Love Machines

Keti Chukhrov comments:

“Mankind increasingly seeks to exceed the limits of the human: the unknown, the unfamiliar and everything that cannot be controlled continue to entice us with their boundlessness. We must have intellect in order to learn and to conquer new territories of knowledge. We must control systems and technology in order to manage the spheres of economy and politics.  It is enough to have a biological body and the functions of intellect in order to do that.

“It so happens that man is akin to an 'animal' when he is led by instinct and individual interests, and he is a 'machine' when he takes control of those instincts and interests. If that is true, then one need not remain human in order to gain power and broaden one's horizons of knowledge. This essentially is the Faustian question.

“But what do we have if a man cannot be reduced merely to a bio-robot with intellect? And do we ourselves really need what is left of our planet and our universe?”

Keti Chukrov is a PhD, a theorist of contemporary art, and a poet. She is the head of the research and information department of the National Center of Contemporary Art, and an associate professor of world history at the Russian State Humanitarian University of Arts. Her books include: Pound & £ (1999); To Be and To Do. A Project for Theatre in a Philosophical Critique of Art (2011). She is the author of the dramatic poems "Afghan - Kuzminki," "Communion" and others. She wrote Love Machines for the Biennale of Contemporary Art in Bergen (Norway, 2013, curated by Yekaterina Degot and David Riff.

Maria Chirkova is a dramatic actress and singer and a director. She has acted at the School of Dramatic Art in The Stone Guest, or, Don Juan is Dead (directed by Anatoly Vasilyev), Lunacharsky Luna Park and Guidon (directed by Alexander Ogaryov), Cafe Buton (directed by Oleg Glushkov), and Faust and the first version of The Constant Prince(directed by Boris Yukhananov). She is a graduate of the Anatoly Vasilyev/Nikolai Chindyaikin acting and directing class at GITIS and of the the department of musical comedy at the Gnesin Musical College. She is a laureate of international vocal competitions, and performs in the musical and theatrical Electrocabaret project.

As an actress of the Stanislavsky Electrotheatre, she performs in The Constant Principle (directed by Boris Yukhananov) and The House of Bernarda Alba (directed by Alisa Seletskaya).

Irina Korina is a designer, a winner of the Innovation Prize (2008, 2015). She graduated from GITIS as a theatre designer (Stanislav Morozov workshop), and the Academy of Arts in Vienna.  (Вена). Her personal projects include: Magic Mountain (with S. Shuvaeva) at XL-gallery (Moscow, 2015), Refrain at Stella Art Foundation (2014), Comma13 at Bloomberg Space (London, 2009), Installations at Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art, 2009, and others. Her set designs include: Marina at the Gogol Center, directed by Yevgenia Berkovich, Victory Day at the Taganka Theater, directed by Yury Muravitsky, Arias at Project Platform, directed by Medea Yasonidi and others.