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DEMIKHOV DOG
Video installation, 7’ 23’’ ———> watch
2017
at Ignalina Culture Centre, Lithuania
Curator: Adomas Narkevičius, video commissioned by Rupert
Photos: Gedvilė Tamošiūnaitė
Demikhov’s dogs were the result of experiments conducted by the Soviet scientist Vladimir Demikhov, who carried out the world’s first head transplant operations in 1954. During the course of these experiments, two-headed dogs – able to survive for a short period – were created.
In the video, Sosunova uses these experiments as a conceit through which to discuss experiences of cultural difference and the rifts of identity that riddle the region in which she was raised. Reflecting on her own experience of growing up in a Russian-speaking family on Lithuania’s periphery, she mixes historical research and creative fiction to examine tenuously constructed feelings of community and belonging. The footage used in the work was sourced from across the Baltic region, and is combined with chimeric animated realities and not quite Lithuanian stories.