November 14–30
Exhibition project ID
Marina Gisich Gallery
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Participants:
Semyon Agroskin (Russia), Fellow Passengers, 2019
Marina Alekseeva (Russia), Disagreement, 2019
Karin Andersen (Germany–Italy), Naughty Messy Nature, 2014–2018
Karin Andersen (Germany–Italy), Christian Rainer (Italy), Stranger, 2006
Ludmila Belova (Russia), The Last Argument, 2009–2017
Anna Frants (Russia–USA), Jumping Jacks; Object №3. From the series “Made in Ancient Greece”, 2009–2015
Anna Frants (Russia–USA), Life is Struggle, 2009
Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov (Russia), Siren, 2019
Alexandra Lerman (USA), Tree Time, 2019
Ellen K. Levy (USA), Re-Invention: My Life as an Astronaut, 2006–2019
Marc Lee (Switzerland), Me, Myself & I, 2018 — work in progress
Kerim Ragimov (Russia), Pietà 5. From the series “Pietà”, 2008
Ekaterina Sysoeva (Russia), By One’s Own Laws, 2019
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Curated by Anna Frants (Russia–USA), Elena Gubanova (Russia)
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Fontanka emb. 121
Mon-Fri: 11:00 – 19:00
Sat: 12:00 – 18:00
On Saturdays, the gallery is visited by prior arrangement. Please call before your visit 8 (812) 314-43-80
Free admission

Semyon Agroskin (Russia)
Fellow Passengers
installation, 2019

Agroskin combines traditional artistic practice with actual media techniques. Sketches of bus passengers made on canvas serve as a pretext for creating the content of a multimedia project. The author devises and selects texts, music, video for each character. By pointing a tablet at a canvas fragment, the spectator sees the result of interaction between traditional art and new technologies.

Marina Alekseeva (Russia)
Disagreement
object, 2019

People’s life together in one space: the appearance and disappearance of illusions, movements, myths, beasts, and chimeras. The inevitability and swiftness of changes evoke the banal idea that life beyond this very space is also a myth, a movement, a beast, and a chimera, and that the catastrophic speed of events deprives it of a conscious sense.

Karin Andersen (Germany–Italy)
Naughty Messy Nature
digital С-print, 2014–2018
Courtesy of Traffic Gallery (Bergamo, Italy)

The co-authors of Karin Andersen are not humans but microorganisms: fungi of mold. The project is based on an experiment carried out with a simple scientific method. Small sculptures made of vegetal materials are placed in a self-built custom container in special ambient conditions. The output of the experiments is freely determined by the mold that will eventually grow after some time. Photographs of the process are taken at least once a day. The result of each experiment advances research, as the artist gradually learns about the mold’s preferences and sensitivity to temperature, light and air moisture. Every image captures a special and unrepeatable moment of constant transformation. This work is not about decomposition and vanishing, it is a celebration of the wonderful creative disorder generated by natural processes, regardless of human efforts.

Karin Andersen (Germany–Italy), Christian Rainer (Italy)
Stranger
video, 2006
Courtesy of Traffic Gallery (Bergamo, Italy)

A strange, alien being experiences Earth’s nature and human civilization. It is totally free of any kind of expectations or ideas about the places, objects and people it meets and interacts with.

Ludmila Belova (Russia)
The Last Argument
digital photography, 2009–2017

In the modern world, we constantly doubt the authenticity of images and information. Banks, businesses and government structures increasingly resort to the last method to identify human beings — their biometrics. With the advent of the digital era, the obligatory set of identification documents were supplemented by the traces of virtual presence. But if in the real world the passport is destroyed after death, nothing ever disappears from the digital one, as we know, and an avatar can live forever unless friends or relatives delete it.
“The Last Argument” examines the topic of the evidence which people could provide to authenticate their existence, when the last thing they have left is their biometrics, their DNA. Photographs of the faces of people who may be alive or dead, evoking associations with death, are actually taken at a perfectly pleasant place — a beauty parlor. Images of beauty masks that combine elements of both the living and the lifeless are a unique illustration of a hybrid world, in which the beauty of portraits will probably be judged by other aesthetic norms — if such norms exist at all.

Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov (Russia)
Siren
kinetic object, 2019
Engineer Alexey Grachev
Supported by CYLAND Media Art Lab

In Greek mythology, the siren has an alluring but destructive beauty. The fatal temptation of a woman makes a man forget himself, and lose his head. In their project, Ivan Govorkov and Elena Gubanova propose an ironic version of the seductress look. Assembled from the fragments of a mannequin, a megaphone, and party wings, the artists’ woman/siren is a  decorated guillotine. A garden shovel instead of a knife falls, the wings flap, the siren wails, and the poor man’s head rolls. A timeless story.

Ellen K. Levy (USA)
Re-Invention: My Life as an Astronaut
augmented reality installation, 2006–2019

The artist’s experience with augmented reality (AR) prompted her to update scrolls she had made soon after 9/11. She built up genealogies of related inventions by tracking patent drawings from data-base references in the US Patent and Trademark Office. In her youthful fantasy of becoming an astronaut, she imagined the physiological and technological obstacles she must face to be able to succeed. This work now speaks to her own reinvention as an (older) artist engaging new AR technology.

Alexandra Lerman (USA)
Tree Time
video, 2019

“Tree Time” imagines a relationship between nature and technology unmediated by human presence. The video is filmed using a drone in the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. The camera is disembodied, floating between tree branches, hovering above the ground, and occasionally returning to it. The artificial observer notes that time in the jungle flows differently: it lacks human dimension, it cannot be measured, and there is no clarity of seasons. Instead, all processes happen simultaneously. The rainforest is like the fragile Zone of Tarkovsky’s “Stalker”, which lives by its own laws.
The title of the work is inspired by several conversations with a dendrochronologist who studies methods of tracking climate change by reading annual tree rings in the Amazon rainforest. Initially this method was developed for dating archeological artefacts, but today it is used to study the changes that human activity has introduced into the atmosphere. Nature inscribes data on human behavior into the annual tree rings just as humanity uploads the information it deems important into the cloud.

Marc Lee (Switzerland)
Me, Myself & I
interactive installation, 2018 — work in progress

“Me, Myself & I” questions egocentrism and narcissism as widespread contemporary phenomena in its most popular, infamous form: the selfie culture. The digital era emphasizes the individual who is more and more seen at the center of society, rather than being part of it. Selfishness and narcissism are now commonplace, as selfie culture shows: we send mini-me’s into the increasingly important virtual space of our society to make others aware of who we are and, most importantly, who we wish to be. Fiction, fantasies, exhibitionism, confessions, self-indulgent activities and solipsism are the motifs that could stand behind our virtual life, with the influence of corporations and media shaping our (perceived) reality and recklessly exploiting our desires and fantasies, leading us further away from reality. Life becomes a design object. This is where “Me, Myself & I” steps in and offers us an opportunity to develop new states of perception. In the virtual environment, images and reality are perceived unmistakably and unambiguously as being mutually incompatible. This helps the participant to decouple externally constructed realities from the natural environment.

Kerim Ragimov (Russia)
Pietà 5
painting, video, 2008
From the series “Pietà”
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The “Pietà” project appeared in 2006 and was based on stop frames from the first film of the “Subway” series: people rise up out of the ground and step off the escalator. In the “Pietà” series, the medial meets the anthropological. Emerging from one abyss and departing for another, the ghost people convey something grandiose and at the same time frightening — but suspense, fear and anxiety also contain a revitalizing human principle. These shaky, flickering images are nothing but a reminder of the importance which we are so diligently trying to forget. The project raises vital questions: is there a need for salvation and a way out? For the artist, the answer lies in the realm of faith.

Ekaterina Sysoeva (Russia)
By One’s Own Rules
installation, 2019

The work is based on the popular art of creating and using hashtags. There are no clear-cut rules about hashtags, and this freedom has given rise to many witty, sometimes caustic or aggressive examples. Sysoeva gathers them into groups and partly rhymes them, delivering new interpretations of users’ emotions and social moods.

Anna Frants (Russia–USA)
Jumping Jacks / Object №3
multimedia installation, 2009–2015
From the series “Made in Ancient Greece”
In collaboration with CYLAND Media Art Lab

“Made in Ancient Greece” is one of the most striking and longstanding projects by the artist. Video stories from various eras are projected on ceramic vessels shaped like vases from Ancient Greece,: running athletes, frames from a family archive, scenes from modern city life… The selection of projected videos is conditioned by the nostalgic intentions of the author, and each work is a journey through an imaginary time represented by classical forms, historical images and creative associations. Known and unknown, “before” and “after”, the juxtaposition of big and small — this is what structures the works of this series.
The project is both a study and a reflection on the formal and spiritual meanings of contemporary artistic culture.

Anna Frants (Russia–USA)
Life is a Struggle
kinetic installation, 2009
Programming Sergey Komarov
In collaboration with CYLAND Media Art Lab

Our entire life is a struggle. It may take the form of a simple boxing match, or the struggle for daily bread (or vegetables) in the Soviet era, when customers would stand in line for ages at the greengrocer, with cheerful songs blaring from а loudspeaker, and the vendor would try to cheat them on the dirty old scales with rusty weights. In this installation, the viewer is given the chance to take the situation under control: by moving weights from scale to scale, to change the song, to reach a desired balance, and possibly even to emerge victorious from the fight with the vendor, who with every shortchanged gram undermined the struggling Soviet consumer.