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.
The starting point of the Noesis Project (Greek noēsis, from noein – to perceive) became the most popular phrase from the Delphic maxims in Latin – Nosce te ipsum meaning Know thyself. This phrase once impressed the Author with its simplicity and capacity. What is more, it has caught his eye at the time of his personal internal experiences and – as a result – the transition to a new stage of development, based on rethinking (cognition) and the gradual transformation of his SELF. The general format of the Noesis Project is the transition of abstract painting into verbal street calligraphy: through perception of aesthetic colorful forms, identification of the letters and – finally – immersion in the deep meaning of the phrase Nosce te ipsum, the Author once discovered by painting it countless times. By combining several images and bizarre, sometimes abstract letters, the Author manages to achieve rich forms, which are – like memories – nothing but a layering of many separate images.
Thus, each work is not only a multi-layer of graphic elements, but also the Author’s impressions and memories, experienced by him during the transformation of his personality.
Artist
Zukentiy Gorobyov
Zukentiy Gorobyov is a well-known and awarded Ukrainian designer, typographer, illustrator and artist based in Kyiv. He specializes in handwritten calligraphy and informal painting. Born in 1984 in Lugansk. In 2006 he graduated from Lugansk National Taras Shevchenko Pedagogical University. Designer, typographer, illustrator, artist. Lives and works in Kiev.
Selected exhibitions and projects: “Ukraine Exists” (2016, United Nations Headquarter, New York; Ukrainian National Museum, Chicago; St.Vladimir Institute, Toronto) “From the Common Root” (2016, Klementowice, Poland) “Border of Trust” (2015, CCA YermilovCentre, Kharkiv) “To look, to read” (2015, Experimental CCA “Tea Factory”, Odessa, Ukraine “Letters or Death” (2015, Black Lizard Gallery, Dnipro) ARTKYIV (2014, Art Arsenal, Kiev) “Biruchiy Contemporary Art Project 014” (2014, Biruchiy Island, Azov Sea, Ukraine) “OURS” (2014, Kharkiv, CCA “YermilovCentre”) “Biruchiy Contemporary Art Project 013” (2013, Biruchiy Island, Azov Sea, Ukraine) “+/- 17” (2013, Lugansk, Ukraine) “Logo 581” (2011, Sumy, Ukraine) “Good” (2009-2010, Lugansk, Odessa, Kharkov, Ukraine) “My” (2010, in the framework of “SUM” festival, Lugansk, Ukraine) “Signs of Sounds” (2006, Lugansk, Ukraine).
„EROS VS HER CLIT“ by Peter Feiler, Berlin and Diana Matilda Crișan, Bucharest. This was another exhibition from the Versus series. This time it was a confrontation between two different positions on the relationship between the sexes and the roles of men and women in society. Artists adhere to diametrically opposed views. They works combine a high level of aggressiveness in the visual language and a masterly technique. Feiler is a master of drawing. Matilda is a master of embroidery. The exhibition is organized by two curators, Elena Ghiţoiu, Bucharest and Igor Zaidel, Berlin. Elena Ghiţoiu is the founder and creator of the iconic Romanian online resource, ArTeVezi, devoted to contemporary art and culture. The NGO ArTeVezi of the same name is a partner in the project.
Curators
The exhibition is organized by two curators, Elena Ghiţoiu, Bucharest and Igor Zaidel, Berlin. Elena Ghiţoiu, Bucharest is Editor of ArteVezi, Education Mentor of MARe/Museum of Recent Art, Free Art Curator.
Elena Ghiţoiu
Artists
Diana Matilda Crișan (b. 1995) is an emerging queer artist based in Bucharest, with painting studies completed at the National University of Arts in Bucharest. 2015 marked her first exhibition, in a group show hosted by UNAgaleria. She has been a constant presence on the local art scene ever since then.
Her works are the result of an interdisciplinary process involving drawing, painting, sculpture, installation, and embroidery, all mediums becoming tools of exploring her interest in the multiple transformations of the Anthropocene. Filtered through their own perception, her works are reflections on the processes of creation and destruction, the fine line that separates nature from human development. Returning to Bucharest, her hometown, after three years of experience in Paris, Matilda has become more and more aware of her past, using it as a resource for new artistic projects.
2002 – 2007- Universität der Künste, Berlin with Profs Wolfgang Petrick, Daniel Richter, and Valérie Favre 2008- Student of the master class of Professor Valérie Favre 2016- Artist in residence program of China International Culture Association in Quingdao, China
Thieme Art Award, The Netherlands – Shortlist Premio Lissone, Museo d’arte contemporanea, Lissone, Italy – Shortlist
Collections
Pieter and Marieke Sanders-ten Holte collection (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam)
Museum of Old and New Art, Australia
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
Miniature Museum of Contemporary Art, Amsterdam
CCA Andratx, Mallorca, Spain
The Diane and Sandy Besser Collection, Santa Fe, NM, USA
Collection Hugo & Carla Brown, Den Haag
JoMo Art Collection, Belgium
Djurhuus Collection, København
Collection Jean Pigozzi, Switzerland
Collection Alexander Hoorn, Leiden, The Netherlands
„Farbfest – eine Ausstellung in der es sich rund um Farbe dreht auf jeglichen Oberflächen von Canvas bis Holz. Auch wenn der Winter kalt, grau und lang war wird es doch nun wärmer! Die Bäume erblühen und die Stadt bekommt mehr Farbe. Auch ich bringe diese Farben zu euch. Lasst euch inspirieren und die Wärme der Farben auf euch wirken.“ – KRISTINA HELLER
Artist
KRISTINA HELLER IS A PAINTER AND GRAPHIC DESIGNER BASED IN BERLIN AND TULUM. SHE FOCUSES ON PRINT MEDIA AND EDITORIALS. HER PREDOMINANTLY ABSTRACT PAINTINGS ARE VERY COLORFUL INCLUDING GRAPHIC ELEMENTS AND PATTERNS. THE GRAPHIC DESIGN IS A COMBINATION OF CONSTRUCTIVISM AND DADAISM. THE SYMBIOSIS OF HELLER’S ARTISTIC AND GRAPHIC WORK RESULTS IN A DISTINCTIVELY ANALOGUE OUTPUT, FOR EXAMPLE BY RESTYLING THE SURFACES OF DOORS OR CHAIRS INTERPRETATION. HAVING GROWN UP IN A FAMILY OF ARTISTS IN KASSEL, HESSE, KRISTINA HELLER WAS EXPOSED TO AND INTRIGUED BY ART FROM AN EARLY AGE. AFTER GRADUATING IN COMMUNICATION DESIGN IN 2018, HELLER HAS BEEN FREELANCING IN BERLIN. SHE PARTICIPATED IN BERLIN-BASED ART PROJECTS. HER PUBLIC ART OUTPUT HAS BEEN EXHIBITED IN VARIOUS INDOOR AND OUTDOOR LOCATIONS.
EXHIBITHION
2022- GROUP EXHIBITION, ZWITSCHERMASCHIENE „PS 23″
2021 – GROUP EXHIBITION STUDIO 43 „SOLI EXHIBITION AFGHANI WOMEN“ BERLIN
2021 – GROUP EXHIBITION, SBKG „KUK EXHIBITION“ BERLIN
2021 – SOLO EXHIBITION, BAS GALLERY „FARBFEST“ BERLIN
2021 – GROUP EXHIBITION, BAS GALLERY „ARCHITECTURE VS NATURE“ BERLIN
2021 – SOLO EXHIBITION, VINOGRADOV GALLERY „ABSTRACT PORTRAIT“ BERLIN
2020 – GROUP EXHIBITION, BAS GALLERY „LIQUID LUNCH“ BERLIN
2018 – GROUP EXHIBITION, BTK GALLERY „DIPLOM EXHIBITION“ BERLIN
2017 – GROUP EXHIBITION, BTK GALLERY „MODERN POSTER“ BERLIN
