OBJECT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE 

Mixed media. 2017 

Max Mesiats' new project "Object of cultural heritage #5438" is a total installation. The media archeologist's tent is empty, but everything works as if it had just been abandoned: notes are scattered on the table, unfinished coffee is still hot, and the computer relentlessly broadcasts some stories. Reluctantly, we hear the story of a copy of a rotting burger in the back alleys of Manhattan, a copy of The Great Pyramid of Giza, a copy of the model plane that crashed into the twin towers on September 11. What do all of these stories have in common? Each of the "found" artifacts inside the tent are printed copies of models from the online archive 123Dcatch.com. It was a kind of social network where people shared scanned objects from their lives with each other and told their stories about them. For each copy, people received social approval in the form of likes. The most popular scanned objects on the social network were a croissant from Montmartre and a sad toy "Homunculus Loxodontus".