"Art Caucasus. With Dagestan in my head" 6+

From November 14 to December 16, 2018, the interdisciplinary project “Art Caucasus. The Moscow Art Exhibitions” will be presented at the GRAUND Peschanaya Gallery-Workshop of the Exhibition Halls of Moscow Association. With Dagestan in my head ”, organized jointly with the State Institute of Theater Arts (GITIS). The exposition will include video and photo works, installations, performances, works of graphics and small plastic.

Co-curators: Dmitry Butkevich, Taus Makhacheva
GRAUND Gallery Workshop Curator: Katya Bochawar

Project participants: Anna Grebennikova, Elizabeth Guseva, Alexandra Dykhne, Varvara Ivanik, Anna Itkina, Maria Plavinskaya, Grigory Rakhmilovich, Evgenia Rzheznikova, Olga Sizoi, Katerina Shargina. (Workshop of D. Krymov - E. Kamenkovich, GITIS)

Project “Art Caucasus. With Dagestan in my head ”was born as a result of a kind of art residence, or, rather, art immersion in the traditional, religious-patriarchal-oriented environment of the North Caucasian society, where a group of students, stage designers and directors from D.’s workshop were brought to Krymov - E. Kamenkovich (GITIS).

The curators of the project, teachers of the course, artist Taus Makhacheva and art critic Dmitry Butkevich, plunged young theater artists into a previously unknown environment that either existed "in their head" or did not know anything about it. The name of the project echoes a line from the verses of the national poet of Dagestan Rasul Gamzatov: “I accept everything that will be, With Dagestan in my head…”

The result of the trip was an unexpected artistic statement filled with Dagestan and North Ossetian ethnographic and cultural exotics. Thanks to the art intervention of metropolitan artists in a society almost unknown to them, the invasion of active contemporary art in an unprepared environment, more than two dozen performances appeared, recorded on video and photo media.

The first “visiting” art residence of GITIS functioned on the territory of Makhachkala, the mountain village of Gunib (Dagestan) and North Ossetia for 7 days.

Project co-curator Dmitry Butkevich: “The task, it would seem, was not too complicated, like a kind of“ ethnographic adventure trip ”: to immerse young Moscow artists - students of the GITIS workshop of Dmitry Krymov - in an atmosphere of a different culture, different way of life, other social relations, different religion finally. They traveled to the Caucasus “with Dagestan in their head,” as Gamzatov said, with bookish knowledge about this land, with experience gained from the media and social networks or formed by public opinion. And sometimes even without any knowledge and experience. ”

Artist Taus Makhacheva: “Our project is quite experimental. This is a dialogue about how to develop artwork, learn to work with the environment, how a set of a priori cliches and ideas is processed when you find yourself in a completely different context. The path from the original idea to the artwork can be very different. The main idea of the project is how to understand another culture with the help of the cultural code that you possess. ”

In September 2017 part of the project was shown as part of the Alanika International Festival of Contemporary Art (Vladikavkaz, North Caucasus Branch of the NCCA (part of ROSIZO).

In Moscow, the exhibition will be presented for the first time in full. The project plans to conduct performative practices, discussions and creative meetings.

Gallery operation mode:
Tuesday-Sunday from 11:00 to 20:00. Monday is a day off.
Cost: 100 rub. (full) - 50 rubles. (preferential).