Danila LIPATOV

Danila Lipatov, b.1989, Russia

Danila Lipatov is a queer video artist born in Moscow. His works constantly converse with the Russian history and the traumas inflicted in the recent war, especially on the topics of gender, racism, and decolonization. Lipatov visits and collects images to create an alternative archive space of non-fictional autobiography that is both real and digital.

The Mountain Sickness of the Russian Border Guard is made of found footage by the artist. It documents the process of a border guard climbing a peak of the Pamirs Mountains in the former Soviet Union. Through the text he composed, the artist reflects on the traditional “grand narratives” such as “human conquest over nature” and “there is always tomorrow with science” in the narrative. Also, from the coarse sense of particles in the analogue video, one can further recognize how easy it is for the individuality of the human race to be erased surrounded by mountains, as we have no choice but to submit ourselves to the force of nature. Even if one climbs up to the pinnacle, he/she will suffer from hunger, cold, and utmost exhaustion, nevertheless. (S.H)