Part of Trafó’s transdisciplinary focus Artificial Realities / Daily programme / Full focus programme

Arkadi Zaides, born in Belarus, was six when nuclear reactor number 4 at Chernobyl exploded in 1986. 

The radioactive cloud that has drifted over large parts of Europe since then instils fear. The invisible enemy is not only radioactivity: the Soviet Union also obscured information around the disaster. Thus, to this day this historic event remains shrouded in mystery.  In The Cloud, Zaides connects this nuclear catastrophe and another ‘cloud’ – that is, ‘The Cloud’ of Internet data that seems to float above our heads. This cloud also spreads (dis)information: the way facts, info, and propaganda are disseminated are being debated today more than ever.

In his performance, Zaides uses Artificial Intelligence in real time. Before our eyes a stream of text, images, and sound related to the events at Chernobyl appears, live. The performers go to work with this ‘output’, taking the form of the 'liquidators' – the crew and military personnel who entered the Chernobyl site. Thousands lost their lives after the investigation. Their suits – especially the gas masks – evoke the idea of contamination. They continue to haunt Zaides' imagination. In The Cloud, he confronts his deepest fears.  

“As AI technologies are increasingly integrated into the performing arts, the question of what we want to make art with becomes central in Arkadi Zaides’ documentary choreography. In The Cloud, visual and auditory material shapes an artificial reality that is critically re-embodied through the body. Misha Demoustier’s improvised movements respond to AI-generated data in ways grounded in his own subjectivity. How can the aftermath of the Chernobyl explosion and the work of the liquidators be (re)interpreted through both AI-generated material and the performer’s embodiment?” (Helen D’Haenens, e-tcetera.be)