The first thing to catch the eye when you open satellite images of the lands near Kazan is the huge areas of artificial sand shores in Zaymishche, Arakchino, and in the Kazanka River flood plain. Opening the public cadastral map, you see a lot of islands in the mouth of Kazanka that do not yet physically exist. But, according to the Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastral Records and Cartography, where your eyes see water there is land allocated for development. The eager hands of public officials and businessmen create artificial islands that can eventually become a housing development, as it is the case in Arakchino. The flood-plain forests of Kazanka are clad in concrete: there is now a stadium with parking lots and other infrastructure. Predation of the environment is, sadly, an attribute of our times.
Working on this project, I met with environmentalists and activists who told me in great detail about their cause and struggles. I visited all artificial reclamations near Kazan to see it with my own eyes. I took lots of pictures and read various publications by the locals.
When making these works, I employed a personally important principle of simulated remote view. Like with other projects, I considered things in a time-lapse view that reveals changes unseen from within the situation. For example, my film Sand is compiled from satellite images of different years and it shows how piles of sand take the place of the river, how the familiar landscape changes right before your eyes.
My new work, Flood Plain, depicts the glowing screen of the Arena Stadium. The stadium was built on the territory formerly occupied by the Kazanka flood plain, with water meadows and lowland groves. Centuries-old oaks were uprooted, and the meadows covered with sand.
The other work, Water Meadow, shows the large-scale artificial lands from space. It is a small canvas that makes huge objects toy-like small.
Pavel Otdelnov. Zaimishe. 2017 oil on canvas 110x130
Pavel Otdelnov. Floodplain. 2017 oil on canvas 150x200
Sand. 2017 video, 4’ 43”
1. The Floodplain of Kazanka
2. Zaimishe
3. Sviyaga Logistics Center
4. Arakchino
5. Kazan Riviera
6. Millenium Bridge
7. Stadium Arena Kazan
The project produced with the support of the Department of Research Arts