Fotografía contemporánea por Francisco González Fernández.

Danila Tkachenko «Restricted Areas»

La fuente de todo progreso tecnológico se centra en superar las prestaciones de cualquier producto vigente en todo momento. Pero esa regla, que podría constituirse en el simple hecho de que los seres humanos tuvieran una mejora en sus vidas, más salud, más bienestar, más confort o más expectativas de vida, se ha convertido en una utopía que alimenta de combustible a la lucha de clases que durante décadas y décadas soporta nuestra existencia, de manera que el beneficio que podría obtenerse para todos se ha tornado en la obsesión por disponer de aquella tecnología que garantice el poder sobre los demás.

La serie Restricted Areas de la fotógrafa Danila Tkachenko (Moscú, 1989) es un documental que visita los lugares de progreso tecnológico de la extinta URSS y de la actual Rusia y que quedaron por una u otra causa fuera de época y obsoletos.

Reliquias de un pasado que nunca llegaron a ser presente o futuro. Residuos, muchos de ellos, no ya de una utopía de bienestar social total, sino más bien del ideal de un poder gubernamental omnímodo y absoluto sobre los seres humanos.

Foto Portada y Fotos: de la serie Restricted Areas de Danila Tkachenko

Foto Portada: Monument to the Conquerors of Space. The rocket on top was made according to the design of German V-2 missile.

Foto 1: Airplane – amphibia with vertical take-off VVA14. The USSR built only two of them in 1976, one of which has crashed during transportation.

Foto 2: Tropospheric antenna in the north of Russia – the type of connection which has become obsolete. There were many of them built in far North, all of them deserted at the moment.

Foto 3: Former mining town which has been closed and made a bombing trial field. The building on the photo shows the cultural center, one of the objects for bombing.

Foto 4: City where rocket engines were being produced in Soviet times. Was a closed city until 1992.

Foto 5: Deserted observatory.

Foto 6: The world’s largest diesel submarine.

Foto 7: Antenna built for interplanetary connection. The Soviet Union was planning to build bases on other planets, and prepared facilities for connection which were never used and are deserted now.

Foto 8: Stages of the space rockets.

Foto 9: Headquarters of Communist Party.

Foto 10: Hangar at the former firing field for biological weapons.

Foto 11: Antenna for interception of signals.

Foto 12: Sarcophagus over a closed shaft which is 4 km deep – was one of the deepest scientific shafts in the world at the time.

Foto 13: Excavator on a closed quarry.

Foto 14: Ruins of experimental laser system «ZET».

Foto 15: Part of an unfinished space port.