„Freedom“ is a sweet word laced with electric current. An unattainable ideal, glorified in every art form. Yes, that’s exactly how it loomed on the horizon of my life – a red sunset, music penetrating into the depths of an altered state of consciousness, eternal youth, an unlimited choice of pleasures with minimal responsibility.
How to achieve this intoxicating joy? Where to run? How to throw off the shackles of everyday life? How to finally escape? Paradoxically, these questions make human a hostage, a slave to a chimera. This notion makes a person unfree.
Looking back, I understand that freedom is opportunities, it is a space of options in which one can act. And only by making decisions and taking responsibility for them this space of options can be expanded. And this is work – to be able to objectively assess circumstances, take into account other people, abandon infantile ideas, take responsibility. It’s hard, you have to learn it. But only then, and from a sweet chimera on the horizon, „freedom“ will turn into a fulcrum inside.
Nastya Svoboda
In prison there was no access to canvases and paints, all that was in my right was a pencil and paper. I found salvation again in my own safe world, I painted. In addition, I also revealed myself to prose, and wrote the texts of those „9 commandments of freedom“ that became an addition to the drawings.
I sent all the originals to Kyiv, where my friends began organizing the exhibition. As you already know, the exhibition was supposed to take place on February 25, 2022.
One day before On the 24th of February Russia drops missiles on our home. I was still in jail and everything that happened with the double shot killed me. I stopped believing, and did not know whether there would still be a house when I left, whether there would be somewhere to return to each of us.
But completely unexpected On April 9, 2022, since I am a citizen of Ukraine, the President of Georgia pardoned me. And that meant only one thing, I’m getting out of prison right now. Now my new pseudonym is Nastya Svoboda. After being in prison for 1 year and 9 months, I entered a world that turned upside down and will never be the same.
Alica Khaet
In the video work “Es ist nicht so sicher wie es scheint”, the veil on the dark side of partnerships, with their hidden hopelessness and borderline experience of potential aggression and violence, is sort of lifted.
The prison of ideas introduces the heroes into the cycle of creation and destruction, attraction and rejection, bodily lack of freedom and rebellion against it.
However, a certain element of comicality, the friendliness of the characters, gives this struggle a touch of self-irony, an optimistic ambivalence. Maybe it’s their inner smile and self-acceptance that makes them free?
Maria Akinina
Navigating the reality is challenging since it is hard to predict what laws and restrictions come upon us tomorrow. The way we speak and express ourselves here in Europe would bring us trouble in Russia. Yet today the pressure to express an opinion is high and becomes a matter of honor. Often what feels right to do, has huge consequences, which not everyone can take. If we let ourselves indulge in the paranoia, gruesome pictures come to mind: every move we make is already registered, there is a file on each and every one of us in a dark basement and evil clerks just wait for a command to get us. Let’s say you post something bold. Would they stand by the airport gate with a huge butterfly net, just for YOU? It is not that easy to differ mere paranoia and justified concerns anymore, because the reality is more surreal than a government clerk with a butterfly net. Can you look yourself in the mirror with a clear conscience, and not imagine the sacrifices it can ask of you?
Denis Esakov / Lector
At the opening of the exhibition there was lecture and discussion by Denis Esakov:
Freedom is like a network of connections
One of the significant events of the past is perspective. With the help of a perspective look, a person can look into the future, into the unknown and look for answers to his questions. Maybe once it was freedom. Invent, travel, fight monsters, conquer the world. Now, looking back, it is clear that this mechanism was freedom for some and a heavy burden for others: conquered, killed, erased. The freedom of imagination and action of some was very expensive for others. Freedom became a privilege, officially supported by the structure. Who needs freedom and can it be reliable?
Denis Esakov is a multimedia artist and writer from Berlin. Denis expands the space between Knowledge and the Unknown, the way and methods of cognition, how to keep in this space.
Was born in Moscow. Graduated from the theater department of GITIS (Russian Institute of Theater Arts). From 2015 to 2018 she worked at the Moscow School of New Cinema as a producer at the theater workshop of Yuri Muravitsky. She also supervised the theatrical part of Moscow festivals: „Archstoyanie“, „Art-ravine“, „Territory“.
Since 2018 she has been working as a film producer. She shot a large number of advertising projects for brands such as Loreal, Pepsico, Vogue, McDonalds, as well as music videos for SBPCh, Black Seed Oil, Husky, Scriptonite, etc. d..
In 2020, she made 6 documentaries about various ethnic cultures in Russia together with Pierre Christian Brochet. She also produced a feature short film by Alina Nasibullina „Objects in the Mirror“.
In 2021, she entered the Anatoly Osmolovsky BAZA Institute of Contemporary Art, where she continues her studies to this day.
We almost made it, but then everything turned out quite differently. A form moves from one place to another. It reproduces itself, meets each other, connects. A spatial-morphological process that becomes explorable through the works of Olga Moș and Markus Feiler. Displaced, to another time in another place. Now everything is made up for, caught up and brought into place piece by piece. The postponement is now cancelled, only the present applies. For the first time, Olga Moș and Markus Feiler present their works together at the exhibition VERSCHIEBUNGEN, which runs from 29.07. to 12.08.2022 at the BAS CS Gallery of artist and curator Igor Zaidel.
The exhibition presents two very different artists, whose works, however, resonate with each other in a completely incomprehensible and wonderful way.
Julia Katan is a young, freshly graduated artist from Odessa, Ukraine. Lorenzo Gori is an experienced, literally and figuratively bearded, international artist, born in Italy, studied in the USA and has lived in Berlin since 1994. The works Lorenzo will be presenting to us were created during the tough lockdown in Berlin. Julia will be showing her work, most of which is entirely new and was created during the brutal war in Ukraine that recently began. Both authors ask themselves and us questions to which nobody knows the answer in the current situation. But since they are artists, and not banal journalists, both asking the question and presenting it allows us not only to think, but also to get aesthetic pleasure, or, on the contrary, to annoy the artists‘ style and technique.
Painters
Lorenzo Gori In Pistoia 1968 geboren Studium der Kunstgeschichte in Florenz Studium der Malerei in der Corcoran School of Art in Washington DC Seit 1994 lebt in Berlin als Freischaffender Künstler.
Con tanta servitù con tanto tedio E con falsi concetti e gran periglio Dell’ alma, a sculpir qui cose divine.
Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rime
„Diese Terzine beschreibt exemplarisch den Weg eines Künstlers: seine mühsame Arbeit, Ideen und Konzepte, die auf Irrwege führen und die damit verbundene Gefahr, sich zu verlieren und das Bewusstsein, etwas Transzendentales zu schaffen. In der Malerei wie in jeder anderen Kunstform gibt es keinen Fortschritt. Ich habe immer das Malen als eine Art Entdeckungsreise gesehen, als eine Irrfahrt durch eine imaginäre Landschaft, die aus Inseln besteht: einige dieser Inseln sind bekannt, viele andere sind noch zu entdecken. Wie alle Reisen ist auch diese voller Gefahren und Fallen, aber auch voller Entdeckungen und Wunder. Das Ziel immer ungewiss und eigentlich nur durch Zufall zu erreichen. Langsamkeit und Geduld, schlagartiges Voranschreiten und notwendiges Überdenken, plötzliche Erkenntnisse machen die Zeit dieser Reise aus. Wenn man ein Bild betrachtet, erkennt man im besten Fall den Ausgangspunkt, den Beginn der Reise. Schwerer ist es, sich der Entdeckung einer neuen Insel bewusst zu werden, noch schwerer ist es deren unbekannte Schönheit zu genießen. Die Figuren und die Formen der Tradition, die sich in meinen Bildern und in meinen Zeichnungen wiederfinden, bilden den Ausgangspunkt. Ich weiß nicht, ob ich unentdeckte Länder erreicht habe, ich weiß nicht, ob ich je welche erreichen werde und ob der Zufall mir beistehen wird. Ich hoffe nur, dass es mir mindestens gelungen ist, den Sinn meiner Reise und die Sehnsucht nach einem auch nur erahnten Ziel sichtbar zu machen. Und ich wünsche mir, dass der Betrachter die Schönheit entdeckt, die dieser Irrfahrt und dieser Sehnsucht innewohnt. Verlangt wird dafür eine hohe Bereitschaft zur Aufmerksamkeit, zum buchstäblichen Blickkontakt mit den Werken.“- Lorenzo Gori
Lorenzo Gori
Julia Katan (1997) Ukraine, Odessa Odessa Art College benannt nach M.B. Grekov, Grafikdesigner, Diplom. 2018. Kiewer Institut „Projektor“, Illustrator, Diplom, 2021. 2018- Gruppenausstellung „Neformat“, Museum für östliche und westliche Kunst, Odessa 2021- Personalausstellung „The Cult of Imperfection“, Dialogues space, Odessa
„Die Hauptfragen, die mich als Künstler interessieren, sind die Beziehung eines Menschen zu seinem Unbewussten. Symbolsprache. Mentale und spirituelle Ebenen der Persönlichkeit. Ein Versuch, die eigene innere Welt zu beherrschen. Betrachtung von Objekten in der von ihnen erzeugten Aura von Assoziationen. Meine besondere Aufmerksamkeit für Träume und ihre Interpretationen. Ein Versuch, eine Verbindung zu Gott herzustellen und der Wunsch, sie in sich selbst zu entdecken. Das sind die Themen meiner neusten Grafikserie. Einerseits reizt mich als Künstler die Ästhetik von Träumen und Erinnerungsfragmenten – sie sind neblig, bizarr, bunt. Andererseits interessiere ich mich als Autorin für Mehrdeutigkeit, die Fluidität von Bedeutungen, da es mir ermöglicht, mit einem Bild losgelöst von rationaler Logik zu arbeiten, nach einer solchen Verkörperung für diese Bilder zu suchen, dass hinter ihnen ein Rätsel bleibt . Als introvertierter, zur Mystik neigender Mensch ist es mir wichtig, mein Wesen zu kennen, die zeitlose Wahrheit zu suchen, eine individuelle Stimme zu finden, damit die Stimmen meiner Vorfahren darin erklingen. Ich widme meine Arbeit der „Licht“-Seite, aber oft folgt auf das Licht die „Dunkelheit“. Am Dualismus führt kein Weg vorbei, der Kampf ist unaufhörlich und ominöse Symbole sind offensichtlich. Meine Aufgabe ist es, dies zu akzeptieren und ehrlich zu dem verängstigten Betrachter zu sein. Die Technik meiner Arbeiten sind Marker und Buntstifte auf Papier. Ich liebe diese Technik aus mehreren Gründen. Das Papier ist dünn, fast schwerelos, ein Spiegelbild meiner Tendenz, im physischen Raum so wenig Platz wie möglich einzunehmen. Der Marker ist eine wässrige, aber ätzende tonale Basis. Das Arbeiten mit Stiften ist meditativ und manchmal ermüdend: zwei oder drei dichte Schichten, hunderte oder tausende dicke Striche. In einem so vielschichtigen Umfeld wird die Idee durch die Ausführung verstärkt. Es schien mir immer, dass ein Gemälde ein langer, mühsamer Prozess sein sollte, der Disziplin erfordert. Auch der Blick des Betrachters in die Tiefe des Bildes erfordert Zeit und Nachdenklichkeit. Das Bild ist ein Konzentrat aus Handlung und Bedeutung. Der Betrachter muss sich auf einem individuellen Interaktionsweg bewegen, der nicht durch direkte Äußerungen unterdrückt wird. Ich schaffe ein Umfeld für Fragen und Reflexionen, aber ich gebe keine eindeutigen Antworten – die Bilder selbst werden Ihnen sagen, was der Betrachter darüber denkt.“ – J. Katan
I met Stepanida (Stefani) Vakhotina september 2021. She came to the opening of the provocative exhibition and wrote a very nice and funny post about it. Gradually it became clear that Stepanida has been describing the events of her life since 2005. Stepanida’s life turned out a little differently from the normal life of an ordinary Russian girl. At the age of 33, she managed to experience about as much as not everyone at 45. Some lyrics are very sad and dramatic, others funny and others cynical. For 16 years these fragments have been used to form an incredibly lively and colorful picture of reality from provincial Russia to Berlin. The texts are arranged in two rows along the perimeter of the gallery. They are collected in a shuffle and the reader gradually delves into the narrative, traveling through time and space. Images are not direct illustrations of texts. The connection between image and text content is more associative, atmospheric. Here the text is a chain on which the glass beads are worn. This was the first exhibition of its kind in the BAS gallery. Well, as the saying goes, it’s better to see once than to hear 100 times.
Polina Zaslavskaya, b. 1984, is a queer feminist artist, curator, art tutor, animation production designer. Teacher of DA Animation Studio since 2018, co-founding member of the Unwanted Organization Queer Feminist Art Group since 2014. She was a member of the activist art group Verhotura and Friends (Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad) in 2008-2012. Polina has participated in numerous exhibitions and festivals in Russia, Germany, and the Czech Republic. Her first personal exhibition Utensils.365 in 2016 was dedicated to women’s home labor at post-Soviet kitchens and nominated for the Kuryokhin International Award in Contemporary Arts in 2017. Her personal exhibition Material Evidence, based on A. Kondakov’s research in hate crimes against LGBT people in Russia, was shown in Moscow in 2017, Saint Petersburg in 2018, and in Berlin in 2021. Most of her work since 2008 has been in collective projects lying at the confluence of activism and art, engaged in critical reflection of Russia’s social and political realities, but also in finding ways to resist.
Description
The watercolour series „Veshchdok“ (Forensic evidence), 2017 by Polina Zaslavskaya (RU) is based on Alexander Kondakov’s research „Hate Crimes against LGBT People in Russia“. The works in the series are included in the print edition as illustrations. „Forensic evidence“ are traces of things that turned out to be participants, accomplices, witnesses of crimes. The shadows of the objects, manifested on paper, are what is left of the things after the atrocity: a memory that leaves only the outlines of the event. It doesn’t matter what function the thing served before the event – it’s what’s left that makes sense:
Meat grinder, shovel, ashtray, iron. A nail gun, a board, a belt. Bottle, bat, cord – what was in the hands of the perpetrators at the time of the crime.
Alexander Kondakov’s research is based on court cases in which, in one way or another, information about the victim’s sexual orientation came to light. The texts of the documents refer to everyday objects with which the crime was committed. A random list of items informs about the unintentionalness of the atrocity, but indicates that fear, desire, hatred, taboo, propaganda, dissatisfaction find channels to surface. Thus, once ordinary everyday objects are transformed into instruments of murder, mockery, torture, and sexual violence.
The watercolour series „Veshchdok“ (Forensic evidence) is an art project that explores both the forms of violence themselves and the preconditions for its manifestation in relation to persecuted social groups. During the exhibition, a round table was organized to exchange views and an online conversation with the artist. The exhibition is organized by Quarteera e.V., funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung.
