January 23 in the XL Gallery opens a group exhibition "U.A." - an unknown artist, the final part of the curatorial trilogy, dedicated to the artist and his daily routine. The artists Vika Malkova and Natasha Timofeeva, acting as curators, tried to understand the artist's recursive connections, his identity and freedom of expression in the actual temporal context.
The project draws attention to problems of a moral nature: ambitiousness can become a purposefulness or just one of the manifestations of overestimated self-esteem and ambition? The project does not bear independent significance, but is an integral part of the general curator's statement: the anti-exhibition "Heartburn" became the quintessence of a frustrated, lost artist, entangled in an endless series of Moscow exhibitions, where the individual voice of the artist is lost amid a general artistic cacophony; "Sclerotia" exposed invisible ties, entangled with personal relationships and obligations. "U.A." - an attempt to understand yourself, in your status and opportunities, that is, the exhibition is aimed at self-reflection and analysis. Irony as a metaphor for complex, serious things and situations; The choreography of exhibitions is absurd and grotesque.
The participants of the exhibition are closely connected with the activity of the artist-run space gallery Electrozavod, most of which continue to work, or are friendly to the site and are the very links that are fragile, but not yet lost to the end. Romanticization of self-organizations has already become a cliche stamp in the artistic environment. The vertical vertical of symbolic power that is invisible to the external view within such communities makes them closed systems with their hierarchy and cultural values. U.A. went beyond their limits, it is a project that has absorbed all the experience of organizing grassroots initiatives, but transformed at a visual and semantic level. This literal autonomy, the mythical desire for it raises the main question, the question of autonomy in art. How much is it possible, because a modern artist acts as a marker of socio-political processes?
The installation includes objects of predominantly organic origin, the temporal character of which best conveys the ambitions and possibilities of the young artist.
About the curators:
Vika Malkova graduated from the Institute of Contemporary Arts (2007), Moscow State Art and Industry University. S. G. Stroganov (2005). Works in tandem with Paulina Moskvina. Residents and active participants artist run space gallery Electrozavod (2014-2018)
Natasha Timofeeva graduated from the Russian State University for the Humanities (2005), the School of Contemporary Art "Free Workshops" at MMOMA, the Institute for Contemporary Arts. Co-founder and active participant artist run space gallery Electrozavod (2012-2017) The artist works in the genre of installation and site specificity.
Participants:
Alma, Elena Artemenko, Dima Gred, Natalya Grezina, Dasha Gusakova, Alexander Batalov, Sasha Burkhanova-Khabadze, Elizaveta Veselova, Alexey Kuzko, Vika Malkova and Polina Moskvin, Angelina Merenkov, Anastasia Sukhareva-Morozova, Pavel Soloviev, Natasha Timofeeva, Timur Khurramov .
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