DENIS KRYUCHKOV

This film is about the "I Believe" exhibition, which was part of the special projects program of the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2007, curated by Oleg Kulik. The exhibition was held in the basement-ice cellars of a former wine factory in the center of Moscow, resembling ancient Roman catacombs and located just ten minutes' walk from the Kurskaya metro station.

The "I Believe" project was not about religious dogma, but about the feeling of awe before the mystery of life, akin to religious revelation. The exhibition became the most relevant, paradoxical, and large-scale artistic event of those times. The film's author conveys the excitement and fascination of the viewer as they make their way through the exhibition in search of the most subtle provocations by the artists.

The inhabitant of perhaps one of the most mystical rooms in the exhibition (the “Buratinia” installation) — a labyrinth constructed from fabrics, strong nets, tiles, and other debris, the artist-conceptualist Sergei Anufriev wandered through the exhibition, once again invoking the extraordinary and mesmerizing atmosphere that prevailed there.