Milk for Vera

Gentle Women group was founded in 2008 by Eugeniia Lapteva (b. 1987, Kaliningrad, Russia) and Alexandra Artamonova (b. 1987, Kaliningrad, Russia). They live and work in Kaliningrad. 

Gentle Women is one of the few Russian artist groups to systematically examine gender issues and study the whole complex of myths, ideas, and common beliefs about what women are, what people expect of them, what functions they are accorded, which responsibilities they are assigned, and what becomes of them in the end. The group uses life-performance, video art, video-performance and actionism in their artistic practice. The group’s mission is to study the feminine nature through the transformation of rituals. As a rule, the group reinterprets everyday and traditional rituals for a specific region. The majority of the group’s performances take place in a natural environment which plays an important role as an associate of the action. The group thinks that coming across such natural forces as water, ice, mud and fire allows to manifest the true femininity. The group took part in Russian and international art exhibitions and projects.

Selected group and personal exhibitions include: 
Nemoskva (Manege Central Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg, 2020), Nida-1-Adin (Nida, Lithuania, 2020), Red Corner (Mesnil-Eglise, Belgium, 2019), The 12th Time Zone (Bozar, Belgium, 2019), Bergman.Metamorphosis (Moscow, 2018), At night all women are tender (NCCA, Kaliningrad, 2018), Tragedy in the corner (Moscow City Museum, 2018), Art Residence in Ahrenshoop (Germany, 2018), DOPUST/Days of open performance (Vienna, 2017),  Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art (Garage art centre, Moscow, 2017), Phantom Exhibition (Vasilievsky Island, St. Petersburg, 2015),  In the Artist’s Absence, Sever-7 Research Base ( St. Petersburg, 2015); Signal-2: Today’s Art (Signal Design Bureau, St. Petersburg, 2014); Green Envy, Borey Gallery, public programm of Manifesta 10,  St. Petersburg, 2014); Busan Biennale of contemporary art ( Busan, S.Korea, 2012), Cinema: New Device (National Center for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, 2012); Enclave (Ujazdów Castle Center for Contemporary Art, Warsaw, 2011), Women in Contemporary Art (New exhibition hall of City Sculpture Museum, St. Petersburg, 2009).