O&A Florensky → Promoting Eternal Values

January, 2008

In the project «Promoting Eternal Values» Olga & Alexander Florensky advertise brands and symbols of Kirkenes and Nikel in a «black-and-white ads» manner, with charming irony and humour. It´s an ironical reference to the «low» Russian advertisement dated back to the end of the XIX c. – beginning of the XX c. Blackl-and-white visual images and slogans of the series of ads modules differ immensely from the colorful and average-quality advertisements of the end of the XX c. – beginning of the XXI c., and thus stand apart from them. The choice of the advertised values is deliberately idiotic. They advertise “goods” that do not need to be advertised by their nature.

The project “Promoting Eternal Values” was a part of the outdoor exhibition “Times Square Kirkenes-Nikel” under the festival Barents Spektakel 2008.

Kirkenes and Nikel constitute the heart of the Pomor Zone and are considered to form a hot spot in the Barents Region. But this regional strategic role is in contrast to their small town atmosphere and obvious lack of urbanity. During the Barents Spektakel 2008 the Town Square of Kirkenes was turned into “Times Square” with outdoor screens showing video films made by the invited artists´ groups about the neighbouring towns Kirkenes and Nikel. “Times Square Kirkenes–Nikel” is an attempt to lift the status of these towns and turn them into Barents metropolises.

Artists:
Olga & Alexander Florensky (St Petersburg, Russia),
Blue Noses: Viacheslav Mizin, Alexander Shaburov, Yevgeny Ivanov (Moscow-Novosibirsk, Russia),
Los Torreznos: Rafael Lamata and Jaime Vallaure (Madrid, Spain),
Andreas Nilsson & Mikel Cee Karlsson (Malmo, Sweden).