KAZAN. INTERPRETATION 

Mixed media. 2017

The residency’s prompt, "A New Local History," tasked contemporary artists from Moscow with a paradoxical mission: to arrive in Kazan and "discover" the local identity of the Tatarstan region within a mere ten days. Driven by the art market's trend of "discovering provincial talents," a Moscow gallery sponsored the event, seemingly eager to extract cultural capital from a region with its own presidency, language, and distinct history—a territory conquered by Ivan the Terrible yet historically ignored by the Russian "center."

Mesiats and Petrokovich responded by performing a literalized, hyper-functional "exploratory expedition." They split the labor to mirror the power dynamics of the region:

• The Center (Mesiats): Remained in Moscow, acting as an "online historian." He directed the expedition entirely through Google Search algorithms, identifying "popular" locations remotely.

• The Periphery (Petrokovich): Deployed to Kazan as a "human drone." He acted as a mechanical eye and hand, physically visiting the algorithmic coordinates to document them without emotion, explanation, or interpretation.

The resulting series highlights the disconnect between the digital gaze of the capital and the ground reality of the province. To complete the critique, the artists conducted frank interviews with other residency participants, exposing the colonial undertones of the project. Presented as a bureaucratic report—mimicking the aesthetic of state administration—the installation was summarily removed following a visit from the main sponsor.