Mapping the System

“Mapping the System” is an artistic research project that explores authoritarian regimes and their influence on the private lives of dissenters, both within and beyond their borders. The project comprises an installation, a recorded performance, and a documentary book.

Rather than analyzing political systems by their usual factual aspects – institutions, power structures, laws, or individuals in authority – “Mapping the System” examines our understanding of authoritarian regimes through the lens of a private conversation. What do we notice when we focus on the traces of oppression that appear between words: in tones of voice, in self-censorship, in fear?

After watching a dialogue performed by two actors, viewers were invited to map their understanding of the system in which such a conversation could have taken place. The resulting diagrams were compiled into a book that seeks to visualise a regime that typically hides behind orders, enforced silences, and fractured relationships. Can these archived maps collectively offer insights into our understanding of authoritarian power and the resistance to it? Ultimately, can a private conversation lead us to new conclusions when extrapolated on the regime as a whole?

The project explores the subjectivity and diversity of experiences shaped by the disconnection that authoritarian systems impose on their citizens. While rooted in the author’s own experience and primarily based on the Russian regime, the project hopes to also question other systems of power and control.