Volynov's Teeth

From 2009-2012 Leanne Bell Gonczarow lived in Moscow, Russia, working from a studio on ул. Нижняя Сыромятническая. Before relocating to London in July 2012 she climbed some stairs on переулок Верхний Сусальный, entered a second hand bookshop and purchased a soviet era encyclopedia (extolling the virtues of the Soviet Union in the year 1969). After a trip across Europe, the book now rests on a table in her London studio. 

In 2013 an arts festival – Art Moment – was held in the area she had once lived, worked and shopped. For the duration of the festival (03.08.13 12:00-24:00) Bell Gonczarow transmitted a web stream of an image located on page 285 of the 1969 encyclopedia. The broadcast was screened on a soviet era television around the corner from the shop where the book was bought.

The image is a still from a televised broadcast of the take-off of Soyuz 5 on 15 January, 1969 – a momentous journey that ultimately ended with a hard landing and the breaking of a cosmonaut's teeth. 

60 second time lapse documentation of the 12 hour broadcast