Tacita Dean

The Russian Ending, 2001

Within her series The Russian Ending, 2001, Tacita Dean documented historical and tragical occurrences through postcards. Single sheets added into a sequence obtain filmic quality. Dean wants the single parts of The Russian Ending to be understood as final images of imaginary Russian movies. At the beginning of the last century the last sequences of European movies were shot twice, while the ‘Happy End’ was replaced by a ‘Tragic End’, to be successful within the Russian audience. Therefore, the cycle is a rethinking of the intercultural similarities and differences between the east and west. It shows collective strokes of fate that are repeated throughout cultural or national boundaries. Moreover, it visualizes how the occurrences fall to be forgotten as well.