VIDEOFOCUS FESTIVAL

The VideoFocus Festival is being held for the second time this year and is already preparing to claim its place as an annual event, presenting on a regular basis various trends in Russian and international contemporary visual art: video art, digital art, new film, science-art and others. The overall goal of the Festival is to uncover the new role of this art within museum space.

EXHIBITIONS:

THE CONFESSIONS

June 28 – July 28, Exhibition Hall

Curator: Karina Karaeva

Works by: Andrey Blazhnov, Alina Gutkina, Taus Makhacheva, Roman Mokrov, Haim Sokol (Russia); Ali Hasanov (Azerbaijan); Roee Rosen (Israel)

The curator is turning to the definition of “new sincerity” formulated in the 1980s by Dmitry Prigov. The artist claimed that the “confessional” art of the 1970s was replaced by art “playing” sincere.

Project participants not only wear certain masks to create their works but really immerse themselves in the circumstances that they are studying. Is such “living” of suggested circumstances possible for the sake of creating art? How important are the artist’s personal experiences, or on the contrary, his removal in this case?

Existing taboos in various societies force artists to react to the changing political structures, national conflicts and gender dictate with a certain degree of aggression. Each artist interprets reality differently. At the same time, a common trend can be observed in the way the treat communities, particularly ethnic ones, in their works.

THE FOUND

July 5 – 11, Small Hall

Curators: Karina Karaeva, Oleg Elagin

Works by: Sergey Balandin, Oleg Elagin, Vladimir Logutov, Denis Yakinin – Samara; Vladimir Seleznyov – Ekaterinburg; Aleksey Buldakov, Svetlana Shuvaeva – Moscow

The Found is an exhibition experiment for artists from the regions. To them, found footage is a sort of a ready-made, randomly found object. Deconstructing the video image allows for its new interpretation, an exposure of the properties unnoticed outside of the art context.

AN ESSAY ON CULTURE

Exhibition of works by Spanish artist Avelino Sala

July 16 – 28, Small Hall

Opening on July 15, 19.00

Curator: Karina Karaeva

Works by Avelino Sala

Avelino Sala is one the most active and radical Spanish artists, working on the borderline between a strong social statement and a critique of an artist’s behavior in existing economic and political conditions. His art is always an attempt at a reflection on social conflict in Spain.

Moreover, in his works the artist questions the originality and richness of contemporary artistic expression. Can it merely be an interpretation and reflection of political events or a product of “media trash”?