SELF-BRAINWASHING#2

The performance “Self-brainwashing#2” by Michail MIchailov is a special project, part of the “There you are” exhibition, curated by Irina Batkova, and presented at the Bulgarian Pavilion during the 59. International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.
The performance is related to the idea of concealing and obliterating the world existing around us, including the figure of the artist, and his transformation into something else, stimulating the research of new words through which to name it.
Cortile Giustinian at Ca' Foscari University, an intimate courtyard with terracotta tiles and its beautiful monumental staircase was sculpted with foam.
The foam has covered not only the courtyard but also the figure of the artist Michail Michailov and all the participants.
The soundscape of the performance was especially created by the Austrian artist Harald Stojan.
20 participants where be allowed to take part in each performance.


"The performance investigates human perception, where the eyes discern much more information than the brain processes. It records the "important" observations that are related to our instinct for self-preservation and survival in human society. That's how we humans divide life into black and white zones. In the white zone, which symbolizes comfort and happiness, things are sensed more emotionally and based on positive reaction, rather than rational judgment. Rationally and concretely, we can describe fears, pain and frustration. However, the happy side remains nameless, indefinable, enigmatic. Human life remains somewhere between the two extremes, struggling to describe and name things that we wish to transform in a desired direction.
Our team tries to focus on this effort, because without it, human life loses its meaning. The tension between reality and fantasy, subjective memory and reality, past and present evokes formulas of storing experience through perceptions. New ones are accumulated often without pondering their deep and multifunctional "   Irina Batkova