Anna Jermolaewa’s installation shows 108 film frames. The high-resolution scans are from Sergei Eisenstein’s classic Battleship Potemkin. The famous silent movie of 1925 recounts the historic story of the Russian warship “Kniaz Potyomkin Tavricheskiy” (“Prince Potemkin of Taurida”). In the first year of the Russian Revolution (1905–07), the mutiny of the crew against their tsarist officers became a beacon of rebellion, a signal that helped the mobilization of the population at large. Made for the celebrations of the Soviet propaganda for the 20th anniversary of the revolution, Eisenstein’s movie has, until today, remained an important reference for filmmakers and artists alike. At the end of the third act, a red flag is raised as a symbol of the new political reality – hand-colorized by Eisenstein himself in all 108 frames of the original black-and-white shot. This coloration process is now repeated by Anna Jermolaewa. Her reenactment is a homage and a commemoration, one crucial element being, aside from the quotation, the translation into the present day and age.

evn sammlung, 2019 (translation: Michael Strand)