MONUMENTOMANIA
how memorials
make war possible
RU
✊👁 next show Nov 17
my name is vitya vilisov, and this is my new project MONUMENTOMANIA. I do journalism and artistic research, including performative lectures and documentary/research projects. for the past two years I have been researching war — writing articles & essays, making the NEW TYPES OF WEAPONS documentary on the critical theory of new wars, the immersive project HOW LONG IS THE WAR on the impact of war on time and identity, and the performance IL GRANDE DOLORE / great grief about mourning and grieving during war. this is my fourth major project about war.

war is possible in a society to which it seems acceptable or natural. war monuments — statues, memorials and architectural ensembles, even churches — erected by the state to commemorate military figures and events play a huge role in desensitizing to war or open militarization. in Russia today, there are more than 4,500 monuments protected as cultural heritage; about 2,500 of them are dedicated to World War II; dozens, if not hundreds, of new monuments to the military people and wars have appeared in the last ten years.

as dominant features of public spaces, monuments are paradoxically invisible: they are habitualized; their impact on culture and militarization is therefore underestimated. but monuments shape and direct collective memory, influencing collective identity and in many ways determining the values of societies. today, government monumental policies around the world glorify war, portraying it as an inevitable and natural part of life; instead of commemorating the victims and depicting the grief of war, monuments glorify organized violence.

drawing on books and texts [bibliography here] by researchers from architecture, sociology, phenomenology, anthropology, and other fields, I made a project on how monuments shape places of memory and tell people how and what to remember, what example to follow; how power derives legitimacy from monuments and the cult of glory; how monuments influence our emotions and values; how monumentality has compromised itself in the 20th century and what is replacing it; and whether monuments can do the work of memory for us.
MONUMENTOMANIA: trailer
MONUMENTOMANIA exist in two formats: movie & immersive experience; these are two different works based on the same text.

the second is a performative experience in 3D space, made on Unreal Engine. it consists of 20 scenes in 5 different locations and is available in a browser; you find yourself inside the project simultaneously with a group of other people and can move, jump, fly, climb on monuments, dive deeper into the visual exploration of statues, talk while watching. if by any chance you've already watched my project HOW LONG IS THE WAR, you are familiar with the format; if not, watch the in-game trailer.

this project has a very dense text, so I would recommend going to the immersive version first, and then tightening the material with the movie (available in English soon). both formats last an hour and consist of the following parts:
double-premiere: May 9;
2nd show: May 13;
3rd show: June 23;
4th show: August 10;

📼 video-version:
— Czech premiere at TEFF festival | 10.10

🎟 immersive version: Nov 17;

please leave the correct email — you'll receive the letter with a link to experience on a show day; if something went wrong or you want to transfer in another way (paypal, wise, credo) or if you'd like to visit the experience individually in convenient time — ping me on telegram or insta; please be aware that experience contains speech in Russian with Russian and English subtitles
just a regular ticket for perfolecture
what you do seems important, especially the indie-research of wars, especially now, so I want to support your chances of continuing doing it
thank you for reading this; I've put a huge effort into this project and would love if you could share it. if you'd like to follow my work further, here's my inst, and telegram channel.

✊ vilisov '24
Made on
Tilda