Jane and Louise Wilson

303 Gallery, New York
Through November 4

In their latest New York exhibition, the Wilson twins continue their analysis of modern ‘power structures’. In particular they examine the architectural impact of sites such as the East German secret services command center, an abandoned American missile base and the British parliament.

Their new work takes the form of two videos set in Russia and some stills taken from them. The first, Star City depicts scenes from a ‘secret’ location, an hour’s distance from Moscow, which serves as a training center for astronauts. The video is projected onto four screens suspended in each corner of the room. This, combined with rapid camera movements and clever editing, creates a stereoscopic effect. The sequences move through these abandoned sites, provoking a sense of widespread dread and paranoia.

Once again, the artists demonstrate their ability to emphasize different viewpoints by alternating scenes filmed from four different angles with all-encompassing panoramas. During the opening sequence, the viewer is slowly hypnotized by the gradual discovery of places, and disoriented by the continual change of images on different screens. The video then penetrates the cosmonauts’ training center, eventually reaching the special hydro laboratory designed to simulate zero gravity. Scene after scene is devoid of any human presence, evoking an overwhelming sense of nuclear disaster or a future dominated by machines.

These abandoned spaces become ‘psychological zones’: their emptiness defined more by the echoes of absence than the lack of physical presence. The second video in the exhibition, Proton, Unity, Energy, Blizzard, imparts an uninterrupted attack on the senses, deafening us with the roar of turbines and drills. The video brings to light two sides of the complex political history of the Soviet Union. Starting with Energy and Blizzard, two long-abandoned launch pads, it moves on to Proton, the base where Russian rocket parts are still assembled. We are confronted with the contrast between successful advances in space travel and neglected space stations, symbols of a bygone era.

This feeling of inescapable destruction is softened by scenes of a religious monument in Kazakistan, which are followed by a close up shot of an advertising billboard in Unity, celebrating Gagarin’s successful space launch in 1961. The video concludes with the image of a rocket base in the distance and camels roaming freely in the foreground. And the viewer is left to ponder on the eternal conflict between nature and technology. Will nature take possession once more of the lands which technology stole from her?




Ilaria Bonacossa
Translation by Rosalind Furness