Press materials can be downloaded here.
"until I die" is a sound installation operating on unique batteries that generate electricity using the artist's blood. The electric current produced by the batteries powers a small electronic algorithmic synth module. This module creates generative sound composition that plays via a small speaker. The blood used in the first presentation of the installation was stored up gradually over 18 months, and its conservation included a number of manipulations to preserve its properties. The total amount of blood conserved was around 4.5 liters; it was then diluted to yield 7 liters, the amount required for the installation. The last portion of blood was drawn from the artist's arm during the performance presentation, shortly before the launch of the installation. For this exhibition in Zagreb, as well as for all other exhibitions following the premiere, a substitute liquid is used instead of the real blood.
The installation consists of 5 batteries and its visual design was inspired by nineteenth-century engravings of experiments with electricity and batteries. The artist was motivated by the desire to create a technobiological hybrid device that uses its own vitality to create electronic sounds, turning him into an observer looking at his own performance by a device that exists as a result of his efforts and is located outside his body – thus, for a short period of time, achieving his own creative existence. The brevity of the installation’s lifespan is a core ingredient, a symbolic act evoking the swift decay of life which can be observed. The cornerstone of Morozov's creative work is the generation of electricity, along with the fact that his body's most important fluid can animate a device designed as an extension of himself beyond his body, establishing at the same time blood donation and transfusion as ways of sharing one’s vitality with another person or a hybrid system.
biochemistry consultant: Alisa Egorova
special thanks: Ive Tabar, Dmitry Bulatov