Women video artists from St. Petersburg 1989-2016 CYLAND Video archive program

Rough cut “Labyrinth” was made in Kserox center in Berlin and is mounted on Ofene Canal Studio. The artist is interested in the topic of color- and light transmission of the world, the study of human visual capabilities to study the influence of signs and symbols on the individual’s perception of the world Olga Tobreluts was born in 1970 in Leningrad. In 1989 she graduated from the Architectural Colledge and entered Saint-Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering (GASU). In 1992 she entered ART+COM (Berlin), Department of Computer Graphics and Animation. Olga lives and works in Saint Petersburg. In 1995 she won first prize “Videovision” at the Third Reality Festival in Saint Petersburg (for “Woe from Wit” videofilm). In 1998 she won second prize “Best European Computer Graphics” at the GRIFFELKUNST festival in Hamburg, Germany. In 1998—2002 she opened the Art of Photography Centre at the Youth House of Petrogradsky District. In 2000 she became one of ten winners of international competition of media institutions (Taiwan). Her works belong to the following collections: the State Russian Museum, Saint Petersburg; MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New-York; the State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; the Museum of New Academy of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg; the New Museum, Saint Petersburg; “Ekaterina” Fund, Moscow; and other museum and private collections. In 1994 Olga Tobreluts entered the artists’ circle of New Academy of Fine Arts, which was founded by Timur Novikov in 1989. Pirate Television was created the same year

Video for attentive listeners. Music – Consolation II (Helmut Lachenmann) A combination of the author’s footage of a ballet show with unusual angles, defocused images, close ups of flickering faces and the sounds of female voices singing a cappella. The video is coordinated by the rhythmic structure of flickering shots and fadeouts so that we concentrate on the sounds thinking up the unfinished images left off screen. Born 1986, she is known as a musician, video artist, founder of the independent publishing “House haec” (published sound editions and artist’s books). In 2008 she graduated from Philology Department of Astafyev KGPU 2010 participated in seminars on documentary film production “Route du doc: Russie” (Lucac, France and Siberian studio of independent cinema, Russia)

Sound accompaniment – excerpts of conversations of astronauts in orbit, music by J.S. Bach When astronauts look at Earth from space, they see no borders, and when people look at the sky, they see no borders either. The newest border which humans have put up in 50 years of space exploration is a border of “space junk”, which may make further exploration impossible in future. It is made up of scrap metal left over from explosions, rocket engines, drips of liquid metal from nuclear reactors, and also everyday items lost or thrown away by astronauts. There are 330 million manmade objects of terrestrial origin. Special organizations have been founded which keep a record of all these objects. In La-La-Land, the artist visualizes the process of the flight of space junk using 3D animation. Media artist born in Kamchatka (USSR), lives and works in St. Petersburg. In 1980 she graduated from Abramtzevo Art College. Since 1991 — member of Russian Artists’ Union. She has been working with video since 2000. 2000 — winner of the International media art award, Karlsruhe, Germany. Her works have been exhibited in a number of museums and galleries: The Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia); Anna Akhmatova Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia); National Center for Contemporary Art (Russia), Art re Flex gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia); Al gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia); St. University Ca’ Foscari (parallel program to the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy) Selected personal exhibition: «Room “N”», Youth Educational Center of the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia, 2007.

The Pool by Polina Kanis is a video that exposes reality in all of its dreamy ambiguity. People enter a relatively shallow pool and disappear. This situation tells the story of unconscious phantasms and fears inherent in public spaces. Since the notion of the collective is unable to avoid what it represents, it often bears the traits of inevitability. This idea is given to the audience as an underlying condition which is the most painful to process aesthetically. Nevertheless, it is connected not with personal, but with universal fears. This is the truth of social reality. Polina Kanis was born in 1985 in Leningrad, where she studied at the Herzen State Pedagogical University of Russia before continuing her studies in Moscow at the Rodchenko Art School of Photography and Multimedia. In 2011, she was a Kandinsky Prize winner in the “Young Artist” category and in 2016 she won the Sergey Kuryokhin Award for Contemporary Art in the “Best Media Object” category. Kanis has also won and been short-listed for various prizes in the Innovation awards for contemporary art. Solo exhibitions of Kanis’ art have been held at the 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2016), Manifesta 10 in St. Petersburg (2014), and also in Baku, St. Petersburg, Turin, Kiev and other cities. Kanis’ works have been acquired by the Kadist Art Foundation (Paris), the National Center for Contemporary Art (Moscow), the Museum of Modern Art (Warsaw), the Aksenov Family Foundation (Moscow), Stella Art Foundation (Moscow), the Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantin Sorokin Foundation (Moscow), Videoinsight Foundation (Bologna) and by private collectors.

“Something must happen” exposes a dream-like reality and shows a life based on a mode of consciousness that could be considered as entranced. In a series of different sceneries, Julia Zastava performs actions in an enchanted way. Against the background of ubiquitous self- representation through pictures, videos and posts performing highlights and apparently “great” moments of life, this video points out the mere basic structures of human existence, evoking sublime suspense. b.1982, Moscow, Russia. Lives and works in Vienna, Austria 2006 graduated in Moving images, Humanities Institute of TV and radio broadcasting, Moscow, RU; since 2012 Academy of fine arts, Vienna, AT Solo shows (selection): Moscow Museum of Modern Art (RU), Arte Fierra OFF (IT), Parcours Saint-Germain (FR), So Weit, die Zukunft (AT), XL gallery (RU).

«When I was a child, I was afraid of clouds. I felt as if our house had simply own off into space. I found this viscous and white infinity all around intimidating due to its emptiness… Years later I can still see my house in the dream, I am running, I am trying to get inside, get into my room, but the staircases have already disappeared… We end up in a room full of images from the Secret Childhood, to the refuge, where Tanya has been dreaming all her life of taking shelter, but feels time and again that it is impossible to recover the disappearing staircase». Born in Kemerovo. Studied at The Saint Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy by Stieglitz and «Institute PRO ARTE». Lives and works in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Works in the genres of painting, installation, makes objects, video, likes to mix different kind of media. Her works were exhibited at the Russian Museum, at the «Winzavod» (Moscow, Russia), Moscow Museum of modern art, in London Calvert 22 Foundation, Galerie Forsblom (Helsinki), at Marina Gisich Gallery (St.Petersburg), Triumph gallery (Moscow). In 2010, her project “pupal stage” reached the final of the Kandinsky Prize 2010 in the category “Young Artist. Project of the Year”. In 2015 project «Allergy to dust» won the first prize of Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award in the category “The best project of visual art”. Works are presented in collections of such museums as Moscow museum of modern art (Moscow), Kiasma (Helsinki), EMMA (Finland), Pori Art Museum (Finland), as well as in private collections in Russia and Europe. Works with Galerie Forsblom.

This work represents a piece of hand-drawn animation, or kind of succession of drawings (about one thousand, A4, calking paper) depicting body positions (standing, sitting and lying), available for direct vision, i.e. without use of mirrors or other reflecting means. Painting from life was another condition to create additional frame that made the result vivid, existing in space and time, and subordinate to body accommodation, capacities of vision and perception, and definite time frame. «Within this project, my interest is drawn to the integration of view, belonging to the body (produced by the body), to the body as a thing. I outline my borders in the situation of limited view and the difficulty to see the entire space, compile all the parts in one point, and first of all, find this point of meeting with body (its border, its contour) – the assemblage point. In this case, a spectator can use the video to feel temporality, slipping away time and inability to catch the moment when glance and body meet. I look from there, where I am, that way where I am, but I am not there, and I assemble myself — the body is object and subject. We get our perception and experience through our body, but if we get the idea of existence of things due to the body, how can it be objectified?» Alena Tereshko born in 1986 in Ishim (Russia), lives and works in St. Petersburg. She graduated from Saint Petersburg State Art and Industry Academy named after Stieglitz (2013) and from school for young artists at PROARTE Foundation (2013). A member of art group “Parazit” (since 2012).

An attempt of reconstruction. The plots of video remind classical sculptures. Choreographer restores the memories of the past by the analytical method. The work is made in a creative tandem with choreographer Maya Popova Victoria Ilyushkina is Media-artist, curator, based in St. Petersburg. In 2001, she graduated from Ilya Repin State Academy of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture in St. Petersburg; in 2005, she completed the program “New Technologies in Contemporary Art” at the St. Petersburg Art and Culture Foundation, Institute PRO ARTE. She creates video both as the author and as the director of an imaginary performance. Her projects are the search for synthesis between contemporary choreography, painting, audio and video. The collaboration with a choreographer became an essential element of her art. Her works ehxiited at The Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia); Anna Akhmatova Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia); Art re Flex gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia); Al gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia); St. University Ca’ Foscari (parallel program to the 56th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy), Iragi Gallery (Moscow), Gislaved Kunsthalle(Sweeden). Mayya Popova is a choreographer and a dance teacher, lives and works in St.-Petersburg. In 2001-2014, she taught Contemporary Dance at the Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet. In 1999, she graduated from the Department of Ballet Production at the N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg State Conservatory. 2001 – 2014 taught in Vaganova Ballet Academy / Performing Department Contemporary Dance Technique, St.-Petersburg. 1994-1999 – winner of prizes at the several competitions of young choreographers in St.- Petersburg and Petrozavodsk, Russia. As a choreographer, she participated in staging of shows and projects at drama and music theaters in St. Petersburg.

Music by Gaetano Donizetti, in role Elizaveta Aksagova singer from Mariinsky Theatre “Declaration” is a part of the multimedia project “Intermission”, which refers to the etalon of classical art touching upon the eternal questions: what is art, and is it alive?! Elizaveta Aksagova, a singer from the Mariinsky Theatre, in the role of the opera diva, wrings her hands to confess her love to her dying lover named Art. The Libretto of the opera-parody by the artist goes as follows: “Art, my love! You are so wonderful and glorious! Oh! Art! I love you! Why do they want to slander and smear you!? Oh, Art, art, art! Leave it in peace! People want beauty and splendor, Yea, Love and Beauty forever, Bring back love and the beauty to the people, Oh! Genuine art! Too many pesticides, flavor enhancers, semi- processed produce and concentrates …. Horror! The End will come to the sun and the earth, but art is eternal!” Veronika Rudyeva-Ryazantseva born in 1981 in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, Russia. Lives & works in St-Petersburg. 2009 Summer conceptualism school by Josef Bakshtain 2005-2008 ProArte Fondation (New technologies in contemporary art) 2001-2007 Academy of Applied Arts by Shtiglitz St – Petersburg (Monumental Painting) 1996-2001 Art College by Surikov, Krasnoyarsk (Artistic – pedagogical department) “I am an artist-observer and position myself in relation to the generation ‘children of perestroika’. Often, the heroes of my works are people who become symbols: time, place, generations, events. I am interested in ‘the human’ and in questions of identification and the everyday absurdity that surrounds us; in the link between the past and the present. Art, for me, is first and foremost a space for experiment. I am in favor of risk, attempts and doubts, ‘unexplored territories”.

Bed…–the ever-lasting mystery… Born in Russia, Chukotka in 1982. Graduate of Pro Arte Institute and University of Art and Culture in St.Petersburg, RU, (2005), MFA, SUNY at Buffalo University (2010), The L. Jeffrey Selznick School of Film Preservation, Rochester, NY (2011). Masha works in the mediums of drawing and video. In 2005 she received the New Generation (Innovation Award, Moscow, RU) and in 2014 she was the recipient of the International Award of recognition STRABAG (Vienna, Austria). Masha lives and works in Boulder,CO,USA.