Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents “Observation Station”, Marina Fomenko’s total installation that explores new life conditions of contemporary human being who constantly is or might find himself under observation. The project unites various genres, including photo and video, sound and flash animation. Photo and video materials for “Observation Station” project were taken by the author in September 2009, during her visit to the artists’ residence of Upernavik Museum in Greenland. 

Marina Fomenko has graduated from the “Independent Workshops” School of Contemporary Art 

of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art. She is a regular participant of “Workshops” – annual exhibitions for young art. Her solo project “Traces of Memory” was shown in the Museum in 2007 as part of “Debut” program. Marina Fomenko’s works are in the museum collection. 

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Marina Fomenko about the “Observation Station” project:

In our everyday life we watch others or find ourselves under observation almost all the time. We are being watched by surveillance cameras in airports, hotels, shops, and motorways. We allow others to peep on us through the Internet and spy upon other people. A great number of photo and video lovers observe everything around them. We are spied from satellites; we peep into other people’s windows and cell phones. 

“Observation Station” project is a total installation where the atmosphere of observation thickens, creating a closed concentrated space of surveillance. Anyone who enters the Station finds himself involved in the process of observation. 

An observation station is a hypothetic structural unit of the observation system. It produces different types of observation: observation of the objects observed by the Station, observation of visitors of the Station, self-observation of the very Observation Station, observation of the Observation Station staff, observation of the supervisor of the Station, observation of ourselves, observation of collections of observation records and so on. 

We find the Station when it is being relocated. But all departments continue working. 

Station operations are overseen by the Station Supervisor, who is a person in charge for safety of the collections of observation records, photo, audio & video archives, which are stored in the Station, as well as for recovery of damaged archives and collections, for deletion of unnecessary observation records.