Espionage is the theme of the installation “looking at Russia through the binoculars of the people”, which is a quotation and interpretation of a text of William Burroughs.

The observer intrudes in the other’s actions, he violates the freedom - a freedom made of invisible borders, within which we are able to move without the influence or judgment of the outside world.

A government or a system which decides to spy upon its individuals in order to maintain its existence is a government of oppression and violation. It attempts to destroy the individual and make the single unit part of a mass of its creation, in order to function on its behalf.

The installation reverses the process of espionage and turns the visitors, which once were the subjects spied upon, into the spies spying on their own existence and past.

The visitor looks through old projector lenses embedded in a makeshift hut made out of wood found on-site. Materials specific to time and place can be seen through the lenses: traditional Russian artifacts which are now “kitschy”: reproductions of Russian propaganda posters dealing with espionage and paranoia, traditional toys (matrioshki dolls) and house-hold utensils.

Touching the theme of espionage in a relatively young Russia was not intended to “raise the finger” and remind the Russians of their difficult past.
That would be a presumptuous position for a western person and a hypocritical one too, living in the country which boasts about its total CCTV control --implemented “for our own safety.”
Rather the work is meant to awaken memories and moments in the past of a nation which has undergone radical change in a very short period of time.
Such a process tends to eradicate all heritage - the negative and the positive aspects - and with this, the danger of a system overtaking the vacuum that is left and using it to its advantage, but not actually changing anything to the advantage for the people.

“Looking at Russia through the binoculars of the people” turns the old into a cliché of itself, all of which can be acquired in souvenir shops on the high street.

Julian Ronnefeldt, Kronstadt 2003

Julian Ronnefeldt’s optical installation “looking at russia through the binoculars of the people” took fragments…found wood and metal from the site, matrioshki dolls, soviet posters, old projector, giant lenses, record players etc from local tourist markets and junk shops to create a peep show shelter within the storehouse. Playing with the idea of "spying" and "secrets" in this formerly closed town (closed throughout its history until 1996) Ronnefeldt invited the visitors to partake in this secret voyeurism privy to stop-motion illusions.