Dmitry Prigov's 'Pulsierendes Schwarz' Installation at ifa-Galerie Berlin

Moscow Conceptualist Dmitry Prigov presented his installation 'Pulsierendes Schwarz' (Vibrant Black) at Berlin's ifa-Galerie from January 29 to March 21, 1999. The exhibition featured a stark visual environment dominated by black, white, and red, with symbolic objects arranged throughout the gallery space. A series of photographs titled 'The Third Eye' showed portraits with an additional eye drawn in black ballpoint pen, a recurring motif in Prigov's work. The main room contained a long table covered in black cloth and roped off with red string, displaying books, bricks, and a bottle wrapped in black velvet. Shelves held glasses filled with colored liquids labeled 'Russian Snow,' 'Child,' and 'Hope.' In a side room, a teddy bear hung suspended from the ceiling opposite a shotgun, with a red thread marking the trajectory of a mock bullet. This central piece reinterpreted the table as a sacrificial meal setup. Prigov's massive artistic output includes 20,000 poems with plans to reach 24,000 by year's end, alongside prose, plays, theory, performances, recordings, drawings, sculptures, and installations. The installation employed contrasting sign systems—sacral elements and playful deconstruction—without privileging either interpretation. Objects like eyes, black curtains, and newspapers appeared in multiple contexts, creating shifting meanings rather than a coherent system. The exhibition catalogue was available for DM 18.