MADE IN CYLAND

A futurist opera Victory Over The Sun, staged in 1913 and co-authored by Aleksei Kruchonykh (libretto) and Mikhail Matyushin (music),  was conceived to emphasize the parallels between literary text, musical score, and visual art. It became an exemplary collaborative work between poets and artists. The opera tells the story of a group of budetlyane (from the Russian word “budet”, meaning “will be”) who set out to conquer the sun. Commonly, it is interpreted as a vision of the triumph of future technologies over the old natural world. Yet, in this artwork, the very idea of “victory” is questioned. Humanity depends on sunlight—essential to the ecosystem it inhabits. Even a slight alteration in sunlight immediately reveals our vulnerability, as well as the fragility of our aspirations and visions for the future. 

The installation operates on solar energy. A system of solar panels accumulates energy and sets the installation’s components—futurist-like kinetic “mobiles”—in motion through motors. These motors are powered by solar panels that follow the sun’s trajectory to maximize energy collection. The direction of the components’ movement is determined by the sun’s path and changes throughout the day. The installation remains active as long as the batteries are charged.

The installation also includes a sound component. A set of speakers plays a contemporary version of Victory Over The Sun, staged on May 3, 2007, at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. The noted St. Petersburg composer Georgy Firtich created a new score for the opera (only fragments of Matyushin’s original music have survived) and came to Vassar to participate in the performance alongside a company of student singers and musicians. The production was conceived not as a historical reconstruction but as a reinvention from a contemporary perspective—an attempt to convey the explosively innovative energy of the early twentieth-century avant-garde.