Borey Art Center
November, 16–23
58 Liteyny prospekt
Tue–Sat: 12:00 – 20:00
Free admission
Artists
Daniil Kaminker (USA–Russia), Rebecca Merlic (Europe), Reggy Timmermans & Beatrijs Albers (Belgium), Various Artists & George Van Dam (Belgium)
Curators
Anna Frants (Russia-USA), Elena Gubanova (Russia), Alexandra Dementieva (Belgium)
Various Artists & George Van Dam (Belgium), Locusts/paperRain, multimedia installation, 2020–2021
Beatrijs Albers, Reggy Timmermans (Belgium)
Oscillatory Motion
interactive installation, 2020
In this installation, three small robot-like entities (approximately 80 cm high and 40 cm in diameter) circulate through the audience in a limited space. They carry vintage turntables on which luminous vinyl records spin, playing a special compilation of sounds and music from 1960s science fiction films. The project attempts to trigger our memory space as it is confronted with the human cosmological projections of a certain period, and the chaos of the infinite and interactive movement of a world that can be translated mathematically.
Daniil Kaminker (Russia)
The Milky Way
installation, 2020
The project is named after the galaxy: our place in the Universe, the Milky Way. But milk is also the first and most important source of energy for all mammals, including human beings. The “galaxy” of this work contains both the cosmos and the Earth; the objects fill both the floor (“the lower world”) and the air (interstellar space, “the upper world”).
The lower level consists of “cosmic bodies” from earth-bound categories: food, childhood (milk) and waste products. These objects are cow pats. Each cow pat is formed from sculptural chaos, just as the stars, planets and other elements of the Universe were created, but contains specimens of real items inside, traces of the presence of civilization. The upper level contains objects that are more elevated – or rather suspended: hats resembling clouds of volcanic lava or asteroids, along with axes, black holes, flying bricks, etc.
Rebecca Merlic (Europe)
TheCityAsAHouse
interactive digital software art, 2020
Sound design Manuel Riegler. Programming Vivien Schreiber
Supported by the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
The installation is built around the theme of sokuseki, a Japanese word that means improvised, instant, ad-lib. Vast amounts of pictures, sounds, videos and 3d-scans are organized as environments in a form of a visual novel and used by the artist as stimuli triggering recollection and thus allowing her to compose an impromptu narrative.
Rebecca Merlic’s work is about being at home without being bound. As a speculative exploration of the possibilities of abolishing known forms of habitation understood as an attempt to possess a certain amount of private space, it proposes to appreciate the limitless forms of comfort available in the contemporary metropolis. The transient qualities of this state of being are foregrounded by the contrast between saturated multimedia landscapes and the presence of the artist herself, making it clear that human experience cannot be shared, despite the abundance and sophistication of representational material. Reality is so mixed with the digital that you become lost in your own existence.
Various Artists & George Van Dam (Belgium)
Locusts/paperRain
multimedia installation, 2020–2021
Supported by nadine & VGC
“Behold, to morrow will I bring the locusts into thy coast: And they shall cover the face of the earth, that one cannot be able to see the earth: and they shall eat the residue of that which is escaped, which remaineth unto you from the hail, and shall eat every tree which groweth for you out of the field: And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day.” — Exodus 10:4–6
CYFEST-13 | Borey Art Center. Photo: Mikhail Grigoriev