New exhibition “Place. Action” at Vnutri Art Center in Moscow is opening in September as part of the parallel program of Cosmoscow, a prominent independent art fair.
The exposition explores the tense relationship between people and places they inhabit. It can be an abandoned quarry, a sea horizon, a room with a Soviet sideboard, Palace Square in Saint Petersburg, or an industrial cityscape — very different fragments of Russian landscape, familiar to those who grew up here. These spatial images become autonomous plots and characters, alongside the people who appear in the video art and documentation of performances.
The exposition explores the tense relationship between people and places they inhabit. It can be an abandoned quarry, a sea horizon, a room with a Soviet sideboard, Palace Square in Saint Petersburg, or an industrial cityscape — very different fragments of Russian landscape, familiar to those who grew up here. These spatial images become autonomous plots and characters, alongside the people who appear in the video art and documentation of performances.
Elena Kovylina, "Equality" (2014). Video documentation of the performance, 7′58″
Curated by Anna Titovets Intektra, the exhibition features well-known artists, some with international careers. It brings together works by AES+F, Stas Bags, Liza Bobkova, Evgeny Gavrilov, Jenia Granilshchikov, Alexander Gronsky, Platon Infante, Marina Alexeeva & Boris Kazakov, Elena Kovylina, Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich, PROVMYZA, Tima Radya, Dima Rotkin (RTKN) & Alexander Tsikarishvili, Blue Noses, Bluesoup, Maxim Tatarintsev, and Olga Chernysheva.
Anna Titovets Intektra, curator
"This exhibition is a rarity – the artworks have never before been shown in such large-scale projections. And apart from the scale of the display, it also offers a rare opportunity to see video art by leading artists from Russia and Eastern Europe presented together in this way. I found it very interesting to work on this project, as the role of the curator here closely resembled that of a co-author – the works are presented not as individual on-screen statements, nor as a playlist, but rather as a score. The viewer does not simply watch video art – they find themselves inside the field of view. Sometimes a single work takes up all the walls at once – and there is nowhere to look away. Sometimes it remains on one screen whilst the others go dark. This is not mere staging; it is part of the message.
Elena Kovylina's Palace Square with the huge stella, where people are made equal by different-height stools on which they stand – and it very quickly becomes clear what exactly is made equal and what is not.
Urban landscapes of contemporary Russia and skier moving in a loop by Gronsky, and other pieces.
Where does choice end and the dictates of the circumstances begin? This is the question the exhibition poses to you about twenty times, each time in different ways."
Urban landscapes of contemporary Russia and skier moving in a loop by Gronsky, and other pieces.
Where does choice end and the dictates of the circumstances begin? This is the question the exhibition poses to you about twenty times, each time in different ways."
The exhibition’s authors reference the French writer Georges Perec and his concept of the “infra-ordinary” — the mundane things and events that usually go unnoticed. To notice them, one has to look at a place for longer than usual, until its hidden layers begin to emerge. It shifts the meaning of everyday life, making its tensions visible.
What makes the project particularly intriguing is its social context, in which public discussion has become increasingly cautious. Here, it becomes possible to speak about tension through space against the background of unfolding social and historical events. A place involuntarily becomes their bearer and witness. But, notably, the second word in the title is “action”.
Is it a desire to act, or at least to witness an action, even if it's simply the act of breaking Soviet-era dishes in the work by Evgeny Granilshikov? Once that tension is released, space becomes more ordered. External places and inner space, the space of the soul, are closely connected.
What makes the project particularly intriguing is its social context, in which public discussion has become increasingly cautious. Here, it becomes possible to speak about tension through space against the background of unfolding social and historical events. A place involuntarily becomes their bearer and witness. But, notably, the second word in the title is “action”.
Is it a desire to act, or at least to witness an action, even if it's simply the act of breaking Soviet-era dishes in the work by Evgeny Granilshikov? Once that tension is released, space becomes more ordered. External places and inner space, the space of the soul, are closely connected.
Evgeny Granilshchikov, "Family Dinner Set" (2021). Video performance, 6′11″
What if place becomes a mirror of the people who inhabit it, a mirror of the soul?
The exhibition features many works in which the environment is cold, prickly, dangerous, gray, or foggy. Spaces that echo with the sounds of bird flocks, or slowly passing carriages, or with the hum and tension of power lines. A person seems to be left alone with themselves in these places.
Space does not so much create tension as it absorbs it. Perhaps it becomes an outlet for what cannot otherwise be expressed — a place where internal and external tension meets.
The exhibition features many works in which the environment is cold, prickly, dangerous, gray, or foggy. Spaces that echo with the sounds of bird flocks, or slowly passing carriages, or with the hum and tension of power lines. A person seems to be left alone with themselves in these places.
Space does not so much create tension as it absorbs it. Perhaps it becomes an outlet for what cannot otherwise be expressed — a place where internal and external tension meets.
Cover image: Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich, "Temporary Monument N6: Cadeado" (2016). Three-channel video installation, 2'44".
The works come from the private collections of three St. Petersburg collectors — Denis Khimilyaine, Sergey Limonov, and Igor Sukhanov.
The exhibition is available only on September 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20.
The works come from the private collections of three St. Petersburg collectors — Denis Khimilyaine, Sergey Limonov, and Igor Sukhanov.
The exhibition is available only on September 5, 6, 12, 13, 19, 20.
Read more