Viktor Brim

Beyond the Depths

The centrepiece of Brim's solo exhibition at M HKA, entitled Beyond the Depths, is his video installation Dark Matter (2020), which takes us to the vast Mir diamond mine in the city of Mirny in Sakha (formerly Yakutia), a republic in Russia's far eastern region of Siberia. Through a series of minimal tableaus, we observe this resource-rich landscape that stretches back to the period of Joseph Stalin when diamond mining was a lifeblood of the Soviet Union. Filmed during the special light of the ‘blue hour’ in this Arctic region, industrial machinery can be seen from a distance in the dystopic landscape that winds down into a colossal void in the ground, demonstrating how human agency, in the cause of ideology, inscribes itself onto the landscape. Dark Matter reflects the mining industry for which Antwerp is world-famous and at the same time establishes a contemporary link to geopolitics against the inescapable backdrop of the Russian war against Ukraine.

A new three-screen installation choreographs images from three projects that continue Viktor Brim's exploration of geology, time, economics and politics. Using film images from Mirny and Murmansk (both Russian Federation) and from Mansfeld and Rheinisches Braunkohlerevier (both Germany), it takes us from recent human history to a place where the deep geological time of natural metallurgical processes for rock and slag debris is accelerated to show it as energised and in transformation. The two installations in this exhibition are also presented in an ambitious architectural structure designed by Brim, made from the trapezoidal sheets typical of the industry and reminiscent of industrial mine shafts.

The Sound design and ambisonics mix are created in collaboration with Johanna Schütt.