Exhibition project "Space is ours!"

The exhibition project "Space is ours!", Which explores the space theme in the works of artists of the XXI century, will be held at the ARTSTORY gallery from April 8 to May 30, 2021. The exhibition is held in the year of the most important anniversary - the 60th anniversary of the first manned flight into space.

A multidisciplinary project that solves the problem of reflecting the space agenda in contemporary art already has a definite history. For the first time, an exhibition showing how interesting this topic is in general to Russian artists, representatives of both contemporary and traditional trends, was held at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art in 2014. Then she traveled to several regions of Russia; moreover, each time the body of the presented works changed significantly.

Participants of the new exhibition - 40 artists from Moscow and different cities of Russia: Alexey Azarov, Alexey Alpatov, Maria Arendt, Natasha Arendt, Alexey Begak, Konstantin Batynkov, Dima Virzhe (Omsk), Alina Belousova (Saratov), Rinat Voligamsi (Ufa), Andrey Grositsky, Alexander Dashevsky (St. Petersburg), Alexander Kabin (Yaroslavl), Alena Kalyanova, Sergey Katran, Vyacheslav Koleichuk, Taisia Korotkova, Maxim Ksuta, Kirill Kto, Anastasia Kuznetsova-Ruf, Oleg Kulik, Vasilisa Lipatova, Vladimir Lyubarov, Dmitry Lyashko, Vladimir Marin (Kaluga), Vladimir Migachev (Krasnodar), Nastya Miro, Mikhail Molochnikov, Damir Muratov (Omsk), Arkady Nasonov, Georgy Ostretsov, Vova Perkin, Ivan Plyushch (St. Petersburg), Kirill Rubtsov, Fedor Savintsev, Maria Safronova, Olga Soldatova, Vasily Slonov (Krasnoyarsk), Yuri Tatyanin (Lipetsk), Sergey Chernov,Dmitry Shorin (St. Petersburg), Sergey Shutov, Natasha Yudina (Tomsk).

The authors have created unique works united by one theme: space and its perception in modern society. Many of them were conceived and executed specifically for this project. The works are different not only in technical implementation (the exposition includes objects, oil and tempera painting, photography, sculpture, biocanvas and 3D printing, ready-made, pyrography, fireclay and glass, embroidery and knitting, panels using microcircuits and radio components); but also in terms of style (from hyperrealism to naive, from post-pop art to conceptualism); as well as semantic content. All of these are artistic interpretations that demonstrate the attitude of contemporary authors to flights, the sky, rockets, astronauts, satellites, famous scientists and designers. Before us appear as displays of real persons, events and facts in the field of space exploration,and philosophical and fantastic works on the theme of the Universe and man in it. Today, flights beyond the Earth’s atmosphere have become almost commonplace, and even space tourism is no longer a fantasy, people are seriously selling parts of the lunar surface and thinking about the upcoming colonization of Mars; while artists look into cosmic distances, into “infinity and higher,” and prophetically write the foundations of a new cosmic psychology.

A feature of the current exhibition project is the great attention from the side of artists to the personality of the first cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin. 60 years have passed since the first manned flight into space, but interest in a recognizable and understandable image of the protagonist of Russian space history has not dried up. For example, Natasha Yudina made the portrait of "Gagarin" in her corporate style - she knitted it on giant knitting needles. Alexey Begak created a portrait of Yuri Gagarin using the collage technique, using newspaper clippings from April 13, 1961. Thus, the author draws the viewer to the topic of memory that is relevant to contemporary art. Like a memory, the face of an astronaut is made up of scraps, fragments of information. Alina Belousova (Digitalina), in fact, touches the same topic: she puts together the image of a hero from fragments of printed circuit boards, microcircuits,screws and radio components - materials are more than relevant when it comes to technical and space issues. In this case, memory takes on a more material expression, the image is perceived a little more objective. Dmitry Shagin also addresses the topic of memory. His work Laika, Tereshkova and Leonov is a kind of homage to mass culture: the images definitely resemble postage stamps that were so widespread in the second half of the twentieth century.

The space of a fictional museum that unites all the technological and scientific achievements of mankind, in which objects are located regardless of their function or any logic, can be seen in the work of Taisiya Korotkova. The rocket is a model of a spaceship made according to drawings by Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, which is located in the Museum of Cosmonautics in Kaluga. In the foreground is a table with a meteorite. In the depths - a red fragment of a spacecraft from the Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow, and a cubic detail of an accelerator installation from an unnamed research institute.

The project "Open Space" by Maria Arendt is dedicated to overcoming the disunity of generations and the theory of the cosmist philosopher Nikolai Fedorov. It is a virtual message from four generations of artists from the Arendt-Eisenstadt family to the universe. The message, which is sent into space on an embroidered rocket, is synthesized from the works of art of previous generations and their descendants.

Maria Safronova and Nastya Miro in their images present a conditional "reportage" about the life of cosmonauts, examine fragments of their daily work. Miro dedicates work to people who have worked on significant space programs, such as, for example, the Apollo lunar mission. However, in this case, it is very important for the author to feel the involvement in the experience of the heroes of his paintings, so Nastya met with many of them personally. For Safronova, personal experience when working on stories is also valuable. Maria writes: “I was inspired by space images and modern films about space to create the“ Watch ”series. These images have been close to me since childhood: during the Soviet era, my parents worked in the space industry and participated in the design of the Buran orbiter. While working on the paintings, I read the diaries of real astronauts: about their life,reflections, sensations. " This approach of the artist creates a kind of "peeping effect", and sometimes even complicity. As it happens with the heroes of Dmitry Lyashenko’s canvases, for whom lunar landscapes have become almost commonplace, and the contemplation of the Earth through the glass of a spacesuit has become a routine. The characters themselves have turned into long-familiar collective images, memes.

Dmitry Zapylikhin fits the space theme into the context of popular culture - his drawings are more reminiscent of advertisements. This helps to make the works more "popular", understandable, weave the theme of space exploration into everyday life. And Vasily Slonov uses ready-made objects in the style of post-pop art, transforming the item of lingerie into the "Belt of the Ecumene". Vladimir Marin acts in a similar way, in whose hands an ordinary teapot turns into a "Polar Star".

There are also authors who create their own hermetic universes, but in an unexpected way broadcast the idea of communication through them. These include Alena Kalyanova with her "Signal Catchers" - fancifully elongated objects that recreate the microspace of deep meditation, a session of information exchange between the inner and outer space. Here it is worth mentioning Sergey Katran’s matrices, made from blanks for the Russian nesting dolls that are close to us all, but at the same time represent a complex coding system. Another work of Katran is a continuation of the famous American NASA mission. The artist is preparing the visual part for the new intergalactic mission Voyager 3. The works are made of birch bark, as this material has been tested and has shown its strength and durability in conditions close to extreme.

Mikhail Molochnikov with his "Architects", following the path of Kazimir Malevich, creates architectural variations on the theme of the future - it is with this practice that many associate the concept of "space" even in our time. These are colorful pillars created from regular geometric shapes that at the same time resemble objects of wildlife and hint at technological excellence.

Finally, the "Cloud", made using hand-made 3D printing and plastic, is a space that, according to Vasilisa Lipatova’s idea, can be touched; nebulae and clouds that you can literally touch; but, on the other hand, these are invented objects of a certain parallel universe, where life follows its own rules, and space materializes into objects according to its own rules.

Curatorial group: Dmitry Butkevich, Valeria Gallay, Lyusine Petrosyan.

Works provided by the authors; galleries 11. 12, Fine Art, NK Gallery, ARTSTORY, as well as collectors Lyubov Agafonova and Denis Khimilyayne.