PHANTOM. A video installation by Anna Engelhardt

“Phantom” is a multimedia installation that traces a mythology of Russia’s ghost fleet - elusive ships that transport Russian oil across Europe in avoidance of sanctions. The project combines investigative research and CGI animation to trace the digital shadows of these vessels, creating a suspenseful immersive environment. It continues Engelhardt’s longstanding exploration of “infrastructural horror”, the genre she developed to investigate and expose structures of expansionism in their inherent monstrosity.

This two-channel video projection will create an elusive image moving between the projection surfaces. While the surface on the background will be made from standard black projection material, the surface closer to the viewer will be treated with a smart film. The smart film will be programmed to switch between the opaque and transparent states. In the opaque state, the smart display shows a projected image, while the screen behind it displays a blurred shadow of the object, for instance, a ship. In the transparent state, the smart display allows the image to pass through, and the image fully shifts to the background projection surface, while only a slight ghostly trace is visible on a smart display. The change of states in the projection will be synchronised with a soundtrack, created by the renowned electronic horror musician Yikii.

Anna Engelhardt is an alias of a video artist and writer. Her investigative practice follows the traces of material violence, focusing on what could be seen as the ‘ghost’ of information. She has shown her work at transmediale, Ars Electronica, TEA Tenerife Biennial, Kyiv Biennial, The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media, BFI London Film Festival, National Gallery of Art (Lithuania), Fundación Foto Colectania, ICA, International Short Film Festival Oberhausen. Engelhardt is a core faculty of the MA Information Design at Design Academy Eindhoven and co-editor of “Chimeras: Inventory of Synthetic Cognition” (2022, Onassis Foundation).

LOCATION:

El taller