Braguino or the impossible community
2017, Installation of 9 modules (video boxes), sound, 48min 45s
«Clément Cogitore visited Braguino twice (in 2012 and 2016). 'Braguine’s place' - in Russian - is taken from the name of a family of ‘Old Believers’ living in a handful of huts lost in the middle of the Taiga, deep in the heart of Siberia, 700 km from the nearest village. His purpose was to try to solve the mystery of Sasha’s drive to move there with his family over thirty years ago, in the hope of living in peace, and constructing a completely self-sufficient lifestyle. However, very rapidly this paradise becomes the scene of an open battle between two families who cannot live side by side, who cannot agree to a shared way of life. This impossible community is the central axis of Clément Cogitore’s film, photographic and sound work.
Plunged in darkness, the installation at Le BAL offers a total immersion for the visitor, at the heart of a narrative in several acts, each one a filmed fragment revealing another intrigue, each one with its own rhythm, place and action: arriving in Braguino by helicopter, Sacha’s dream, a bear hunt, the mysterious island where the children roam free, all built to the intense crescendo of an armed conflict. All of which throws us into a twilight world, as do the large, luminous photos in muted tones that track this journey.»
Léa Bismuth et Diane Dufour Curators of the exhibition «Braguino or the impossible community» Le BAL, 2017
