Manas (Utopian City). 2007
Installation

The model of an utopian city, located by the artists in Northern Tibet, that existed on two levels: the banal everyday life on the earth, and the contact with a loftier world, primarily, with the cosmos. This contact arose when the inhabitants had ascended to the peaks of the 8 mountains surrounding the city. There were various objects located on each of these peaks, and inside of these objects one could receive cosmic energy, one could interact with extra-terrestrial civilizations, wind up in gardens of paradise...

In the center of the city there was a deep circular cavity resembling the crater of an extinct volcano. But the unique thing about this place was not just these 8 mountains and the crater, but the fact that there was an exact identical city that was clearly discernible during certain days of the year, only this one hovered in the sky. Hence, the "earthy" Manas was an exact copy of the "heavenly" Manas.

(From a text in the exhibition.)