Mila Mikhailova

In her creative practice Mila Mikhailova seeks to introduce the principles of an artistic understanding of space into the sphere of urban planning. With the work ‘Norsvet’ Mikhailova studies the influence of the natural and artificial light environment of Norilsk on the emotional background of its inhabitants.

To create the installation, the artist identified characteristic features of the city’s light landscape and conducted a series of surveys among indigenous Norilsk residents of different ages about their perception of the polar night, as well as the colour and lighting of Norilsk at different times of the year. Fragments of the interview were re-voiced and assembled into a single narrative, based on which the composer Nikita Mikhailov created a polyphonic musical composition for cello, piano and celesta.

The semantic focus of the installation is the lighting design codes of Norilsk: one features the existing lighting scheme of the city, the other presents a new option – what the local people want to see. The results of such studies can serve as a basis for the development strategy of northern cities.