Meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine
Artists — Vera Arev, Sasha Belle, Varvara Vyborova, Masha Lam, Malyshki18:22, Sergey Akramov, Nikolai Grachikov, Sergey Karev, Veniamin Stepanov, Tsagan Badaeva, Tanya K, Olya Matyukhina, Dance Markab, Heracha.
07.09.2023 — 04.11.2023
Antonov Gallery (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
The curators of the project — Tanya Kolpakova, Zlata Pavlovskaia, Dasha Sai.
Artists — Vera Arev, Sasha Belle, Varvara Vyborova, Masha Lam, Malyshki18:22, Sergey Akramov, Nikolai Grachikov, Sergey Karev, Veniamin Stepanov, Tsagan Badaeva, Tanya K, Olya Matyukhina, Dance Markab, Heracha.
07.09.2023 — 04.11.2023
Antonov Gallery (Saint-Petersburg, Russia)
The curators of the project — Tanya Kolpakova, Zlata Pavlovskaia, Dasha Sai.
death by a thousand cuts
The recent feeling of an internal crisis in artistic expression gave rise to the idea of a market that would display not only works of art, but also items of clothing. In working with textiles, we see an additional opportunity to get closer to the viewer through an artistic language that is familiar to everyone from everyday life. By presenting this new gallery format, we want to invite visitors to join us in trying to find the line where design becomes something more; that moment where a piece of clothing becomes wearable art (art-a-porter).
At the same time, the creation of the market was inspired by the experiments of the surrealists, whose appearance in art history is usually counted from the publication of the first “Manifesto of Surrealism” by Andre Breton in 1924. The driving force behind the movement was the desire of artists to avoid control by reason by turning to the unconscious and irrational in their practice. To achieve this, artists resorted to a variety of practices, ranging from automatic writing and playing “exquisite corpse” to experiments with hypnosis. Today, almost 100 years later, rationality is again not credible and turns out to be an insufficient tool for explaining and understanding the world.
In the story of surrealism, we were especially interested in its relationship with design. To be convinced of the enormous influence of sur on fashion, it is enough to recall the famous works of Elsa Schiaparelli. We believe that by periodically turning to the work of designers, one can most clearly notice changes in public consciousness. Thus, often intuitively constructed images and forms become a way for the most vivid representation of the unconscious. And despite the fact that surrealism as a movement had a logical conclusion with the death of its main representatives, recently we are increasingly seeing signs of surreal images in the works of contemporary artists and clothing designers. By opening the market, we offer to follow the development of this trend and invite you to dialogue.
At the same time, the creation of the market was inspired by the experiments of the surrealists, whose appearance in art history is usually counted from the publication of the first “Manifesto of Surrealism” by Andre Breton in 1924. The driving force behind the movement was the desire of artists to avoid control by reason by turning to the unconscious and irrational in their practice. To achieve this, artists resorted to a variety of practices, ranging from automatic writing and playing “exquisite corpse” to experiments with hypnosis. Today, almost 100 years later, rationality is again not credible and turns out to be an insufficient tool for explaining and understanding the world.
In the story of surrealism, we were especially interested in its relationship with design. To be convinced of the enormous influence of sur on fashion, it is enough to recall the famous works of Elsa Schiaparelli. We believe that by periodically turning to the work of designers, one can most clearly notice changes in public consciousness. Thus, often intuitively constructed images and forms become a way for the most vivid representation of the unconscious. And despite the fact that surrealism as a movement had a logical conclusion with the death of its main representatives, recently we are increasingly seeing signs of surreal images in the works of contemporary artists and clothing designers. By opening the market, we offer to follow the development of this trend and invite you to dialogue.
