multichannel videoinstallation | fullHD | 16:9 | stereosound
The faster growth the rate of online content production and the more society is atomized, the harder it is to grasp the essence of what is happening, to identify collective fears and motives. In the past, writers or cinematographers sometimes managed to do it by giving the next “hero of our time” the words that were on the tip of everyone’s tongue. If successful, the new icon spread around the world with posters, graffiti and school notebooks.
There can be no world-famous idol like Kurt Cobain today. Back in 2006, Time magazine, placed on the cover the words “You” from YouTube.com interface instead of actual “Man of the Year”. There was a devaluation of the heroic, erasure of the gene of heroism. But our desire to find the hero remains. It is still argued in kitchens and the presidential administration.
It is interesting how today it is cinematography, and its rich selection of personalities to choose from, that becomes an excellent platform for talking about heroism. Due to these problems, it is almost impossible to create a new powerful image, and directors have to shuffle endlessly the existing pack of cards. They are forced either to denounce the new reality, but then only antiheroes are born, or to escape from it into the past back to the merits of the Great Patriotic War and the long past Olympiсs.
Similarly, the main character of the “Hero Mode” finds herself in a synthetic, collage-like world inhabited by the characters of mainstream movies of the past thirty years. A conditional trigger for her stoic nature to reveal becomes a dangerous situation for her mother (or her motherland – it is not that important). However, further troubles turn out to be quite urgent – a ban on the sale of the necessary medication via the Internet, and then the stealing of electronic currency with the participation of foreign hackers. Desirous to deal with her opponents, the main character only meets other heroes from the past, who turn out to be an idle calque. The process becomes an end in itself, revealing along the way new formal video solutions.
