The exhibition "Walls are helping" completes the fifth season of Winzavod's Open Studios, which was inevitably influenced by an irresistible force in the form of a pandemic affecting, one way or another, each of us. The name of the exhibition simultaneously refers to the home as to the type of space and the laws of the exhibition space organization, to the principles of the white cube. 

Participants: Alina Brovina, Andrey Stadnikov, Anna Kondratyeva, Bella Pokrova, Ivan Volkov, Ivan Simonov, Ekaterina Gerasimenko, Maria Aligozhina, Maria Filimonova, Misha Goodwin, Nika Chernyaeva, Roman Kazus, Yulia Nemova.

The vernissage of the exhibition will be accompanied by an instructional time-specific performance "But it's not accurate" by the artist Lena Buzueva.

Exhibition curator and tutor of Open Studios Andrey Parshikov: "The fifth season of Open Studios was very different fr om the previous ones. The pandemic and related restrictions made their adjustments, and therefore there were one and a half times more artists, the existence of the season was more saturated, the dynamics of relationships and production of works were constantly changing, and the overall vector of development was impossible to predict. 

Artists constantly experimented with techniques, actively exchanged the results of these experiments, being even physically in closer domestic contact with each other than in previous seasons. Remembering the domestic self-isolation, spending time in the studios became an alternative to the recently experienced period, this space has become not only a classroom and workshop, but also a place of socialization, a holiday, a daily life. The studios have become "alive" as never before.  

Thanks to this, the need for authoritarian curatorship of the exhibition and artificial combination of works with a common exposition course has disappeared by itself. Instead, the graduation project, for the first time, performs the classical role of caring for the representation of the artists' works created during their work in the studios, as well as the design of the process of creating these works and thoughts of the artists in the form of small mudboards, creating the necessary volume and support the existence of these works. 

The task of the exhibition here is not only and not so much to activate the mode of displaying ready-made works, but also to demonstrate the previous research and intellectual tasks that led to the production of those things that the viewer sees, in familiarity not only with the works, but with the authors themselves. Instead of a coherent and coordinated choir of works, the exhibition becomes a polyphony as harmonious as possible, but not necessarily, wh ere the works themselves are a little more than a finished form".

Open studios is a project launched by the Foundation for Support of Contemporary Art Winzavod as part of its strategic direction "Winzavod. New Names". It offers young artists a large-format platform for creativity, an actual educational program, an opportunity to integrate into a professional environment. 

The fifth season of the project started on June 10, 2020 and gathered 14 participants. To the existing programs "Workshop" and "Pop-up" added "Open Studios +", which were created to support an even greater number of both beginners and already known talented artists. 

During the current season, not only the educational program was strengthened, but also there were additional opportunities for individual and group statements - festivals, lectures, excursions, presentations.