DUG

The 30′ long two-screen video installation DUG juxtaposes the late modern phenomenon of ‘nostalgia for the future’ with the nihilism following the collapse of the Soviet industry in the early 1990s. Exposed to the supply chains of Western commodity fetishism, many unemployed workers sought their luck in looting the country’s archaeology. This became possible through the availability of cheap metal detectors, which make looting a hundred times more efficient. These events not only represent a throw-back to a hunter gatherer lifestyle but also a crude transition from the Fordist to post-Fordist labour market since both the art markets (demand side) and the mining/looting (supply side) represent spaces of opportunity. Collecting and mining/looting of antique artefacts are thus not only incentivized through money but through a multitude of signals, maps, charts, status rankings, expertises, stories, etc.