top of page

40. WINCH

To a revolving lever of a dug-in steel winch six fishing lines were attached. Other ends of these lines, fanned out across a field (the lines themselves were lying on the ground) were attached on various heights to trees on the opposite side of the field. The length of the lines varied from 400 to 700 meters. The audience received pre-printed copies of score of the forthcoming event (see hereafter), and then N.Panitkov began revolving the winch, reeling up the lines and recording the sound with a tape recorder. The lines gradually tightened and broke one by one. The last line broke in an hour’s time after the start of revolving. The action began in regular autumn weather, which tended to be rapidly changing: soon it began snowing heavily, then a strong wind arose and the snowfall grew heavier. By the middle of the action the field was covered with thick fog, the sky darkened. By the end of the action it stopped snowing, the fog cleared away and sun emerged from the clouds. The whole field was covered with snow. Thus, the meteorological aspect of the action was corresponding with "Winch" score (interaction between the powers of Ying-Yang, Heaven-Earth, darkness-light).

 

Score description: The score consisted of two black sheets of Chinese paper, tightened with polyethylene to form a single-centerfold book. On the cover page there was a sticker with an English word "Performance". On the left part of the centerfold there was a schematic image of the six unbroken lines forming the Qian hexagram ("creativity"). On the right side the lines appeared already broken (Kun hexagram, "performance").

 

In the course of the action the lines were broken in the following sequence of hexagrams: the fourth line was broken first, and the Xiao Gu hexagram ("small exceeding") appeared; then the second line broke to form the Chia Jen hexagram ("Family");  then the first line (Xian hexagram, "flow"); the third line (Guan hexagram, "contemplation"), the sixth (Bi hexagram, "approaching") and the fifth (Kun, "performance").

 

Moscow region, Savyolovskaya railway line, field near the village of Kyevy Gorky

27th of October, 1985

N.Panitkov, A.Monastyrski, E.Elagina, I.Makarevich, G.Kizewalter, V.Salnikov

Viewers:

I.Kabakov, V.Mochalova, A.Filippov, D.Machibeli, I.Bakshtein, Yu.Leiderman, B.Mikhailov, I.Pivovarova

bottom of page