December 25 – 31, 2020
Media Installation
Animation, programming, real-time cameras positioned around the globe. 2020
Borey Art Center
St. Petersburg, Liteyny Prospekt 58
For fourteen consecutive years at the end of December, American multimedia artist Anna Frants presents her new project to the cultural community of Saint Petersburg. This year, the exhibition has moved beyond the walls of Borey and the media installation can be seen in the windows of the gallery on Liteyny Prospekt.
In the harsh realities of today, when the planet is gripped by a pandemic, communication is difficult, and anxiety rules the world and mind, the artist offers us an unusual protection.
Amabie (Japanese: アマビエ) is a supernatural character in Japanese mythology. Amabie is a fish-headed mythical creature that instructs to draw a picture of itself for protection against diseases or death. The spread of the coronavirus infection has once again drawn public attention to Amabie and its prophetic and healing functions after nearly 200 years of silence. In Japan, images of Amabie are sent to each other as a sign of solidarity with the sick.
In Anna Frants’ media installation, the mythical hero runs around the world, appearing in the frame of web cameras in real-time at Port Lympne in the United Kingdom, crossing a highway in Norway, watching an eagle’s nest on Maine’s Hog Island, strolling at the foot of Mount Fuji at Satta Pass in Shizuoka city, or perhaps standing next to you at a pedestrian crossing…
Anna Frants is an internationally renowned new media artist, as well as a curator and co-founder of Cyland MediaArt Lab and the Cyland Foundation Inc.. Anna Frants’ interactive installations have been exhibited at leading art venues worldwide, including the Venice Biennale, St. Petersburg Biennale, Moscow Biennale, and Polish Biennale, the State Hermitage (St. Petersburg, Russia), Pratt Institute (New York, USA), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), Convergence (London, United Kingdom), RSProjects (Berlin, Germany), VAP/Gogolfest (Kyiv, Ukraine), and Transmediale (Berlin, Germany).
The project was realized in collaboration with Cyland MediaArt Lab.