"What’s going on in the world? It’s just winter"

Large group exhibition project “What is happening in the world? And just winter ”is dedicated to the coming winter, the most favorite holiday in Russia - New Year; snowy winter landscape and a special mood that, in spite of everything, is always born when one year changes to another.

The project will take place in the ARTSTORY gallery in an unusual format. From December 2, 2020, the works can be viewed individually, and many even purchased. It is also planned to conduct online tours of the exhibition halls. And in January 2021 - when, we hope, the authorities’ restrictions due to the pandemic will be lifted - offline meetings with artists participating in the exhibition will be held.

The exposition will include works by over 30 artists. Among the participants: Semyon Agroskin, Maria Arendt, Natalia Arendt, Konstantin Batynkov, Alexey Begak, Evgenia Buravleva, Rinat Voligamsi, Ilya Gaponov, Alexander Dashevsky, Alexander Kabin, Andrey Karpov, Maxim Ksuta, Boris Matrosov, Vladimir Migachev, Damir Muratov, Arkady, Egor Plotnikov, Ekaterina Rozhkova, Fedor Savintsev, Alexander Savko, Yulia Sopina, Ekaterina Sysoeva, Katya-Anna Taguti, Leonid Tishkov, Elena Utenkova-Tikhonova, Elena Fokina, Natalia Shalina, Alexander Shevchenko.

For some, winter is a time of detachment from the world and immersion in oneself. But for most of us, this is a Christmas tree, Christmas, New Year, gifts, a dream about childhood, and in general, "the turn of skates and joyful laughter."

Winter occupies a very special place in Russian culture. This is one of the most important components of our identity, giving rise to most of the stereotypes about Russia, which, for all their conventions, are very important as a set of key features of our country. Severe frost, white endless expanses, a hot Russian heart (without it it is simply impossible to survive in such a climate), "folk" aesthetics with its inherent (according to Bakhtin) "carnivalism" - with all sledges, skates, snowballs, a hot stove, a fur coat with earflaps, unrestrained feast.

The curators of the project - Lyusine Petrosyan and Mikhail Openheim - were interested in following how winter scenes are depicted in the works of contemporary artists. Through the prism of a given theme, as if through a piece of ice, look at how this artistic image changes along with a person’s self-identification.

In the exposition one can meet Leonid Tishkov’s "bronzed" snowman. Andrey Karpov’s canvases are a kind of homage to Peter Bruegel the Elder, perhaps the most famous “singer of winter entertainment”. Rinat Voligamsi’s retro-photorealistic "signature" works echo the nostalgic childish images of Ilya Gaponov - boys in Soviet-era earflaps, painted like photographs with sepia effect. Elena Fokina’s canvas "Snow in Koktebel" presents a very unexpected look at the southern nature, lapidary, strict, even stern. Snow caps of houses - "snowdrops" and railway tanks ("The Road to the North") Alexander’s Cabin are unexpectedly consonant with the mysterious forest "Skull" Damir Muratov.Fabric graphics by Maria Arendt and "carnival" phantasmagorias on New Year’s themes from Alexander Savko and Arkady Nasonov also involuntarily enter into a dialogue. The works of former members of large art associations are interesting: the recognizable "Skiers" by Konstantin Batynkov (Moscow "Mitki") and an ironic lonely chair in a snowdrift next to a tree by Boris Matrosov ("World Champions"). The deserted landscapes of Yegor Plotnikov, Evgenia Buravleva and Semyon Agroskin are an example of a completely different, contemplative tonality in the display of the winter theme. Finally, “Little Houses” by Fyodor Savintsev - unique from an artistic and technical point of view, photographs depicting six-hundredth summer cottages somewhere in the Arkhangelsk region.recognizable "Skiers" by Konstantin Batynkov (Moscow "Mitki") and an ironic lonely chair in a snowdrift next to a tree by Boris Matrosov ("World Champions"). The deserted landscapes of Yegor Plotnikov, Evgenia Buravleva and Semyon Agroskin are an example of a completely different, contemplative tonality in the display of the winter theme. Finally, Fyodor Savintsev’s "Little Houses" - unique from an artistic and technical point of view, photographs depicting six-hundredth cottage houses somewhere in the Arkhangelsk region.recognizable "Skiers" by Konstantin Batynkov (Moscow "Mitki") and an ironic lonely chair in a snowdrift next to a tree by Boris Matrosov ("World Champions"). The deserted landscapes of Yegor Plotnikov, Evgenia Buravleva and Semyon Agroskin are an example of a completely different, contemplative tonality in the display of the winter theme. Finally, “Little Houses” by Fyodor Savintsev - unique from an artistic and technical point of view, photographs depicting six-hundredth summer cottages somewhere in the Arkhangelsk region.Fyodor Savintsev’s "Houses" are photographs, unique from an artistic and technical point of view, depicting six-hundredth summer cottages somewhere in the Arkhangelsk region.Fyodor Savintsev’s “Little Houses” are artfully and technically unique photographs depicting six-hundredth cottage houses somewhere in the Arkhangelsk region.

The title of the exhibition is a line from the famous poem by Yuri Levitansky "Dialogue at the New Year’s Tree". The beginning of the year for the lyric hero of the poet is the period where the starting and ending points intersect, when the circle closes, time is reborn. The archetype of seasonality is a good metaphor for the whole cycle of transitions from one state to another.

What and how do artists now consider important to portray in winter subjects? Is the "climatic" component, the landscape, so important now, or are urban motifs, the attributes of winter in unexpected connotations coming to the fore? Or winter is no longer so universal and archetypal, and it has become warmer both in the climatic and in the psychological sense; and now some personal associations come to the fore? New images appear, accents change. Traditional winter motifs and plots can continue to live in the works of contemporary artists, but they become more and more individual, and sometimes even paradoxically change their usual meaning to the opposite.

- How will it all end? - It will be April. - It will be April, are you sure? - Yes, I am sure.

ARTSTORY Gallery: Moscow, Staropimenovskiy per., 14 (metro "Tverskaya", "Mayakovskaya"). Every day, except Monday, from 12:00 to 20:00. Tickets (100-200 rubles). Strict adherence to the "mask" regime.