see red spots on the sidewalk.
I go faster and soon find myself in the faculty building. Later i get to know that at 10.53 a.m. of that day right there on my way was an explosion of a terrorist assassin. Another explosion happened there at 14.00, when police tried to move terrorist's body. 6 people where killed, 14 got injured.
Just several hours between me and those, who died that day. Fatal coincident for ones, but lucky for others.
"A C-4 explosion, for example, is virtually instant. Gases are released from the explosive at the super speedy rate of 26,400 feet per second (8,050 meters per second), pummeling everything in its immediate wake. In other words, if you are within 26,400 feet or so of an explosive, you will get hit by the blast within one second, assuming it is powerful enough to reach you" [source: Harris].
Explosion happens almost instantly. It lasts no time for those, who will survive it. It lasts forever for those - who will not.
It is so rapid, that all you can think about it - you will think only afterwards. And if it is powerful enough, then it is so dynamic, that you will think about it to the rest of your life, even if you find your consciousness back in a second or a minute or an hour after. That said, explosion itself last's no time, but it's dynamic consequence of resistance of the environment can last seconds and minutes. And it's impact on everything around, including culture and fragile human personality - can be crucial.
Explosion - possibly could be an ideal art form for the followers of Guy Debort in a postmodern era. But it feels like that era is already in the past. Postmodern self-distruction - is not what we need. We need to heal. In the time, when unexpected explosion on the street - is everyday reality - we need to heal this reality. Explosion on the street brings death, destruction and disproportion to the physical world of objects and metaphysical world of human minds. Can we create something as instant and powerful, but beautiful and emotionally charged?
When human being draws a picture - he or she becomes the picture. When human being plays music - he or she becomes the music.
We move fast and graceful. We seek for beautiful and simple form.
We become explosions on the streets.
reference:
- weapons as an art form: Brion Gaysin (pistol poem), Chris Burden (gunshot), sergey kasich (Presence FX)
- situationist international: Guy Debort ("Society of spectacle")
- art as psychodrama: Vienna Actionism (Austria), Butoh dance (Japan), psychologic drama cinema (e.g. "Night Porter") etc.
- Harris, Tom. "How C-4 Works." HowStuffWorks.com. (Dec. 2, 2012) https://science.howstuffworks.com/c-4.htm
conceptualised by sergey kasich in 2013-2018 (moscow, new york)