DAU is a multidisciplinary project at the intersection of cinema, art, and anthropology, which had its premiere in Paris in early 2019.
DAU Film
DAU was initially conceived as a full length feature film about the life of a genius in troubled times loosely based on the biography of the Soviet physicist and Nobel laureate Lev Landau (nicknamed Dau).DAU: Strange, Repellent, Mesmerising, AddictiveDau ProjectDAU Cinema ProjectDAU. Natasha review, Berlin Film Festival
In 2006, the film was co-produced by Philippe Bober and Susanne Marian (Essential Filmproduktion, Germany), Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Germany), WDR/Arte (Germany), Arte France Cinéma (France), Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (Germany), Eurimages, Swedish Film Institute, Film i Väst (Sweden), Hubert Bals Fund (Netherlands), Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, and X Filme Creative Pool Entertainment GmbH (Germany). The funding provided by the Russian Ministry of Culture was recalled in 2015, and was returned to the Ministry.Russia's Ministry of Culture demands 'Dau' producer return funding
After the pre-production in 2006, the filming began in 2007 and took place in Saint Petersburg (Russia) and Kharkiv (Ukraine).How Khrzhanovskiy's DAU was Tailored. An Interview with Costume DesignersDau: a never-ending experiment in a Soviet laboratoryAbout DAU
Institute Location and principles of filming After the Saint Petersburg and Kharkiv shooting blocks, the production ceased to function as a conventional film shoot and became a continuous, immersive world in which participants lived their assigned roles full-time, under constant surveillance, rather than acting out scripted scenes.
The project unfolded on the territory of the largest shooting location in Europe spanning 12,000m2, named the Institute, built on the site of the former Dynamo Aquatic Stadium in Kharkiv, Ukraine.About DAUDAU: Strange, Repellent, Mesmerising, Addictive
How the location functioned and was used in the filming has suggested parallels between DAU and such projects as Synecdoche, New York and The Truman Show.Inside Dau, the 'Stalinist Truman Show': 'I had absolute freedom – until the KGB grabbed me'DAU. Natasha review – an exquisitely sinister study of Soviet oppressionAFTER 14 YEARS, ‘THE STALINIST ‘TRUMAN SHOW’’ HAS FINALLY ARRIVED
The film set was functioning 24/7, regardless if shooting was occurring.Dau ProjectInside Dau, the 'Stalinist Truman Show': 'I had absolute freedom – until the KGB grabbed me'The Movie Set That Ate ItselfAbout DAUIt Started as a Movie. As It Ballooned, Its Troubles Mounted The DAU cinematographer Jürgen Jürges designed a special lighting system that allowed shooting at any point without setting up lighting equipment.DAU. NATASHA by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel„Dau“-Kameramann Jürgen Jürges hat drei Jahre am Set gelebt: Wie hält man das aus?
The territory of the Institute comprised laboratories, newspaper editorial office, a canteen, residential buildings, the First Department, a hairdresser's, maintenance staff premises; the employees were paid in Soviet rubles.About DAUThe Movie Set That Ate ItselfOrdinary people lived in a replica of Soviet times. Were they abused for art in a daring new film? For filming, 40,000 costume elements were produced and purchased.How Khrzhanovskiy's DAU was Tailored. An Interview with Costume DesignersDAU. NATASHA by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel The architecture, costumes, everyday items, food created a phantasmagorical reconstruction of the Soviet era of the 1930s to 1960s, where the characters lived.“DAU is a process” A Conversation with Director Ilya KhrzhanovskiyInside Dau, the 'Stalinist Truman Show': 'I had absolute freedom – until the KGB grabbed me'About DAU This format was made possible with the support of Serguei Adoniev, who supported the project in 2007-2019.Inside Dau, the 'Stalinist Truman Show': 'I had absolute freedom – until the KGB grabbed me'Dau: a never-ending experiment in a Soviet laboratory
In November 2011 the shooting was finished and the location was destroyed, the destruction itself becoming a part of the story Dau Project The survived items(small and large props, artifacts, costumes) have been preserved and used in other DAU contexts.DAU: Strange, Repellent, Mesmerising, AddictiveDAU PARIS 2019: PROJET IMMERSIF UNIQUE SIGNÉ ILYA KHRZHANOVSKYDau Project
Characters The auditions for DAU involved 392,000 non-actors.НАТАША»DAU. Natasha review, Berlin Film Festival Around 200-300 non-actors lived on-set at any one time DAU. NATASHA by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel and around 400 were filmed including scientists, musicians, artists, composers, religious leaders and philosophers, as well as waitresses, cleaners, secret police officers, cooks and hairdressers.Dau: a never-ending experiment in a Soviet laboratoryApocalypse Dau: the most insane film shoot of all time, and why you may never get to see itDAU: Strange, Repellent, Mesmerising, AddictiveApocalypse Dau
The unscripted process was filmed intermittently from October 2009 to November 2011 during which no modern clothes including underwear, no modern sanitary products or any other modern objects or vocabulary were allowed on the set and period costume, make-up and hairstyles were required from everyone including the crew, regardless if shooting was occurring.DAU. NATASHA by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina OertelInside Dau, the 'Stalinist Truman Show': 'I had absolute freedom – until the KGB grabbed me'The Movie Set That Ate ItselfAbout DAUIt Started as a Movie. As It Ballooned, Its Troubles MountedDau's Totalitarian Reality Show„Dau“-Kameramann Jürgen Jürges hat drei Jahre am Set gelebt: Wie hält man das aus?
With no script or takes, the characters acted and reacted in the meticulously designed circumstances, sometimes staying on set for months.DAU. NATASHA by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel“DAU is a process” A Conversation with Director Ilya KhrzhanovskiyDAU. Natasha press conference: The bizarre alternate reality of the DAU projectInside Dau, the 'Stalinist Truman Show': 'I had absolute freedom – until the KGB grabbed me'
'Placed in a real replica of a Soviet institute, with its authentic smells, clothes and interiors, social behavior and social dispositions, the hero feels placed in a semi-real space-time. And it's the actor who becomes the first spectator of "DAU", finding themselves between the immanence of their own presence in the present and the absurdity of someone else's, but reconstructed time and space'.«Дау», фильм-сон. Как Илья Хржановский поместил участников съемок в сюрреалистическое безвременье
Everyone, with the exception of Dau (conductor Teodor Currentzis), his wife (actress Radmila Schegoleva), their son (as young adult - musician Nikolai Voronov), and Krupitsa, director of the institute from 1938 to 1953 (theater director Anatoly Vasiliev), lived in the Institute under their own names. Their real biographies were adapted to Soviet realities.Here's why you shouldn't fear the unmissable DAU in Paris and LondonDAU. Alena ZoyaInside Dau, the 'Stalinist Truman Show': 'I had absolute freedom – until the KGB grabbed me'
There were two scientific departments at the Institute. In the theoretical department contemporary theoretical physicists, neuroscientists and biologists were carrying out their research, including Profs. Nobel laureate David Gross, Fields Medal winner Shing-Tung Yau, Nikita Nekrasov, Dmitry Kaledin, Andrey Losev, Samson Shatashvili, Carlo Rovelli, Eric Verlinde, James H. Fallon, and others. Some of its results were published in academic journals.Simple model for quantum general relativity from loop quantum gravity by Carlo RovelliIntegral Equation for CFT/string duality by A.A.MigdalDarboux coordinates, Yang-Yang functional, and gauge theory by N. Nekrasov, A. Rosly, and S. Shatashvili In the experimental department, headed by Alexei Blinov, media and performance contemporary artists were conducting their experiments. Among the employees and the guests of the Institute there were Marina Abramović, Carsten Höller, Boris Mikhailov, Peter Sellars, Romeo Castellucci, Rav Steinsaltz, Peruvian shaman Guillermo Arévalo and others.DAU: Strange, Repellent, Mesmerising, AddictiveIt Started as a Movie. As It Ballooned, Its Troubles MountedHere's why you shouldn't fear the unmissable DAU in Paris and London
The Institute hosted conferences and seminars on quantum physics, string theory and loop quantum gravity, neuroscience, as well as experiments in areas beyond traditional scientific knowledge, such as orgone energy, teleportation and human superpowers.DAU : le projet fou d’Ilya Khrzhanovsky initié à Kharkiv en 2009Путь ДауПогружение в ДауКРАТКАЯ ИСТОРИЯ ИНСТИТУТА: ХРОНОЛОГИЯ «ДАУ» ГЛАЗАМИ МАТЕМАТИКА ДМИТРИЯ КАЛЕДИНА, УЧАСТНИКА ПРОЕКТА
The genre of the project. Film material and products The duration of the Institute material is 700 hours of 35mm-film.„Dau“-Kameramann Jürgen Jürges hat drei Jahre am Set gelebt: Wie hält man das aus?
The original idea of Ilya Khrzhanovsky to create a film about Lev Landau transformed, along the line, into a large-scale study of human nature, that continues to this day.DAU: Strange, Repellent, Mesmerising, AddictiveIt Started as a Movie. As It Ballooned, Its Troubles MountedDau Project In addition to the mentioned participants, the project involved, at various stages: artist Philippe Parreno, designer Rei Kawakubo, musicians Robert Del Naja (Massive Attack), Brian Eno, Vladimir Martynov, Tatiana Grindenko, Arca, Leonid Fedorov, Vladimir Volkov and many more.
There are disputes regarding the genre of the project: “Is it possible to create a work in the genre of an entire culture? Culture incorporates music, cinema, literature, painting, science, office work, all ways of social behavior and interpersonal communication. Khrzhanovsky created a work in the genre of culture of the 1930s–60s.”;«Язык — это главное противовирусное средство» “the DAU project, therefore, is not a Gesamtkunstwerk, but a work in the Gesamtkunstwerk genre, i.e. a kind of anti-Gesamtkunstwerk”;Gesamtkunstwerk Khrzhanovskiy? The Project DAU and the Legacy of Moscow Conceptualism “perhaps it is more correct to call it the most ambitious experiment in the field of the theater”;«Дау» — это не кино “the sprawling immersive-theater/film/installation project”;Soviet Time Warp in the Heart of Paris “a striking combination of documentary and feature films, artistic fiction and the truth of life, the imaginary and the real, the past and the present”;Here's why you shouldn't fear the unmissable DAU in Paris and London “somewhere between a behavioral experiment, a cinematic cycle and an art installation”;Dau: a never-ending experiment in a Soviet laboratory “a total artwork”;Per aspera ad astra, or Through Postcinema Toward Cinema, the Reverse Journey of Ilya Khrzhanovsky's DAU “this phenomenon can be called the territory of memory - individual, collective, historical and artistic”.DAU: Strange, Repellent, Mesmerising, Addictive
All of that said, a range of cinematic products have been created out of the DAU film material by various directors. The project has also taken other forms.
Movies, series, video performances 13 films of various genres were presented at the premiere of the project in Paris in 2019.Here's why you shouldn't fear the unmissable DAU in Paris and LondonDAU: Strange, Repellent, Mesmerising, Addictive