А. Монастырский, Н. Панитков, И. Макаревич, Е. Елагина, С ...

Then they were to approach the darkest spot and hang there a black oval (plywood, horizontal radius 1
meter; its presence in the big folder was to be discovered by a participant after seeing an appropriate
instruction). After returning to initial position they were to photograph the ―Dark spot‖ and comment their
activities to a tape recorder (see participants‘ narrations).
V.Mironenko conducted the action on the 5 th of April, 1983 near station Krasnogorskaya, Rizhskaya
railway line (in the evening).
I.Kabakov conducted the action on the 7 th
Leningradskoye highway (in the morning).
of May, 1983, 10 kilometers from Moscow along
Comment: V.Mironenko fulfilled the plan, except for the main thing: he left a white sheet of paper on the
oval. I.Kabakov only painted and photographed the “dark spot”, while leaning the oval against a tree.
Later he brought it back to Moscow. Therefore, he also failed to conduct the action. (see participants’
narrations).
(The first draft variant of the action was conducted on the 2 nd of October, 1981 by N.Alexeev and
S.Romashko, with the participation of A.M. in Losiny Ostrov park, Moscow). ]
A.Monastyrski, G.Kizevalter, S.Romashko, N.Alexeev, N.Panitkov, I.Makarevich, E.Elagina.
26. THE DIVISION
The viewers (89 persons) were brought to a field and positioned facing a timbered slope opposite a trail
that divided the forest. The group of viewers stationed itself 50 meters away from the forests‘s wall, right
before the perspective of the trail running upwards the forested slope. Soon one of the organizers
appeared on the trail, descending. When he approached, it became apparent that he was carrying a white
block on his back, with attached reels of thread that were unreeling as he walked on (deeper in the forest,
invisible to the audience, two other participants stood and held the threads‘ ends). Coming up the
audience, the participant with wooden block passed through the crowd that became divided in two by
hanging strip of threads. It also became apparent that the block had a trapezoidal elevation on its back
where tape recorder rested, taping the sound of spinning reels (although viewers were unaware of that).
After covering another 100 meters (total length of the thread was 200 meters), the participant with the
block disappeared from sight.
Meanwhile two organizers calculated the viewers in each half of the divided group and gave 62 envelopes
to 62 viewers. Inscription on the enveloped said: ―The DIVISION of a group into 42 (on the right) and 47
(on the left) (the numbers were hand-written) TOOK PLACE on the 29 th of May, 1983. Collective
actions‖. Inside each envelope there was one half (right or left) of a picture, text, scheme or photograph
cut in two (a total of 31).
The reverse sides of pictures were labeled ―LEFT‖ and ―RIGHT‖ respectively, and in upper corners there
were numbers – i.e. 1a, 1b, 2a, 2b etc. After distribution of the envelopes one of the participants began
shouting these numbers as follows: ―Those who have pictures 1a and 1b, please come up!‖ etc. Viewers
approached a photographer in pairs, combining halves of the pictures to get a solid one and in such
manner photographed for ―double portraits‖. In the end of the action a group of viewers without
enveloped left without being photographed.
Moscow region, Yaroslavskata railway line, station Kalistovo.
29 th May, 1983
A.Monastyrski, N.Alexeev, G.Kizevalter, I.Yavorsky, I.Makarevich, E.Elagina, Tod Bludo, N.Panitkov,
S.Romashko.