In May 1993, Kiev artists O. Hnylytskyi, M. Mamsikov, I. Oksametnyi, V. Raievskyi, O. Sidor-Hibelynda, I. Chichkan, and N. Filonenko organized and carried out a “criminal performance” in the center of Kiev. The idea was proposed by artist V. Tsagolov. The group was part of the unofficial artistic community “Parkomuna,” which was located in the center of Kiev in workshops and squats on Lenin and Karl Marx streets (now Horodetskoho street). The artists received official permission from the city administration to conduct the action under the guise of filming a movie. “The criminal scenario (imitation of a shooting in broad daylight in the very center of Kiev by a group of colleagues-artists) is only the external form
for the textually declared idea. Its essence lies in the realization of the world and reality as a solid volumetric television broadcast, and of the real space as a television one, which allows one to discover in oneself a television prototype, a television character and, as a result, to work in the space of the ‘hard’ ether. Thus, by discovering “hard television” for oneself, one gets rid of splitting and experiences of the imaginary and somehow enriches this endless series devoid of any sense” [5, p. 46]. The performance was embodied in the best traditions of American action movies: in broad daylight, on the central street, where artists were peacefully walking, a car arrived from which another group of artists jumped out and shot them. Everyone theatrically fell on the asphalt, covered with tomato juice that simulated blood. Television cameras immediately arrived at the scene to film the report. Spectacularity, suddenness, people in dark glasses and white bandit shirts, screams, gunfire, blood, asphalt corpses. All of this took place against the backdrop of picturesque blue film, which covered the reconstruction of the former “Sweets” store building. “The symbolic shooting of new communards (those who lived and worked in the building on Paris Commune street) coincides with the last years of the existence of the squat and completes the first period of the formation of contemporary art in Kiev. The interesting thing about this campaign is how the reality duplication method was applied, when fiction subverts and at the same time demonstrates the real but invisible state of things: extortion, gang fights of the 90s, property redistribution, contract killings
