project 34/

OPEN-AIR TOILETS (On a mountainside) B. Fokin, Student from the Gnesin Theater Institute, Moscow The topic under discussion below may be considered to be a bit unworthy of discussion among serious people, and for some it will fall simply to the category of topics not for discussion at all because or its highly intimate nature. However, sexual topics and their discussion also seemed - until relatively recently - for- bidden subjects of discourse. The discussion will be of bowel movements and of the affect on our organism and on our psyche of the place where this occurs. The deep, one could say, metaphysical significance of a bowel movement is a cleansing, a liberation from something heavy, dirty, extraneous (and in this sense repul- sive) inside of us. You can see in this a simple physiological act and not pay any fixed attention to it. But our body is so connected with the spiritual, mental aspect of our being that this aspect is also implicated in this process of liberation at these moments. It winds up in a state of estrangement, an escape from everyday worries, concerns, and life's problems. The content of this process is perceived by many intuitively and the places where this occurs are also perceived intuitively and unconscious- ly, they are decorated with beautiful paintings, landscapes and, as a rule (and as indicated by statistics) geographical maps.

Another profound intention can be seen in this expanded movement in the direction of large spaces: the liberation of the soul from the body, a freely wandering soul not connected via matter.

After the above said, the meaning of the proposed project becomes clear: the construction in more isolated places in nature such as in fields, on the banks of lakes, of small wooden toi- lets, where the described process can receive its appropriate embodiment. But the most ideal version would be toilets built or tall mountains or on steep cliffs where the process of meditation is not interrupted by any thing and can drag out for an expended period of time.

* These toilets, of course, shouldn't have any doors or the doors should be open, so it would be possible to contemplate the sur- rounding landscape.

OPEN-AIR TOILETS (On a mountainside) 1. Images are photographed on slides and are shown using three projectors at various rhythms: the first camera shows 4 sketches in a slow rhythm (12 seconds), camera 2 shows 6 photos in a faster rhythm (8 seconds), and camera 3 shows 4 images in the same rhythm as camera 1.

2. The size of the slide images (in terms of height): 1 = 150 cm 2 = 120 cm 3 = 150 cm