GYUMRI ART WEEK is an annual festival for contemporary art in Gyumri, Armenia. It is designed to become a catalyst for artistic research and experimentation in the region and to provoke debates on the actual cultural and societal processes. Titled BETWEEN X&Y, the 2nd edition of the festival will focus on forms, relationships and sequences that constitute the link between immigration (×) and emigration (y) and explore the contemporary human condition in the moment when «art, mathematical, religious, and political palettes intersect.»
The 2nd GYUMRI ART WEEK features artists from Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, and Russia. The festival presents a wide range of activities — exhibitions, installation art, video, concerts, performances, symposia, actions in the public space and educational guided tours to artist studios and residencies in different regions of Armenia: Gyumri, Stepanavan, Odzun, and Yerevan.
Curators: Sargis Hovhannisyan, Victoria Ilyushkina (CYLAND)
Participants: Aleksey Manukyan, Ashot Harutyunyan, Ashot Ashot, Alfiya Shamsutdinova, Andrea Stanislav, Alena Tereshko, Vahagn Ghukasyan, Samvel Saghatelyan, Zaven Khachikyan, Kevork George Kassabian, Sandro Santarelli, Claudia Chianucci, Lisa OLshanskaya, Narek Hayrapetyan, Lilit Stepanyan, Edgar Amroyan, Suren Tadevosyan, Sophie Arsenian, Philippe Alaire, Sargis Hovhannisyan, Teo Burki, Misak Maghakyan, Ruzan Petrosyan, Mariam Arami, Anna Sowa, Gohar Sargsyan, Gor Margaryan, Vahagn Hamalbashyan, Karine Avoyan, Marc Lee, Anton Khlabov, Boris Kazakov, Anna Jermolaewa, Eléonore de Montesquiou, Polina Komyagina, Sergey Katran, Dasha Fursey, Julia Kapshuk, Liza Dandy, Igor Gurovich, Sofia Barova, Selena Isho, Victoria Ilyushkina, Marina Russkih, Nadya Ishkinyaeva, Rinalto L’Bank (Rinat Abdrakhmanov).
The 2nd International GYUMRI ART WEEK is organized by Nikolay Nikoghosyan Cultural Foundation, 5th Floor Cultural Group, Gyumri Branch Of Academy Of Fine Arts Of Armenia, Gyumri Technology Center, Enterprise Incubator Foundation in partnership and with the support of CYLAND Media Art Lab and CYLAND Video Archive.
CYLAND MediaArtLab presents the CYFEST-14 International Media Art Festival (Yerevan, Armenia, 10 — 25.10.2022)
CYFEST, one of the biggest international media art festivals in Eastern Europe, was founded by a group of independent artists and curators in 2007. Since its inception, CYFEST’s main concerns have been to examine the dialogue between new and traditional visual languages and to show technological achievements via artistic transformation. CYFEST unites art professionals, artists, curators, educators and thinkers, programmers, engineers, and media activists all over the world, and expands contemporary art, intertwining it with various disciplines of science and technology.
CYFEST is one of the world’s few nomadic cultural events: in 2022 festival projects will be shown in Yerevan, Armenia, Dartington, UK, and Arizona and New York, USA. Both classical and experimental institutes are partners of the festival. The program includes an exhibition project, a video art display, a series of performances and educational meetings.
The theme of the festival in 2022 is Ferment.
“Fermentation in the conventional sense is a technological process in the food industry. However, if we give it some thought, practically everything that happens over time to animate, inanimate and even strictly material objects falls under this definition. Wine undergoes a long process of change of state from ripe grapes to beverages of various degree of sweetness and strength. Human relationships also ‘ferment’ over the years, acquiring various degrees of intensity and transforming from young and raw to mellowed and mature.”
— Anna Frants, founder of CYLAND MediaArtLab, artist, curator.
The authors of works presented at CYFEST-14 study the diversity of fermentation both as a biological process, and in the broader metaphorical sense. The works in the program demonstrate a wide range of cultural, scientific, ethical and aesthetic concepts of fermentation as a process of change for the living and the dead, color and smell, sounds and impressions.
CYFEST-14 gathers over 30 participants from 7 countries in one space. They include Anne Marie Maes, artist, biotechnologist, author of a series of techno-organic objects on the basis of bacteria, algae and plants, Marin Kasimir, multidisciplinary artist and researcher into photographic vision, Mariateresa Sartori, an artist who combines neurobiology, music and sound in her works, the Where Dogs Run group, pioneers of science art, William Latham, artist, professor of computer art and game development at Goldsmith College, and Luca Forcucci, artist, composer and researcher into the relationships between sound, consciousness, perception, memory and the body.
The central venue of the festival in Yerevan will be the HayArt Cultural Center— a multifunctional space that features the entire spectrum of contemporary culture – from visual, performance and digital art and photography to architecture, experimental film, electronic and classical music.
The partner of the “Digital Fermentation” video program will be ACCEA/NPAK, one of the oldest centers of contemporary experimental art in the Caucasus.
Curators: Anna, Frants, Elena Gubanova, Victoria Ilyushkina, Sergei Komarov, Natalia Kolodzei.
CYFEST is organized by the CYLAND MediaArtLab and One Market Data Yerevan.
The show features works by John Peter Askew, Stephen Burridge, Annabel Elgar, Kim Jacobsen To, Lucy Alex Mac, Paulina Surys, Oliver Truelove, Nicol Vizioli. The CYALND Video Archive is presented by the work of the video artist Kate McMillan The Lost Girl.
The projects often contrast each other as the artists come from different parts of the photographic spectrum. Stephen Burridge shows typical islanders, while Oliver Truelove works with fashion photography, engaging residents of South London. Kim Jacobsen To uses the language of fashion photography to tell a story of the Son of Venus, while Lucy Alex Mac gives the Wizard of Oz characters a pop art spin. John Peter Askew has chosen for his series of urban photographs an epigraph from Charles Baudelaire, “What strange phenomena we find in a great city, all we need do is stroll about with our eyes open.”
As we move from the city to the countryside, mystical stories begin to unfold, forgotten legends come to life, and dystopian visions of the future emerge. Nicol Vizioli experiences an existential insight on her search for the sense of belonging in the mountains; Annabel Elgar revives some urban legends, leading us through a fantasy labyrinth of oddball activity; and Paulina Surys interprets Hieronymus Bosch’s triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights, reversing the initial invention of photography as a repetitive mechanical process and turning each print into a unique object.
The show features an immersive film installation by Kate McMillan The Lost Girl, set in the post-apocalyptic future, where the character attempts to create a past and a future from the debris that is washed up from the ocean. Looking closely at the residue of the past, triggering memories, the artist brings into light the histories and ideas that have been overlooked.
Aiming to present the work of contemporary UK photographers to the Russian audience in all the diversity of interests and creative pursuits of the artists, the show investigates the interplay between the ideas of multiculturalism and search for regional identity, the study of corporeality and gender roles, the aspects of women’s discourse and reflections on ageing.
The exhibition is organized by ROSPHOTO and Saint Petersburg A-YA Society in collaboration with Magnum Photos and the University of Greenwich in London as part of the Festival of Contemporary British Photography. The event is part of the international UK — Russia Creative Bridge 2021–2022 program, supported by the Culture and Education Department of the British Embassy in Moscow.
Join us for a video art screening, programmed by Victoria Ilyushkina, Dasha Dafis, and Ilkka Pitkanen as part of the Chronotop Contemporary Art Festival in Vyborg.
Friday 9 July, 4-30pm
Alvar Aalto City Library (4 Prospekt Suvorova, Vyborg, Russia)
The screening brings together video works by artists from Russia, Finland, and the United States that reflect on the theme of interaction between human beings and space: the natural environment, ecology, and architectural structures in historical and cultural contexts.
Through documentary videos, camera choreography, digital photos, and video collages, the artists convey an emotional sense of «genius loci» – «the genius of the place».
Featuring videos by: Ilkka Pitkänen, Violetta Gunina, Andrey Kalashnikov, Polina Korotaeva, Milja Viita, Simo Saarikoski, Philip Trapeznikov, Yana Pitenko, Svetlana Lysenko, Pasi Autio.
Carefree City / Suruton kaupunki, 2019, 4 min 5 sec.
Ilkka Pitkänen
Sound design: Markus Bonsdorff
Take a dreamy walk in 1920s Helsinki! Ilkka Pitkänen’s video work is enchanting and captivating, which immediately captures the visitor 90 years ago.
Ilkka Pitkänen (b. 1981) is a Helsinki-based multidisciplinary artist working with various media, including moving images, photography, installation and performance. Thematically his artworks deal with personal space and integrity as well as the perception of reality. His works have been presented publicly in many exhibitions in Finland and other countries. Pitkänen has also been working as a curator for group exhibitions, video art events and contemporary art festivals in Estonia, Finland and Russia. Since October 2020 Pitkänen has been the chairperson of the new-found Artists’ Association Yö, Helsinki, Finland.
Connections, 2016, 3 min. 10 sec.
Violetta Gunina, Andrei Kalashnikov, Polina Korotaeva
Film made as part of the program “Describing Architecture” at the Hermitage Youth Education Center, and shown with the permission of the Hermitage Youth Education Center.
Architecture is always more profound than any aesthetics, for every building preserves the imprint of the times which it has witnessed and experienced. The building of the House of Culture of Communication Workers is a totem of changing ideologies. It was built and rebuilt as a symbol of the connection with God / Culture / Humanity, because the essence of any ideology is expressed in the connection with a power that is far greater than the human being.
In this building, ideologies, times and styles are connected in a single work of architecture that is independent of styles, that has endured a change of eras, and will undoubtedly endure more. Looking at the dusty green netting, silent blank windows, faded plaster, the shapes of nostalgic bas reliefs and inappropriate inscriptions on cracked walls – what ideology does the viewer see today? And in the future? The building is in a state of anticipation.
Animal Bridge U-3033, 2018, 12 min. 8 sec.
Milja Viita
Animal Bridge U-3033 is about the parallel realities of humans and wild animals. It’s filmed during a year on a bridge above motor highway. These bridges are architecturally engrossing structures, addressed only to the nature, allowing animals to cross the highway. The built environment meets the untouched nature in this narrow strip of urban forest. The 35mm film sequences shot with an old camera create contrast with a mysterious reality captured by trail cameras.
Milja Viita’s (b.1974) installations and films consist of experimental and documentary elements. Her works have been exhibited in e.g. Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Kunsthalle Helsinki, Mänttä Art Festival and in film and media art festivals internationally. Milja Viita lives and works in Porvoo, Finland. She graduated with MFA degree in Time and Space Arts from the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki in 2005.
Abandoned Land II, 2018, 12 min. 30 sec.
Simo Saarikoski
“Abandoned Land is an experimental, documentary and poetic video about the lost Finland and at the same time about its future. It documents abandoned environments and forgotten lifestyles that have become the periphery of Finnish society and phenomena from today’s perspective. Finland is a metaphor for the social change throughout Europe from the ending of the Second World War up to the present day. The abandoned world is a window to the future, also reflecting the things we may in the future consider worth abandoning.”
Simo Saarikoski (b.1980) is a visual artist who works with video, performance and watercolor painting. He explores our time and its phenomena, as well as the human impact on the environment and human psyche. Saarikoski’s work has been presented in different forms in over 20 countries around the world.
Viipurin kirjasto (Vyborg Library) / Viipurin kirjasto (Alvar Aalto Vyborg Library), 2016, 3 min. 37 sec.
Philipp Trapeznikov, Polina Korotaeva, Yana Pitenko, Svetlana Lysenko
Film created as part of the program “Describing architecture” at the Hermitage Youth Education Center, and shown with the permission of the Hermitage Youth Education Center.
Can music be tangible? Can we hear through touch what a bookshelf, granite stone and curve of a railing sound like? Wood, glass, concrete – these are the notes from which Alvar Aalto crafts his symphony. We try to hear it and explain it. The creative heritage of the great Finnish master Alvar Aalto includes hundreds of architectural and design sites. Fortunately for the people of Vyborg, one of these sites has been preserved in their city – the central city library. The restrained style, the ideal correspondence with the surrounding landscape, the original solution of the internal space – all of this makes the library a center of attraction which enchants the viewer.
Meandering / Harhailija, 2018, 18 min. 38 sec.
Pasi Autio
Meandering is a video work that combines moving images with sound, showing the environment seen by someone. At times, the common sounds heard take on a life of their own, creating music-like entities. The images are like windows that only show a part of something bigger. The sounds, on the other hand, aim to portray the wider environment around the wanderer — both the concrete environment and the wanderer’s reality where realism and imagination become blurred.
Pasi Autio (b. 1974, Vaasa, Finland) lives and works in Helsinki. He utilizes photography, moving image and sound. His latest works deal with the interaction between the human mind and the environment; he focuses on seemingly simple, but complex things. At the moment, he is interested in reality where realism and imagination mixes into new combination. Autio graduated with a MA in Photography in 2007 from Aalto University. Since the year 2000 he has had numerous solo and group exhibitions in Finland, Sweden, Germany, France and the USA.
CYLAND MediaArtLab will take part in the Chronotop Contemporary Art Festival in Vyborg this summer.
The aim of the project is to emphasize the complexity and eclecticism of the urban space of Vyborg, and to put new meanings and artistic interpretations on its cultural map. The festival venues will be the Alvar Aalto city library, the water tower on Batareinaya Hill and the Mon Repos Park. The festival is held with the technical and curatorial support of our media laboratory: at Chronotop, CYLAND will present a series of installations and video art works (curated by Anna Frants, Varvara Egorova), and hold two video screenings (curated by Victoria Ilyushkina, Dasha Dafis, Ilkka Pitkänen).
Images: Anton Khlabov / CYLAND
WATER TOWER ON BATAREINAYA HILL 2 Batareiny Passage
Installations, objects, video, experimental sound
Curators: Varvara Egorova, Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova
Participants: Anna Frants, Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov, Alexey Grachev, Andrey Strokov, Alexander Bochkov.
The Multitude, sound installation – Alexei Grachev, Andrei Strokov, Alexander Bochkov, 2021
In their new site-specific multi-channel sound installation “The Multitude”, Alexei Grachev, Andrei Strokov and Alexander Bochkov study acoustic properties of a space. By placing various sources of sound under concrete semi-spheres, the artists study the parameters of the sound’s distribution and focusing. The performance uses polymer batteries, portable speakers, control units with low power consumption, 3D-print and generative projection, which reacts sensitively to the acoustic features of the building, reducing the human footprint in the minimalist-functional space of the 2nd floor of a water tower.
Life as Life. STYX, site-specific installation – Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov, 2016
Usually, Time is regarded as a line (theoretically, a line of endless length), on which the present moment is a point in constant motion. But this line may also be regarded as a succession of points in different positions, so that any moving or changing object may be interpreted as a number of motionless versions of “shots” of oneself. The artists observe the serene flow of life, but at the same time disrupt the “arrow of time”. Life consists of repetitions which seem to combine to form a single “river”. The video of people floating serenely along the river from one screen to another actually shows the same moment, which is multiplied and repeated, devoid of past and future, and joined into a cycle.
Elena Gubanova
Born in 1960 in Ulyanovsk, USSR. Artist, curator. Graduated from the Ilya Repin State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Leningrad, USSR). Works in the fields of painting, sculpture, installations and video. Recipient of the Sergey Kuryokhin Award (2012, Russia) for “Best Work of Visual Art” (together with Ivan Govorkov). Her works have been exhibited at major Russian and foreign venues, including the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, Museum of Moscow, University Ca’ Foscari (Venice, Italy), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA) and Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany). Participant of the Manifesta 10 parallel program (2014, St. Petersburg, Russia) and several exhibitions parallel to Venice Biennale (since 2011); frequent participant of Cyberfest. Since 1990, she has worked in collaboration with Ivan Govorkov. Lives and works in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Ivan Govorkov
Born in 1949 in Leningrad, USSR. Artist. Graduated from the Ilya Repin State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Leningrad, USSR). He is engaged in philosophy, psychology, painting, drawing, sculpture and installations; he works at the junction of traditional art and cutting-edge technologies. Professor of drawing at the Ilya Repin Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). Recipient of the Sergey Kuryokhin Award (2012, Russia) for “Best Work of Visual Art” (together with Elena Gubanova). His works have been exhibited at major Russian and foreign venues, including the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, Museum of Moscow, University Ca’ Foscari (Venice, Italy), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany), and Sky Gallery 2 (Tokyo, Japan). Participant of the Manifesta 10 parallel program (2014, St. Petersburg, Russia) and several exhibitions parallel to the Venice Biennale (since 2011); frequent participant of Cyberfest. Since 1990, he worked in collaboration with Elena Gubanova. Lives and works in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Seventh Heaven, site-specific installation – Elena Gubanova, Ivan Govorkov, 2021
“Seventh Heaven”, an expression signifying the highest degree of joy, happiness, and bliss, derives from the Greek philosopher Aristotle (384-322 BC), who described the arrangement of the celestial spheres in his work “On the Heavens”. The installation examines the urge to break free from the heaviness of existence, from boundaries and illusions, from fears and time, and from the earth’s gravity.
Elena Gubanova
Born in 1960 in Ulyanovsk, USSR. Artist, curator. Graduated from the Ilya Repin State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Leningrad, USSR). Works in the fields of painting, sculpture, installations and video. Recipient of the Sergey Kuryokhin Award (2012, Russia) for “Best Work of Visual Art” (together with Ivan Govorkov). Her works have been exhibited at major Russian and foreign venues, including the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, Museum of Moscow, University Ca’ Foscari (Venice, Italy), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA) and Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany). Participant of the Manifesta 10 parallel program (2014, St. Petersburg, Russia) and several exhibitions parallel to Venice Biennale (since 2011); frequent participant of Cyberfest. Since 1990, she has worked in collaboration with Ivan Govorkov. Lives and works in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Ivan Govorkov
Born in 1949 in Leningrad, USSR. Artist. Graduated from the Ilya Repin State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Leningrad, USSR). He is engaged in philosophy, psychology, painting, drawing, sculpture and installations; he works at the junction of traditional art and cutting-edge technologies. Professor of drawing at the Ilya Repin Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). Recipient of the Sergey Kuryokhin Award (2012, Russia) for “Best Work of Visual Art” (together with Elena Gubanova). His works have been exhibited at major Russian and foreign venues, including the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, Museum of Moscow, University Ca’ Foscari (Venice, Italy), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany), and Sky Gallery 2 (Tokyo, Japan). Participant of the Manifesta 10 parallel program (2014, St. Petersburg, Russia) and several exhibitions parallel to the Venice Biennale (since 2011); frequent participant of Cyberfest. Since 1990, he worked in collaboration with Elena Gubanova. Lives and works in St. Petersburg, Russia.
World Famous!, video — Elena Gubanova & Ivan Govorkov, 2017
An ironic statement by the authors about the main motivation of artistic work. Only this prospect attracts the modern artist, everything else is just the invention of a devious mind.
Elena Gubanova
Born in 1960 in Ulyanovsk, USSR. Artist, curator. Graduated from the Ilya Repin State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Leningrad, USSR). Works in the fields of painting, sculpture, installations and video. Recipient of the Sergey Kuryokhin Award (2012, Russia) for “Best Work of Visual Art” (together with Ivan Govorkov). Her works have been exhibited at major Russian and foreign venues, including the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, Museum of Moscow, University Ca’ Foscari (Venice, Italy), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA) and Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany). Participant of the Manifesta 10 parallel program (2014, St. Petersburg, Russia) and several exhibitions parallel to Venice Biennale (since 2011); frequent participant of Cyberfest. Since 1990, she has worked in collaboration with Ivan Govorkov. Lives and works in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Ivan Govorkov
Born in 1949 in Leningrad, USSR. Artist. Graduated from the Ilya Repin State Academic Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (Leningrad, USSR). He is engaged in philosophy, psychology, painting, drawing, sculpture and installations; he works at the junction of traditional art and cutting-edge technologies. Professor of drawing at the Ilya Repin Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). Recipient of the Sergey Kuryokhin Award (2012, Russia) for “Best Work of Visual Art” (together with Elena Gubanova). His works have been exhibited at major Russian and foreign venues, including the Hermitage Museum, the Russian Museum, Museum of Moscow, University Ca’ Foscari (Venice, Italy), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany), and Sky Gallery 2 (Tokyo, Japan). Participant of the Manifesta 10 parallel program (2014, St. Petersburg, Russia) and several exhibitions parallel to the Venice Biennale (since 2011); frequent participant of Cyberfest. Since 1990, he worked in collaboration with Elena Gubanova. Lives and works in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Anxiety, multimedia installation — Anna Frants, 2014
An allegory of anxious states – there is no love, no compassion – just anxiety. The project represents a carefully produced stage drama whose cast of characters is a casually thrown draping. Its “choreography” is achieved by work of the ventilators of various power levels and the theater lighting. The presented show is meant to evoke an uneasy feeling.
Anna Frants
Born in 1965 in Leningrad, USSR. Artist, curator in the field of media art. She graduated from the Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Design (Leningrad, USSR) and Pratt Institute (New York, USA). Cofounder of the nonprofit cultural foundation St. Petersburg Arts Project, CYLAND Media Art Lab and Cyberfest. Frants’ interactive installations have been showcased at Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (Russia), Video Guerrilha Festival (Brazil), Manifesta 10 Biennale (St. Petersburg, Russia, 2014), Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany) and at other major venues all over the world. The artist’s works are held in the collections of the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Modern Art (St. Petersburg, Russia) and Kolodzei Art Foundation (New York, USA) as well as in numerous private collections. Lives and works in New York, USA, and St. Petersburg, Russia.
Video art
Curators: Victoria Ilyushkina, Dasha Dafis
Participants: Saara Ekström, Jenni Toikka, Alyona Tereshko, Viktoria Ilyushkina, Alexander Antipin, Alexander Borisov.
Amplifier — Saara Ekström, 2017, 17 min. 3 sec.
Time inevitably moves from past to future, passing the present moment. Mankind encloses to time its marks, stains and ruins. On the verge of vast changes time acts abnormally. It leaks, folds and fractures, allowing things belonging elsewhere, to the otherworldly, to permeate itself. In the 8mm film the Helsinki Olympic Stadium represents a historical paradigm shift. Completed in 1938 the building outlines pure functionalist architecture and stands as a landmark for optimistic utopia and the oblivion on man’s neglect of history.
Saara Ekström (Author), Saara Ekström (Cinematographer), Saara Ekström (Director), Eero Tammi (Editor), Saara Ekström (Script), Pietu Korhonen (Sound Design), Heikki Vienola (Actor), AVEK — The Promotion Centre for Audiovisual Culture (Funder), Alfred Kordelin Foundation (Funder).
Saara Ekström
Born 1965. She works in film, photography, text and installation. Chronotopes where time and place densify, time that nurtures and erodes, the ambivalent desire to both remember and forget are at the core of her art. Ekstr.m’s work has been shown extensively in various museums and festivals in Europe, the Americas and Asia. She received the Finnish media art prize AVEK-award in 2018 and the prizes of SW Finland in 2017, Finnish Art Society in 1995 and the Aboa prize in 1994. She has been the Helsinki Festival Artist in 2005 and was nominated for both Ars Fennica and Carnegie Art Award prizes in 2010.
Lighthouse — Jenni Toikka, Eeva-Riitta Eerola, 2019, 4 min. 52 sec.
We see the timeless figure of a reading woman by the pool side. The camera pans slowly past smooth white walls, warm wooden doors, onto the edge of the paved area, where the woman now sits, yet again. We are back in the first frame of the film. The man standing close by turns to face her, and frames the woman into an imaginary image, seated there, on the boundary between the built environment and the woods. She appears merely a visitor now, a fleeting presence by the pool side, whereas the reading figure radiated a calm sense of belonging.
The film Lighthouse was shot on 16 mm film at Maison Louis Carré in Bazoches-sur-Guyonne, central France. The focus of the work is the house designed by Alvar Aalto in 1959, commissioned by the art collector Louis Carr. and his wife Olga. The building was erected on an elevated spot with a view over rural expanses, making their home a prominent landmark. The woods around it have now grown high and the house has become a time capsule, a reminder of its own era. The film takes us to these material and mental borderlines between the architectural and the organic, the constructed and the growing. It navigates the house and its grounds along its boundaries, skimming along half-walls and pausing at the wooden grilles that open and close the flow of view as well as air between the inside and the outside of the building. Sounds and images do not frame together a fluid singular narrative or space-time in the film, but rather direct attention towards diverse parallel events, experiences and points of view. The spoken lines are partly from Virginia Woolf’s novel To the Lighthouse (1927).
Jenni Toikka (Author),Ville Piippo (Cinematographer), Jenni Toikka (Director), Eeva-Riitta Eerola (Director), Jenni Toikka (Editor), Kaisu Hölttä (Other ), Eeva-Riitta Eerola (Producer), Jenni Toikka (Producer), Jenni Toikka (Script), Eeva-Riitta Eerola (Script), Florian Spitzer (Actor), Constance Labbé (Actor), Frame Contemporary Art Finland (Funder), Finnish Cultural Foundation (Funder), Arts Promotion Centre Finland (Funder), Heikki Kossi (Sound Design), Pietu Korhonen (Sound Design).
Jenni Toikka
Born 1983. She is a Helsinki-based visual artist working predominantly with moving images. Toikka graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki in 2012. She has had several solo exhibitions in Helsinki including at Sinne, Forum Box and Kluuvi Gallery. In autumn 2019, her work was shown in the solo exhibition Reel at HAM – Helsinki Art Museum. Jenni Toikka’s video pieces have been seen internationally in group exhibitions and at festivals. Her work is represented in the collections of the Saastamoinen Foundation, Espoo Modern Art museum EMMA and the Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma.
Catch up with Francis Alÿs, video documentation of performance — Alyona Tereshko, 2014, 3 min. 40 sec.
The artist turns to the work of artist Francis Alÿs, “Lada Kopeika”. The video work documents a performance where the artist runs after a car of this brand, unsuccessfully trying to catch up with it. Through this re-enaction/performance, running past a modern landscape of new buildings, the artist addresses the concept of art in the perspective of history.
Alyona Tereshko
Born in 1986, Ishim, Tyumen Oblast. Lives and works in St. Petersburg. Graduated from the monumental art department of the Stiglitz Museum of Decorative and Applied Arts in 2013. Participant of the “Young Artist’s School” program of the PRO ARTE foundation (completed in 2013). Since 2012, participant of the “Parasite” association. She has taken part in collective exhibitions in Russia and abroad.
The Camp — Viktoria Ilyushkina, 2019, 10 min. 40 sec.
Landscapes of an abandoned pioneers’ camp.
A children’s camp of the Soviet period contains associations with “better times” and a happy childhood. Today, when you see that this territory for the socialization of children and their initiation into a bright future is now abandoned and overgrown with trees, you sense an allegory of the fall of an empire, the flow of time and the collapse of ideals.
Time has remained, but people have left it. Ghosts roam the camp.
The video is accompanied by a reading of scary children’s stories.
Victoria Ilyushkina
Born in 1971 in Leningrad, USSR. Artist, curator. Graduated from the Ilya Repin State Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (St. Petersburg, Russia) and the Pro Arte Institute (New Media Program; St. Petersburg, Russia). She has worked for the National Centre for Contemporary Arts (St. Petersburg, Russia) and currently curates exhibitions and Videoforma Video Art Festival at the Sergey Kuryokhin Art Centre, St. Petersburg, Russia. She also curates the CYLAND Video Archive and the Cyberfest video programs. Her video programs have been shown at the State Hermitage Youth Educational Center (St. Petersburg, Russia); Made in NY Media Center (New York, USA); in Germany, Turkey, Sweden, Colombia and Brazil; at parallel events at Moscow and Venice Biennale. She was a jury member of several international festivals including Multivision (Russia), Oberhausen (Germany), Krasnoyarsk Media Festival (Russia), and Transmission (Poland). Lives and works in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Urbanophonia – Alexander Antipin, 2019, 17 min. 15 sec.
The post-industrial world has destroyed the single classical space of the city, making it fragmentary, altering people’s identity. New technologies (especially cinematography) have created the media city, in which fragments of the urban space have become a laboratory of visual effects. Complex software is used as a catalyst for merging the human (media artist), machine and city into a whole. At the same time, yesterday’s industrial world (factories) is transformed into multimedia leisure sites. As a result, an “assembled” city is created.
Alexander Antipin
Contemporary Petersburg artist working in the field of computer graphics, media art and video art. Born near Saratov, he lived in Siberia. In 1986 he graduated from the journalism faculty of Leningrad State University. Began his career as a photographer. In 1994-2003 he worked as an art director at Moscow and Petersburg magazines (“Mir Internet”, “Aktivist”, “OM”). In the early 2000s, he became interested in video and digital graphics. In 2006-2011, senior lecturer at the department of media design and information technologies at the journalism faculty of St. Petersburg State University. Currently teaches media art at the St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television.
Overworld – Alexander Borisov, 2015-2018
“Overworld” is the traditional designation for the supernatural dwelling of the gods and kind spirits: the source of memory, the homeland of existence, a place of absolute power, where the union of the inviolable law and sacred knowledge reigns.
The graphics of “Overworld”, part of the “Cyberborea” project, are dedicated to the architectural sculpture of Petersburg, and feature a computerized treatment of photographs, in which images are converted into the flesh of digital texture, which is easily recognized by the modern eye. Antique gods, heroes, historical and legendary characters, mythical beasts and even ornaments are not only aesthetically attractive objects, but also as a local semiotic system, a memory card, a cultural code, connecting the “personal history” of the city with the founding meanings of European and world culture.
Alexander Borisov
Alexander Borisov is a media artist, photographer and designer, born in Tomsk in 1976. He graduated from the philosophy faculty of Tomsk State University (2000) and has lived in Petersburg since 2004. From 1997 to the early 2000s, he participated in the artistic life of Tomsk, studied the theory of contemporary art, organized a series of actions and performances, including “Chemical bonding of sounds” (video, performance), “-1” (performance), “Silent Film” (performance, video art), “Love is…” (video performance, part of the 32nd Oblast art exhibition), “Mimicry” (snow installation in the city environment) and others. In Petersburg, he has participated in sessions of the Tomsk Philosophy Club and the Philosophical Café (GEZ-21). At present, he works in the field of photography and computer graphics, and develops the theory of “noise ontology of media systems” and the aesthetics of “visual noise”. He founded the virtual space “Cyberborea” in which he has a number of projects such as “Overworld”, “Clouds”, “Hidden in the Leaf” and “Over Game”.
The exhibition presents works of renowned video artists from Finland and Russia. At the festival in Vyborg, Saara Ekström’s work about the architecture of the Olympic Stadium in Helsinki will be exhibited in Russia for the first time. The heroes of the works are the buildings themselves: from the villa of the architect Alvar Aalto in France to new housing developments, industrial buildings and an abandoned children’s pioneer camp in the Leningrad Oblast. Through performance, choreography, dramaturgy, digital photography and video collages, artists convey the emotional sensation of modern architecture and its immersion in the environment. The video works investigate the topic of interaction between humans and architectural spaces, structures and their elements in the historical context, and the “genius loci” – “the spirit of the place”.
The exhibition is organized with the support of the Finnish Institute in St. Petersburg, the Av-arkki Center of Finnish Media Art and CYLAND MediaArtLab.
ALVAR AALTO CITY LIBRARY 4 Prospekt Suvorova
The famous library designed by the Finnish architect Alvar Aalto will showcase two video programs from the CYLAND Video Archive as well as an installation by Anna Frants “Grimaces and Jumps”.
Jumping Jacks, multimedia installation — Anna Frants, 2015
We are used to seeing the depiction of running or jumping athletes on the Greek vase. Ancient amphorae in this installation have the same subject, except that, instead of the familiar red or black figures, we see on it videos based on Muybridge’s photographs “Human Figures in Motion” taken only about a century ago. This work of the 21st century could be called “post-post-modern” in that it proves that everything old (or very-very old) is new again.
Anna Frants
Born in 1965 in Leningrad, USSR. Artist, curator in the field of media art. She graduated from the Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Design (Leningrad, USSR) and Pratt Institute (New York, USA). Cofounder of the nonprofit cultural foundation St. Petersburg Arts Project, CYLAND Media Art Lab and Cyberfest. Frants’ interactive installations have been showcased at Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art (Russia), Video Guerrilha Festival (Brazil), Manifesta 10 Biennale (St. Petersburg, Russia, 2014), Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Hermitage Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Chelsea Art Museum (New York, USA), Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin, Germany) and at other major venues all over the world. The artist’s works are held in the collections of the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Museum of Art and Design (New York, USA), Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Modern Art (St. Petersburg, Russia) and Kolodzei Art Foundation (New York, USA) as well as in numerous private collections. Lives and works in New York, USA, and St. Petersburg, Russia.
The video programs feature works by artists from Russia, Finland, and the United States, and are dedicated to the theme of interaction between human beings and space: the natural environment, ecology, and architectural structures in historical and cultural contexts.
Curators of the video program: Victoria Ilyushkina, Dasha Dafis, Ilkka Pitkanen (Finland).
Video program 1 — July 9, 4-30PM
Participants: Ilkka Pitkänen, Violetta Gunina, Andrey Kalashnikov, Polina Korotaeva, Milja Viita, Simo Saarikoski, Philip Trapeznikov, Yana Pitenko, Svetlana Lysenko, Pasi Autio.
As part of the festival “Non-stop” at the GROUND Solyanka gallery, the new program of 10 video works from the CYLAND archive are presented.
Difficult times bring a different relationship with time and space to our lives. The conditions of the pandemic have reversed many of the familiar meanings, and we feel them somewhat more sharply. This, on the one hand, exacerbated the intimization of consciousness, immersion in complex inner experiences and fantasies. The man became more attentive to the objects around him, as if looking at them through a magnifying glass. On the other hand, the perception of universal human values (happiness, freedom) has increased, and a different awareness of real and virtual worlds and their interactions has been added.
Most of the works are part of the new addition to the video archive, many authors are presented for the first time on the archive’s website.
* by Alexander Vvedensky
Curated by
Victoria Ilyushkina, Dasha Dafis.
Artworks
Polina Komyagina, «Depleted Reality», 2020
Victoria Ilyushkina, «Time», 2020
Lida Rikker, «Green on the other side», 2019
Yanina Chernykh, «Doorway threat», 2020
Lera Nibiru, «Journey to the other side of dream», 2020
Anna Tolkacheva, «May be», 2015
Lyoubov Tuinova, «ANTIMUSEUM», 2016
Gentle Women group, «Ooo, do you feel the breeze?», video performance, 2013–2020
Ludmila Belova, «Free OFF LINE», 2020
Anna Frants, «Narcissus», 2018
The CYLAND Video Archive has been in operation since 2008. This is the first archive of this kind in Russia: all the works that are gathered in it are accessible for view in the internet. The archive’s basis was composed of video works of the artists who participated in Cyfest festivals that had been held by CYLAND Media Art Lab since 2007.
The video archive was conceived as a platform for networking and interaction of artists, computer programmers, videographers, engineers, art teachers and curators from various countries. Its main objectives are to become a vehicle for the exchange of professional information and to provide artists with an opportunity to promote their works. The collection of CYLAND Media Art Lab includes video art, experimental films, computer graphics, 3D animation, stop-motion animation, poetic video, video documentation of art and education projects in the field of cutting-edge technologies. Currently, the collection comprises over 400 videos by approximately 100 artists and art groups from Russia as well as 30 artists from other countries. Exhibitions and screenings of programs from CYLAND Video Archive have been held in Great Britain, France, Brazil, Turkey, America, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Eastern Europe.
TIME IS THE ONLY THING THAT DOES NOT EXIST OUTSIDE OF US
The Project is technically supported by CYLAND MediaArtLab.
«The flesh of the installation is formed by a technique that visually creates the impression of mad technogenic bustle, the “demonic life”. The audio is an ecstatic “symphony of comfort”. Before us is an army battered by struggles with consumer greed.»
Vladimir Rannev
Marina Alekseeva has always been interested in the social structures of contemporary society, which the artist has explored through the prism of the physical and material environment of human habitation. A new joint project with Vladimir Rannev reflects back on a series of Alekseeva’s lightboxes from the 2000s that recreated miniature versions of the interiors of various religious buildings, from a cathedral to a mosque and an Orthodox church. The subject under examination in the total installation “The Whole Shebang” is the main temple of the modern human — their home, filled to the brim with devices and gadgets.
At first glance, it may seem that the content of Marina Alekseeva and Vladimir Rannev’s project is limited to environmental issues, which are an important focus of the contemporary art scene. As you first approach it, “All Inclusive” really does look like a call to consider the consequences of household waste, an anti-manifesto against overproduction and consumerist society. Technology, designed to facilitate and improve everyday life, has taken on such a large role that it is gradually displacing humans, excluding us as irrelevant and turning into a closed, autonomous ecosystem.At the beginning of the XXI century, we are predicting the imminent rise of the machines, without realizing that in fact it has already happened long ago.
The «The Whole Shebang» project was conceived a little more than a year ago, in a completely different reality, as they say. It was the year 2020 and the time of lockdown, when humanity was actually locked in at home, and space and time collapsed into the experience of domestic life. It filled the work of Marina Alekseeva and Vladimir Rannev with new overtones that made it existential and even tragic.
On February 5 at 16:00 at the Masters School, a discussion will take place, during which curator Dmitry Renansky will talk about the exhibition, Marina Alekseeva and Vladimir Rannev — about their work, Marina Gisich — about the concept of the new Project site and about cooperation with collectors. Registration and a detailed description of the event here.
In “Changing Landscapes 3”, twelve films/video works selected from CYLAND’s Video Archive create together a genuine, introspective look at contemporary Russian New Media. These videos / films by active Eastern European artists offer personal perspectives into the continuum of their native country’s past, present and future. Pieces by established, recognized artists Boris Kazakov, Yuri Vasiliev and Ludmila Belova, Marina Alexeeva, Dimitri Lurie are joined by early works by Maxim Svishev, Masha Sha, Anton Khlabov and the “Upward!” community – each embodying artistic development within the age of digital technology in Russia.
− Boris Kazakov/ «Nestlings of the Sea»,1996
− Anton Khlabov/ «Storage», 2009
− Masha Sha/ «Never Ending», 2005
− Maxim Svishev/ «Aurora», 2012
− “Upward!” Community / «Fedorov Endgame», 2012
− Yuri Vasiliev / «Mom», 2002
− Laboratory of Poetry Actionism / «Lots of Letters», 2010
− Group “Soap” / «Figure Skating On the Soap», 2011
− Ludmila Belova / «Home», 2007
− Dmitri Lurie / «Refraction», 2012
– Manya Alexeeva / «Window Number 2», 2011
– Vika Ilyushkina / «Deformation», 2008
GROUND Solyanka is a gallery and a workshop with a focus on development and promotion of innovative forms of contemporary art and culture. Since December 2018 it has been led by artist and curator Katya Bochavar who has introduced a cross-disciplinary approach into the gallery’s practices. GROUND Solyanka is a full cycle project. Artworks are not only exhibited here but also conceptualized, created and distributed. In line with this mission, the gallery offers artist residency programs in areas such as livre d’artiste, sound art, contemporary music and dance, performance, installation, literature and contemporary theatre.Essential to the gallery’s practices is the ASK project (Archive of Sensory Knowledge) dedicated to collecting and museumification of digital art.
Over 130 applications were received for the open international competition from artists and groups from Brazil, Finland, Israel, France, Australia, the USA, the UK, Norway, Luxembourg, Argentina, Columbia, the Netherlands, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Russia and other countries.
Digital video works accepted for the competition ranged from web-based, generative art and GIF to augmented reality, VR, AI, 3D modeling and neural network art.
The open competition was announced by CYLAND media lab in April 2020. The projects that made the short and long list will be shown at Cyfest-13, which will be held in St Petersburg, Russia, in the first quarter of 2021.
Video program curator – Viсtoria Ilyushkina.
CYLAND Media Lab would like to announce and congratulate the winners that made the shortlist of the video competition.
First prize
shared between two applicants – 500 + 500 USD
Francesca Fini (Italy), /S)CONFINAMENTO — first chapter, 2020
Francesca Fini created the performance project /S)CONFINAMENTO to show the city of Rome where life came to a halt under quarantine, by broadcasting the signal from security cameras. In the silent emptiness, these short fleeting lives, these lonely adventures in the closed city are narrative elements of an antiutopian story. With the software she developed, the artist transforms the tiniest movements into a unique sound performance and graphic visualization, and returns this digital stream to the web.
Aristarkh Chernyshev (Russia), Dystopia #02, 2018
Dystopia #02 is a critical project about the radical shift of concepts of consumption and post-consumption in modern society. The anti-aesthetics of garbage dumps and eternal urban renovations enter our lives and become part of everyday reality. This creates a feeling of apocalyptic “eternal timelessness”.
Second prize — 500 USD
Boris Shershenkov (Russia), Etheroforming, 2020
VR documentation of an experiment to discover the human impact on the etheric force, continuing the experiments by Thomas Edison. Test generators of pure signals are transmitted to a channel that contains the imprint of a historical layer of media.
Third prize — 500 USD
Fay Heady (Japan), OTAKU BOI, 2019
Otaku Boi is the chaos of a gamer’s life who migrates between the real and virtual worlds, conveyed by a synthesis of performance, computer chiptune music, animation and scenography.
Special prize — 250 USD
TONOPTIK (Yuriy Tolstoguzov, Alex Inkov) (Russia), ZEN, 2019
In this work, the Tonoptik group develops the idea of Nam June Paik and his work “Zen for film” (1962). The artists studied emptiness using tools of minimalism, comparing the perfection of mathematical objects and the imperfection of their analogous 3-D generation and perception by humans.
The organizers of the XI Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award have published an online catalogue. It is available on the official website of the Sergey Kuryokhin Art Center. The electronic catalogue contains projects included in the long list of the Award, as well as videos, texts and detailed photo documentation.
“Every issue of the printed catalogue is timed with the Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award-giving Ceremony.Printed catalogue fulfils important for Award team educational function: not only to present projects from the long-list, but to trace behind them a history of changing and becoming. Throughout more than a decade long history of the Award there were 10 printed issues of the catalogue — each and every one of them being a cut of emerging contemporary art, eagerly sought both by artist and professional audience.”
«The Lookout» festival curated by Elena Gubanova, CYLAND Media Art Lab artist and curator, was included in the long list of the Kuryokhin Award in the «Best curatorial project» category. Among the project participants were artists, curators, and engineers of CYLAND Media Art Lab — Anna Frants, Victoria Ilyushkina, Sergey Komarov & Alexey Grachev, Marina Alexeeva, Ivan Govorkov, Natalia Lyakh, Sid Iandovka, and others.
In addition to Elena Gubanova, this year’s nominees for the Kuryokhin Prize are CYLAND Media Art Lab artist Lyudmila Belova and participants of the Cyfest International Media Art Festival Alexandra Lerman, Vladimir Abikh, and Dmitry ::vtol:: Morozov.
Slider: Francesca Fini (Italy), /S)CONFINAMENTO — first chapter, 2020; Guilherme Bergamini (Brazil), Plenitude / Entirety, 2020; Ellen K. Levy (USA), Crying Astronaut, 2019.
As part of an open-call for participation in the CYFEST-13 «Chaos and Cosmos» video program, we received more than 130 applications from artists and collectives from Brazil, Finland, France, Australia, USA, UK, Norway, Luxemburg, Argentina, Columbia, the Netherlands, Mexico, Japan, Canada, Russia, and other countries.
We were interested in new digital art of all kinds, from web-based art, generative art, GIF to augmented reality, VR, AI, 3D modeling, neural network art.
An open international competition was announced by the CYLAND MediaArtLab in April 2020. The projects included in the long list will take part in CYFEST-13 International Media Art Festival, which will be held in St. Petersburg, Russia in the first quarter of 2021. Curator of video program — Victoria Ilyushkina.
Winners will be announced soon. Please follow our website for further updates.
Long list:
Francesca Fini (Italy), /S)CONFINAMENTO — first chapter, 2020
This spring CYLAND participates in three major European film and video art forums at once.
VIDEOFORMES
From 12 to 15 March in Clermont-Ferrand, France, the festival of video art and digital culture VIDEOFORMES will take place. The festival was founded in 1984 and is a major international platform for contemporary digital and video art. The festival program includes exhibitions, screenings, educational events and performances. CYLAND Media Art Lab curator Victoria Ilyushkina is among the jury members of the festival 2020. As part of the project, Victoria will also hold a presentation of the St. Petersburg Videoforma Festival and the CYLAND VIDEO ARCHIVE.
CYLAND VIDEO ARCHIVE artists participating in the screening: Inal Savchenkov and Franz Rodwalt, Anton Khlabov , YOmoYO, Victoria Ilyushkina and Maya Popova , Alena Tereshko , Tanya Akhmetgalieva, Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai, Yulia Zastava, Marina Alexeeva.
From March 1 to 15, Münster will host Russian Film Days, during which German viewers will be presented with the latest Russian films that have received prizes at various national and international film festivals. In 2020, the program of the event includes a video screening from the CYLAND archive, as well as a lecture by Victoria Ilyushkina «Digital Video Art and Underground Culture of St. Petersburg 1990-2020».
CYLAND VIDEO ARCHIVE artists participating in the screening: BORIS KAZAKOV, OLGA TOBRELUTS, POLINA KANIS , ANTON GINZBURG, SID IANDOVKA, ANYA TSYRLINA, ENGINEERS OF ARTS (Inal Savchenkov / Franz Rodwalt), DIMITRI LURIE, YOmoYO, MASHA SHA, VIKA ILYUSHKINA & MAYA POPOVA , JULIA ZASTAVA.
The Oberhausen International Short Film Festivalwas founded in 1954 and is the oldest and largest short film forum in the world. It is held annually in Oberhausen, Germany. In 2013, the organisers of the festival launched a special Archive section to bring some attention to an often neglected subject: archiving and restoring experimental films. This year, the section includes a curated screening of video artworks from CYLAND VIDEO ARCHIVE, Russia’s first open online video collection.
The artists whose works are participating in the screening: Boris Kazakov (Russia), Polina Kanis (Russia), Sid Iandovka and Anya Tsyrlina (USA/Switzerland), Dmitri Lurie (Norway).
From July 13 to August 1, three students of the Tyumen State University School of Advanced Studies (SAS) got an internship at the CYLAND Media Art Lab. The 3-week educational intensive included lectures, seminars, and master classes led by artists and curators of the laboratory as well as a number of creative and practical tasks. During the internship the students got acquainted with the CYLAND’s main fields of activity, discussed contemporary curatorial practices and experimental institutional models, studied history and ways of archiving sound and video art, learned more about cutting-edge PR and art mediation strategies. Communication between students and the CYLAND team was taking place over Zoom.
The School of Advanced Studies (SAS), a new and rapidly growing institution at the University of Tyumen, central to the university’s strategy supported by the Russian Academic Excellence project 5top100, opened in 2017. The strategic goal of SAS is to contribute to the global debate on the most important problems in the area of social sciences and humanities, life sciences and IT, and to provide a unique, high-quality education for the best prepared, most talented, and most highly motivated students from Russia and abroad.
At the moment SAS employs full-time faculty from 12 countries, most of whom received their PhDs from best universities in the USA, Canada, and Europe; they comprise several interdisciplinary research teams which create the School’s distinct academic profile.
The educational program of SAS offers students the opportunity to undertake interdisciplinary study across the social sciences and humanities, extending to their intersection with information technology and the biological sciences, and offering wide latitude and personal choice regarding the individual’s educational path.
The Oberhausen International Short Film Festival was founded in 1954 and is the oldest and largest short film forum in the world. It is held annually in Oberhausen, Germany.
In 2013, the organisers of the festival launched a special Archive section to bring some attention to an often neglected subject: archiving and restoring experimental films.
This year, the section includes a curated screening of video artworks from CYLAND VIDEO ARCHIVE, Russia’s first open online video collection.
The artists whose works are participating in the screening: Boris Kazakov (Russia), Polina Kanis (Russia), Sid Iandovka and Anya Tsyrlina (USA/Switzerland), Dmitri Lurie (Norway).
Screening curator: Victoria Ilyushkina
LIVE Talk with curator Victoria Ilyushkina will take place on May 15 at 22.00 (CET). You can join the live broadcast on the festival social networks (Facebook, Vimeo). Live Talk will later appear on the website in the ‘blog‘ section — a virtual festival platform for discussions and even DJ sets.
The complete programme of the online edition of the 66th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is now online, with information on all the films the festival is streaming online from 13 to 18 May 2020 – more than 350 short films for all ages from three upwards. This includes not only the festival’s five competitions with a total of 136 works, but also numerous other sections.
The opening and award ceremony this year can be watched free of charge.
The opening will be streamed from www.kurzfilmtage.de on 13 May at 7.30 pm (CET), the award ceremony on 18 May at 7.30 pm (CET).
Time has become chaotic in quarantine, sometimes terribly fast, sometimes desperately slow. Time that is both full and empty: human relationships, emergency, sorrow, loneliness, uncertainty, neuroses, restrictions and loss. Sometimes I feel like an animal that will gnaw its leg off to escape from a trap. We are in, we are out; it’s better, it’s worse; it’s death, it’s rebirth. We don’t know, we don’t really know anything. We have gone back to being vulnerable, everything is still confused, everything still to be explored. I no longer recognize myself, I am different from the way I was here, and I am no longer how I was before. Who knows if I will be like that again. Maybe it was just an intermission or maybe I still have to figure out who I have become in this new Pandemic Era. —text by Ilaria Sabbatini
A few months ago, the outbreak of COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, and today organizers of cultural events around the world are forced to postpone or cancel events that have invested enormous effort and time. To contain the epidemic and protect others from the virus, many of us work at home or in workshops.
“In order to support those who are now deprived of the usual circle of communication, to understand and make visible what is happening in the art world under quarantine, we decided to launch the project “One on One”. We asked artists to make short videos about how they work in (self-)isolation, about their plans for the future, about what books they read, what they think. The aim of the project is to show solidarity with those who are under quarantine, to make visible the work that is currently taking place in artists’ studios around the world, to enable a wide audience to engage in the creative process, as well as to help people distract from the heavy information background.”
— Elena Gubanova, artist, CYLAND MediaArtLab Curator.
Participants: Marcantonio Lunardi, ORLAN, Olesya Gonserovskaya, KOKHLIAS, SAO.STUDIO Project, Endless Attractions Museum, Nelo Akamatsu, Victoria Ilyushkina, Ivan Govorkov, Michael Zavialov, Ludmila Belova, Asya Dodina & Slava Polishchuk, Masha Godovannaya, Alena Tereshko, Natasha Zavialov, The Arendt Sisters, ArinaSlobodianik.
