My page. Exhibition of artists of the VK Talents project

On October 14, the Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art will host an exhibition of the winners of the My Page competition, designed for non-professional and novice artists of the VK Talents project.

"My Page" - a joint project of VKontakte and the Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art - is the result of the second competition for non-professional and novice artists of the VK Talents project. This time the theme of the competition was suggested by a solemn date - the 15th anniversary of the social network.

The authors were asked to reflect on their personal experience of being on a social network. "My page" is the top button in the VKontakte menu and a business card, from which the story of a user of the social network begins, and the creation of a personal profile is a kind of "self-design", modeling a certain image of oneself. Many participants took advantage of all available tools, supplementing the competition images with mood-consonant audio tracks or short text essays. This made it possible to create a unique situation of communication between the artist and the viewer, which is possible only in the virtual space.

The exhibition will include video art, digital and traditional painting, cross-stitching, ceramics and other techniques that are rarely found in a museum of modern art. More than 100 authors not only from St. Petersburg, but also from other regions of Russia will take part in the exhibition. The winners of the competition passed a serious selection - the organizers reviewed more than 2,000 works:

“By inviting authors to reflect on their personal experience of being on a social network, we received a lively response, as we did last year. The value of the “My Page” project is that it gives non-professional and novice artists the opportunity to “go out” to the viewer, and the museum - to find and present talented authors. We are pleased to host the exhibition following the results of the competition in Erarta for the second time - and we hope that this exhibition project, which allows the most active authors to show their works in museum halls, will become an annual event. This experience is quite exciting for young or practicing artists in their spare time and will serve as an inspiration for new experiments and beginnings. We hope that all visitors to the Erarta Museum who see this exhibition will have the same pleasure as we do, ”comments Ekaterina Atoyan-Milyukova,Director of External Relations of the Erarta Museum.

The competition, organized by VKontakte and the Erarta Museum, is designed to help non-professional and novice artists make themselves known to a wide audience: the works of the winners are presented in the largest private museum of contemporary art in Russia. The exhibition includes works that, according to the organizers, most deeply reveal the thoughts of the authors about the digitalization of art, the contribution of social networks to this process and how a modern person lives life as an artist and models his image on the Internet. To participate in the project, participants published their work in their community or on their personal page with the hashtag # vktalents_erarta21.

“VKontakte is 15 years old. And all this time we strive to ensure that talented authors receive the well-deserved fame. Over the years, users have created millions of communities, created and became popular outside of VK.

We are very pleased that the joint project of VK Talents and Erarta has continued on its way and we are opening the second exhibition where talented artists will present their works to the general public. Thanks to all the participants of the competition for their persistence and dedication to their work. We hope that this exhibition will become another stimulus for development, new victories and creative achievements ”, - Daria Ruzanova, head of VK Talents.