Description: Dance and choreography by Maya Popova.
Contemporary dance choreography translated into a domestic environment.
My films exist in the intermediate realm between dance performance and video. This is not pure dance but an attempt to create a new language – a universal one that doesn’t require translation, focused on modernity and close to human experience. The theme and exploration revolve around the problems of our time: loneliness, the acceleration of the pace of life, and the psychological splitting within an individual. The simultaneous experience of living inside and outside society is conveyed through the medium of movement and gesture.
In the videos, I relocate contemporary dance into an overtly mundane domestic setting, a communal kitchen, which is entirely atypical for this genre. In Maya Popova’s film, she “performs for the camera in the genre of contact improvisation.” She choreographs everyday actions while simultaneously projecting the inner world and personal sensations onto the screen. The acceleration and deceleration of movement during the film’s editing also play a structuring role.
In my works, the interaction between the plasticity of movement and the “cosmic” nature of electronic sound is essential. This allows me to transcend the ordinary. The absence of an auditory track in the film is also used as a method, leaving space for viewers to engage in their own rhythmic associations and creating conditions for interpretation.
The videos have been exhibited at various locations, including:
- 2006: 1st Biennale of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg.
- 2007: Espace Croise Festival Program, Paris.
- 2009: “Inside, I Dance” Solo Exhibition at Irage Gallery, Moscow.
- 2014: “Not in Fashion” Solo Exhibition at Gislaved Kunsthalle, Sweden.
Vika Ilyushkina Born in 1971 in Leningrad, USSR.
Victoria Ilyushkina is a media artist and curator. She graduated from the Academy of Arts Russian in Saint Petersburg, where she studied art history and theory, hold a degree New Media program of the Pro Arte Institute.
Currently she is the program curator of the CYLAND Video Archive and International Cyfest video programs.
As an artist, she presented her video works at numerous solo and group exhibitions such as On My Way parallel project to the 56th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Manifesta 10 Parallel Program “The Other Home”, at The State Russian Museum, at The Hermitage Youth Education Center, “Russia contemporary exhibition” Galerie Gmurzynska (Switzerland), Anna Akhmatova Museum, Al Gallery in St. Petersburg, Russia; Iragi Gallery (Moscow), Gislaved Kunsthalle (Sweden) etc.
Artist and curator with a diploma in Art History and Theory of the Academy of Fine Arts and in New Media Programs from the Pro Arte Institute; St. Petersburg, Russia. 2009-2022 curated Videoforma International Video Art Festival at the Sergey Kuryokhin Art Centre, St. Petersburg. In 2023 Co-curator Gyumri Art Week, Republic of Armenia. She was part of the jury in several international film and video festivals.
She is currently the program curator of the CYLAND Video Archive and International Cyfest video programs. Featured screenings at the Made in New York Media Center, USA; at Platoon Kunsthalle in Berlin, The Short Film Festival Oberhausen-66, Germany; Videoformes Festival in Clermont-Ferrand, France; Empire Projects, Istanbul; programming at the parallel events at Venice Biennale; Youth Education Center of Hermitage museum, St. Petersburg; video festivals in Sweden, Poland, at SOFA festival in Bogota, Colombia; in Brazil; Dartington, UK; NPAK Contemporary Art Center, ICA Institute for contemporary Art Foundation, Yerevan, Republic of Armenia and more.
Her curatorial research interests are aimed at studying the mutual influence and transition from analogue media in film and video art to digital media and its further transformation with using 3D and AI technologies in time-based art. She curated numerous of video exhibitions and projects among them Video /Text/ Art; Screens; “Seeking for the keys” Andrey Krisanov artist and musician. Curator of the project and author of the introduction article “A History of the Development of Media Art in Leningrad — Saint Petersburg, 1985-2000”, 2021. Author of the publication “Aspects of the digital fermentation of moving images” in Leonardo journal V55/6, 2022.
I try to transfer the subconscious into day-to-day life through the plasticity of motion, to reveal the hidden psychological processes. Dance and teamwork with the choreographer has become a fundamental element of my work. In my films I address modern dance including it into daily environments as a contrasting element.
