Visitors Guidebook - La Maison d'Ailleurs

Stalker Experimenting the Zone

1 5.09.2013 02.03.2014

VISITORS GUIDEBOOK ПУТЕВОДИТЕЛЬ ПО ВЫСТАВКЕ СТАЛКЕР/ОПЫТ ЗОНЫ

Coproduction

Maison d’Ailleurs

Words of Warning

You are now going to enter the Maison d’Ailleurs’ at your own risks in exhibition Stalker | Experimenting the Zone, held to honour Andrei Tarkovsky’s eponymous movie. Produced in 1979 by the famous Russian film director and considered to be amongst the 20th century cinematographic masterpieces, this movie is a free adaptation of the novel Roadside Picnic (1972) signed by the two science fiction authors Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The visit will immerse you in the post-apocalyptic landscape – the science fiction genre to which Stalker belongs – and, on the second floor of the museum, you will discover the Zone created by the artist who designed the sets for the film along with Tarkovsky : Rashit Safiullin.

© Evgueni Tsymbal

Excerpt from the interview of the Professor Wolles, with the special envoy from the RAI : “What was it? The fall of a meteorite? The visit of the citizens of the cosmic abyss? In any case something just happened in our small country. The miracle amongst miracles: the Zone. Troupes were sent there. They never came back. It was encircled with police lines. It was a good idea. Really, I don’t know.” Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky

Remember

Extremely popular in Soviet Russia, the Strugatsky brothers (1925-1991 and 19332012) jointly signed some of the most surprising novels of post-war science fiction. Amongst these, Hard to be a God (1964) adapted for the screen by Peter Fleishmann in 1988, and Inhabited Island (1969) adapted by Fiodor Bondartchouk in 2008. Boris was an astrophysicist by profession and Arkadi had worked as a

translator for the army. Their first works have been devoted to the conquest of space and the prospects opened by technological progress.

Andrei Tarkovsky is a Russian film director who was born beside the Volga River in 1932 and died in Paris in 1986. His work, composed of only seven movies, has influenced the worldwide film industry. Stalker is considered to be his most complete movie. Released in 1979, it was presented

at the Cannes film festival in 1980. Despite Soviet censorship, Tarkovski addresses in his movies the problems of faith and identity while creating a highly personal aesthetic. Some of his sequence shots – extremely complex and astonishingly beautiful – became Classics.

What is the Zone? A message for Humanity? A gift from the aliens? To make us happy? A stalker’s fiction?

© Mosfilm

Ground floor | Chronology room

In the first room of the museum, you will get the opportunity to discover a short history of the science fiction trend – called post-apocalyptic – to which the novel and the movie Stalker belong. These stories, which are all about the end of the world and devastated societies, belong to a subgenre much older than usually considered. It aims to propose new societal models or some sorts of “Zones” more or less emptied in which humankind is confronted to itself and to its own history. In both cases, fiction is a laboratory that highlights some of the fundamental dimensions of humankind.

Now is your chance to get a good look at some documents that will become your tools to better understand the essence of the Stalker phenomenon!

Unknown Zone | Personal data sheets

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THE STALKER

Name : Profession : Vocation : Marital Status: Age : Records : Personality : Hallmark :

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Alexander Kaidanovski Unknown Unemployed Illegal smuggler in the Zone Married, father of a disabled daughter About forty years old Has spent a few years in prison for entering the Zone Edgy and idealist A shock of white hair

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THE PROFESSOR Nicolai Grinko

Name : Profession : Marital Status : Age : Personality : Hallmark :

Unknown Scientist, responsible for the study of the Zone phenomenon Married About sixty years old Calm and determined Carries in his backpack a 20 kilotons bomb

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THE WRITER

Name : Profession : Marital Status : Age : Personality :

3



Anatoli Solonitsin

Unknown Fashionable writer Single Uncertain Cynical, bitter, drinker

1st floor | Literature, comic books, cinema and music

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LITERATURE ROOM

Tarkovsky’s movie, Stalker, is a free adaptation of the novel Roadside Picnic written by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky in 1972. It tells the story of a Stalker, whose profession it is to enter the Zone – a place that became dangerous after some aliens’ visit – in order to retrieve objects left behind by these otherworldly visitors. For censorship reasons, the novel was not published in its entirety for eight years and,

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when it finally was, in 1980, it contained many lacunas. An English translation was nevertheless published in 1977. However, it is only in 1991 that a complete Russian version was published. You will find here some of the different novel’s editions: the Zone became a universal phenomenon and the novel, which inspired it was translated in various languages.

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COMIC BOOKS ROOM

The volumes – comic books, original drawings – that you will find in this room all belong to the post-apocalyptic genre and recall us that depictions of destroyed worlds are central to it. Indeed, the Zone is an image in which we project ourselves

and through which we can immerse ourselves in a universe that represents the “dark side” of ours.

1st floor | Literature, comic books, cinema and music

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MOVIE ROOM

Tarkovsky’s movie is considered to be amongst the masterpieces of the 20th century cinematographic art. It made a deep impact in its time and still continues to influence – beneath the surface – the actual production of science fiction. In this room, posters from post-apocalyptic movies from the 1970s’ have been specially disposed to confront some 2000s’ Hollywood productions. The end of the world

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or devastated Zones are themes that are fascinating to us since they force us – through fiction – to live in a destroyed universe.

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MUSIC ROOM

Surely, the post-apocalyptic is essentially a literary or graphic genre but it has also influenced the musical field. Listen to the CDs’ songs exhibited in the three cells of this room. This way, the Zone will start to be felt, to become something else than

an image, to reveal its true nature as an emotional “experiment”.

2nd floor | Left room

ON THE FLOOR

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One of the most dreamlike scenes of the movie Stalker is reconstituted by this aquatic view. The sequence opens on a shot of the main character’s head and then slides above water. While shooting the movie, Andrei Tarkovsky himself displayed in it various mysterious and symbolical objects. At your feet are the remains of a post-apocalyptic world!

The movie ends on an intriguing sequence in which the Stalker’s daughter casually moves objects over a table. The Zone seems to have endowed her with telekinetic powers. You have now spent quite a bit of time in the Zone yourself, sit and check if the Zone has given you a similar power…

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TELEKINETIC TABLE*

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CORRIDOR BETWEEN THE TWO ROOMS

For about fifteen years the Swiss photographer Jean-Jacques Kissling has been doing travel-wanderings in various cities, while taking one picture every minute. In 2009, he went through the town of Pripyat, which is located in the contaminated zone around Chernobyl. In 1986, following the sadly notorious nuclear catastrophe, the fifty thousand inhabitants of Pripyat were evacuated in less than twenty-four hours. Since then, it is a ghost town. At that time, Tarkovsky’s movie was so famous in Soviet Russia that those who entered the Zone used to call themselves “the Stalkers”.

* Interactive installation realized by HEIG-VD

2nd floor | Right room

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THE STRAY DOG

THE GATE*

A stray dog wandering in the Zone comes out of the fog. He follows you, watches you… This ghostly apparition is all the more surprising since, according to the Stalker, “nobody can survive in the Zone”.

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Congratulations ! You have reached the threshold of the Chamber of Desires. Beyond the impressive “gate” designed by Rashit Safiullin appear the former visitors of the Zone’s desires. You cannot access this room but you can write or draw your desire in a secret place located somewhere else in the Zone. Continue to look for it!

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ON THE WALLS

Preparatory sketches and drawings made by Rashit Safiullin for the “Chamber of Desires” sequence, 1978-1979. Technique : Oil on cardboard, charcoal, pencil.

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THE BOTTOMLESS PITS*

In the Zone, space and time do not occur in the usual way. Throw your nut in the pit and count the amount of seconds it takes to reach the bottom!

2nd floor | The Zone is everywhere

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A (POST-)APOCALYPTIC SHOOTING

Andrei Tarkovsky received a special Kodak film for the shooting of Stalker. However, in Moscow while the development was taking place, a mistake (or a sabotage?) irreparably damaged the film. A year of shooting was lost ! Tarkovsky found the courage to start all over again but with a much lower budget. Moreover, the location chosen to shoot the outdoors scenes (in particular an abandoned hydroelectric power station near Tallinn, in Estonia) was particularly polluted. The Zone did not originate from an installation : the camera crew had to enter a “real Zone”.

1 - © Mosfilm

“The Zone is a carefully blended system of traps, all of them deadly. I don’t know what is going on in here, in the absence of mankind, but people need only to show up for it to start. One may end up assuming that the Zone has its whims. In reality, it is what our psychological state of mind makes it.” Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky

2nd floor | The Zone is everywhere

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THE SET DESIGNER

Born in 1949 in the Tatarstan, Rashit Safiullin was lucky to be hired by Andrei Tarkovsky as the artist-decorator of his movie. In 19761977 he had already worked with the filmmaker on a staging of Hamlet at the Lenkom theatre in Moscow. Displayed for the first time in Occident, you now discover his sketches, his preliminary paintings and his work pictures as well as an eight minutes

short-movie shot by Rashit on the set of Stalker. After having worked for theatre productions and designed some Russian museums’ settings (Pushkin Museum in Moscow, Tarkovski Museum in Zavrajie, by the Volga River) he came to the Maison d’Ailleurs to bring this exhibition to life. He currently lives in Moscow.

2 - © Potemkine Films & Agnès. B

Paradoxically, the definition of the Zone applies to our everyday environment. The explosion of a pesticide factory in Bhopal (1984), a tsunami ravaging the nuclear power plant of Fukushima (2011), the asbestos scandal, the use of bisphenol A in

polycarbonate baby bottles, the air pollution that kills about two-millions people each year in the world…. The Zone is everywhere : we live in it.

Mezzanine | The Chamber of Desirs

Having come this far, you now deserve a little rest! Take a seat on one of the “sand dunes” to watch the videos and meditate…

Extracts of the films shown in the exhibition : Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky An interview with the Photography Director, Alexander Kniajinski An interview with the decorator, Rashit Safiullin An interview with the composer, Eduard Artemyev Tchernobyl 4ever - Alain de Halleux “Super 8” film, made during the shooting of Stalker - Rashit Safiullin Short movies on the theme “deepest desires” – Students from the COMEM department – HEIG-VD, as part of audio-visuals, 2nd year classes.

© Evgueni Tsymbal

“It’s the most important moment of your life. Know that here your dearest wish will be fulfilled. The most sincere of all your wishes, the one that made you suffer the most. Don’t say anything. You only need to focus. Try to remember your entire life. When Men think of their past, they become better. What is most important is faith!” Stalker - Andrei Tarkovsky

Mezzanine | The Chamber of Desirs

Walking through the Zone has led you closer to yourself. In front of you lies the “Table of Desires”. Write or draw your wish with your finger and let it go and be transformed in the Zone… Original idea from Alexandra Kaourova, realized by the HEIG-VD.

© Rashit Safiullin

2nd floor | Left room

WALL 1

WALL 2

Pictures taken on the shooting location of the movie Stalker including portraits of Rashit Safiullin and Andrei Tarkovsky, pictures of the actors and of the rest of the crew as well as of the industrial buildings of the Zone created in Estonia, near Tallin. Notice at the entrance of the Zone the symbol “UN” (which stands for “United Nations”) which recalls us that the Zone is under international protection. Also spot the dam on which the Stalker’s dream scene was shot. 1978 -1979 © Rashit Safiullin, © Mosfilm

Pictures taken on the shooting location of the movie Stalker: the dam scene, Rashit Safiullin building a set, barbed wires, shed, track motor car scene. Shots cut during the editing process: the Stalker and the writer, the fire on water, the professor near the canal. 1978 – 1979 © Rashit Safiullin, © Mosfilm, © Vassiliev, © Alexandre Poverin

BETWEEN WALL 2 AND 3 Banner : Andrei Tarkovsky and the actor Anatoli Solonitsyn who played the professor during the filming. 1979 © Evgueni Tsymbal Generously offered by the photographer

WALL 4 Sets of the movie : the “dunes” with Rashit Safiullin on the left, Mosfilm studios 1979 © Rashit Safiullin Andrei Tarkovsky, Kazan 1979 © Farit Gubaev Generously offered by the photographer Rashit Safiullin on the shooting location 1979 © Rashit Safiullin Argumenty I fakty Magazine, Number 17, 1996 Left page : An interview with Larissa Tarkovsky, widow of the filmmaker who died ten years earlier. She averts her intention to preserve her husband’s memory through exhibitions and the publication of Tarkovsky’s archives. Right page : An interview with the famous writer Svetlana Alexievitch who dedicated a book to the witnesses of the Chernobyl catastrophe (Voices from Chernobyl : The Oral History on a Nuclear Disaster). It can be seen that the Chernobyl Disaster and Tarkovsky’s death occurred during the same year, in 1986.

WALL 3 Shots cut during the editing process: the Stalker walks outside the Zone, the streets around the industrial city around the Zone, the writer outside and inside the building, the professor and the Stalker in a field, Rashit Safiullin talking to the actor Anatoli Solonitsyn, Rashit Safiullin in the burned car and on the ruined tanks, pictures of the shooting with Andrei Tarkovsky. 1978 – 1979 © Rashit Safiullin

ON THE GROUND “Aquatic panorama” installation, 2013 Pictures : sequence shot of the movie Stalker Idea and realisation : Rashit Safiullin Interactive installation “Telekinetic Table”, 2013 Idea : Rashit Safiullin Realisation : HEIG-VD Projection “Fire on Water”, 2013 Idea : Rashit Safiullin Realisation : HEIG-VD

CORRIDOR Pictures of Pripyat. © Jean-Jacques Kissling

2ND floor | Right room

ON THE SCREEN

MEZZANINE

Interactive projection “The Black Dog”, 2013 Idea : Rashit Safiullin Realisation : HEIG-VD

Interactive table that is part of the “Chamber of Desires” installation, 2013 Idea : Alexandra Kaourova Realisation : HEIG-VD

Rashit Safiullin’s preparatory sketches for the movie sets 1978-1979 Oil on cardboard, pencil, charcoal, paper Gate of the Chamber of Desires, 2013 Realisation : Rashit Safiullin Interactive installation “Bottomless Pits”, 2013 Idea : Rashit Safiullin Realisation : HEIG-VD

WALL 1

WALL 2

2 – A2

WALL 3

WALL 4

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Maison d’Ailleurs Museum of Science-fiction, Utopia and Extraordinary journeys Place Pestalozzi 14 Yverdon-les-Bains, Suisse tu-fr : 14.00-18.00, sa-su : 11.00-18.00 www.ailleurs.ch

Project lead: Maison d’Ailleurs

Scenography : Rashit Safiullin

Exhibition curators : Alexandra Kaourova & Eugene

Coproduction

Main partners

CENTRE INTERNATIONAL DE L’UNIVERSITÉ D’ÉTAT DE MOSCOU LOMONOSOV

Official partners

BOTSCHAFT DER RUSSISCHEN FÖDERATION IN DER SCHWEIZ

Economic partners

Event partners

Media partners

Mosfilm