LINK. For Sergei Anufriev

The action took place in the Botanical Garden of the Ruhr-Universität Bochum on a small wooden bridge that went over a pond in the section for ancient plants.

On one side of the bridge we set up a construction made of blue vase set atop a tape recorder with a pile of little cards placed on top. The cards had been glued with pictures cut out of magazines illustrating scenes from computer games. On the other side of the bridge was a video camera switched on to play, showing in the viewfinder a scene from the Nintendo computer game Zelda 2, which had been recorded the previous evening. The tape recorder below the vase contained a tape of music from the same computer game and was also switched on to play.

We handed Anufriev a purse and invited him to walk back and forth between the vase and the video camera, where he could watch the recording in the viewfinder, but for no longer than one minute. Each time he reached the vase, he was to take one of the cards and place it in the bag. Under the twentieth card lay a set of instructions inviting Anufriev to take a hammer out of the vase, shatter the vase, and gather the broken pieces into the purse. Which is what happened.

 

Bochum

9.21.1990

S. Hänsgen, A. Monastyrski