The theme of Albert Soldatov's new project is the loss of the feeling of wellbeing, the growing
anxiety in the world today. Over recent decades, as a result of new technologies, civilisation has reached the maximum level of wellbeing, but at the same time it is evident that humanity is on the threshold of a new "epoch of uncertainty", on the verge of global changes.
"Shining" is the first solo exhibition of this young, but already well-known, Russian artist in the pop/off/art Gallery. The exposition will for the first time present his comprehensive video that gave the project its title, as well as a series of paintings created specifically for the exhibition, – before this the artist worked mainly with new media, never having tried painting. For Albert Soldatov "shining" is both an artistic method and a specific optical approach to viewing objects and phenomena that, like prophetic vision, creates a visual sequence. The word "Hashmal" (חשמל), pronounced in Hebrew and mentioned in the credits as "shining", in modern translation has one meaning – "electricity", which links it with optical media. It is also written in the book of the prophet Ezekiel (Ezekiel, 1: 4), where it describes visions of the divine chariot and can have more than one interpretation. Thus, it can be understood as a visionary characteristic of forms and optical phenomena. The video is made according to the Möbius strip principle: the outer space transforms into the interior, and vice versa – the interior flows into landscapes.
Here painting continues and develops the theme of the video and their visual sequence breaks up into fragments that resemble the pictures that we see on computer and smartphone screens: memes, net.art, documentary images fr om private life. As a whole, Soldatov's new series of works shows today's post-industrial world, wh ere virtual networks and media are intertwined with real life. The artist finds apt metaphors for its representation.
Albert Soldatov was born in 1980 in Moscow. In 2002 he graduated from the Moscow State University of Printing Arts, as a graphic artist. From 2010 to 2014 he studied at the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia in the "new media" studio. Laureate of the Kandinsky Prize in 2014 in the nomination "Young Artist. Project of the Year", he works mainly in video. He has had several solo projects and has participated in numerous group ones. Among them are the video programme CITIZENFIVE, Art Athina (2017, Athens), the Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art in the Garage Museum (2017, Moscow), the 9th Andrei Tarkovsky International Film Festival "Zerkalo" (2015), "Great Hopes" (2014, "Manezh" Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow), the special projects of Biennales and others. His works are in the collection of the Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, and in private collections. Soldatov lives and works in Moscow.
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