Vasiliy Sumin. The Resemblance to the Speech Will Be Erased

Vasiliy Sumin only took a few belongings and a dog with him when he was forced to leave Russia. In his presentation the artist explores the effects of war and migration with artificial intelligence. The artist also explores the hidden stereotypes of normalisation in artificial intelligence databases. The work of the same name was created at the ZKM | Karlsruhe as part of a residency.

During Vasiliy Sumin's residency at ZKM | Karlsruhe in 2022, he engaged in collecting historical facts, soundscapes, and personal psychological notes, reflecting on experiences of repression. His dog and neutral network model was important, as well as online and offline humanitarian aid to war victims.

Sumin's exploration of the spaces in which real and imagined traumas are created and endlessly relived motivated him to explore artistic tools of resistance and healing. The exhibition unfolds in three interconnected parts that revolve around this search: 

Resistance consists of a video that explores Germany through various video recordings. Footage captured by a camera on a dog's body is combined with archival material and personal images of the artist, distorted and reinterpreted by an artificial intelligence.

Testimonies comprises several sculptures made from various artefacts created and collected by the artist. They show the journey of the three entities – human, dog and neural network – and are a tribute to all the victims of war.

Through dialogues with the neural network model as a psychological aid, in Healing the artist explores the nature of the subject and himself becomes a subject of research and mutual influence.