The Gallery of Contemporary Art «Ў», «pARTisan» media-project with the support of 34mag.net multimedia magazine

May 1-27, 2014
art project «OFFSIDE»

Artists: Paulina Vituščanka, Siarhei Hudzilin, Michaił Hulin, Valancina Kisialova, Alaksiej Łunioŭ  , Alaksiej Navumčyk, Anton Sarokin, Antanina Słabodčykava, Maxim Tyminko, Jura Shust and art-group Bouillon (Georgia).

The curators’ group: Таnia Arcimovič, Alaksiej Barysionak, Valancina Kisialova, Inha Lindarenka.

ALAKSIEJ NAVUMČYK&ANTON SAROKIN
Construction Side Board. Multimedia installation. 2014

You could see and listen HERE

Our project is called Object Certificate, where «the object» incorporates the whole city of Minsk, which is unlikely to have expirienced such intense changes in its recent history as it is undergoing now. Any city — is a condensation of memories. In anticipation of the «mega-events» which are about to occur here, interesting developments take place in the urban environment. So a new discourse, associated with the question as to what would remain after the ice melts?, or, in other words, when the Championship is over, has emerged. On the one hand, intensive construction works is a subject of massive criticism of the city dwellers. example, The erection of the hotel «Kempinski», for example, has not received a single positive comment from the public. On the other hand, building can be considered a destruction of frozen in time Soviet lines of the city architecture, as a releive from the ghosts of past, as renewal and connection to today’s needs.

The political aspect of this process is central to our thinking. That is why a key visual image of the exhibition is the fence as a metaphor for the processes occurring at several − here and on the other side — levels.

Anton Sarokin, Alaksiej Navumčyk

There are rumors being spread around the Sun City that it has been purchased by Martians, who for some reason call themselves As-Syrians. Instead of the palaces they are going to erect 35-store telescopic glass towers that look like gigantic phalluses. They will call the towers hotels, and their guests will probably be As-Syrian Martians, as they have long been the only ones to visit the Sun City. There are also rumors that space asses, a.k.a. flying saucers will land at the top of the phallic hotels, which is the core of the As-Syrians’ secret project: to build a space shuttle launching site for their army with a view to conquering the whole of the territory.

…The verdict is given. The City of the Gods is doomed. In ten years’ time we will wake up to find ourselves in a different Zmiensk. It was inevitable. The hordes of barbarians, who stayed for quite a time on the distant approaches to the Sun City and stared at its classical beauty, hoping for plenty of loot, have now shattered the silence with their war cries and launched an assault.

We will defend our houses and our city. The Sun City is inside us! We are the Sun City!

Artur Klinau «The City of the Gods» / 2009

SIARHIEI HUDZILIN
From New Olympia project. Photograph. 2012-13

The photographs shown in the exhibition represent one part of the project New Olympia I have been working at for a couple of years. For me these photographs depict a certain stage, a part of the topic I plan to develop. The project started in 2012 when I was preparing the report for the «Nasa Niva» newspaper . I was shooting final rehearsals of the parade for the Independence Day of Belarus. The aesthetics of these parades, the audiovisual component touched me deeply. I continued taking pictures the following year.

The selection of the photographs is unlikely to claim for the status of a conceptual statement. I do not formulate any message with these photographs, but I document and tell a story. This project is about mass nonprofessional sport with propaganda elements. For me it represents a visual characteristic of the optional course «The Basics of the Belarusian State Ideology», its climax. The project does not possess tangible problems. It is rather vice versa. The parades themselves, their aesthetics and cultural format contrast with our Belarusian problems, «superimages» and their range varies from culture to politics.

Siarhiei Hudzilin

15 photographs of Siarhiei Hudzilin focus on the phenomenon of Belarusian holiday where sport plays one of the leading roles. The selected photographs reveal unique features of the local context — the eclectics of the contemporary Belarusian state aesthetics.  We could observe the elements of paganism, Christianity, ancient aesthetics, carnival, Soviet matinees, military and sports parades on the one space.

The project curators

MAXIM TYMINKO
939 Picture Elements. Multichannel video installation. 2013

When I hear about different hypotheses concerning the structure of the universe, I try to grasp what are the mechanisms behind the process of understanding such mental constructions,since they have no obvious analogues in the surrounding world. Where is the level of simplification, primitivization and generalization by which these principles can be adequately communicated? I remember when I was a child, I tried, with great difficulty, to visualize in my mind the concept of Infinity. Even now, when I try to explain to myself that the world consists of a set of elementary particles, sometimes I imagine it as a large container of sand and that ‘I’consist of the same sand particles as all the other things around me.

Where is the actual border between oneself and everything else?

To a large extent this work deals with notions of utopia and absurdity. It’s my attempt to explore the structural patterns we use to make sense of the world around us. While at the same time realizing that the attempt to analyze these principles is an investigation into the ambiguity of failure in the pursuit of aesthetics and knowledge.

Maxim Tyminko

The video installation by Maxim Tyminko refers to mass holidays, the apotheosis of which in today’s global world is often the Olympic Competition. Working with aesthetics of sports shows or attractions (inspiration for Maxim Tyminko was the North Korean «Mass Games» or «Mass Gymnastics»), the artist creates a sterile space of a mass. Nevertheless, 939 Picture Elements can be also read from other perspectives, including existential: when a contemporary individual being, , an anonymous and abstract «pixel» of one global image, has to find his or her individual opposition to this «mass».

The project curators

MICHAIL HULIN

Good Afternoon, Mr. Buren, or Serie A. Triptych.
Project Non-abstract Art, 2012

This triptych is a part of the project Non-abstract Art. In the project I use the method of appropriation, working with well —
known ready images (Supremus) or other artists’ styles. It is in this work that I turn to Daniel Buren, whose stripes present a
recognizable style. I thought it was funny how the opponent of art commercialization turned such a simple item such as a strip into a commodity that is into his own brand. Long ago the same thing happened in sport, since nowadays we no longer talk about the culture of body or about health, but exclusively about money.

Originally I had been planning to create 11 works, but then decided to reduce them to three, which corresponds to the number of top teams in Serie A (Italian Football League). Juventus, Milan and Inter. I added the advertising of their title sponsors and made sweat stains, one should not forget that it is Non-abstract Art indeed.

Michail Hulin

While conducting a series of interviews we asked the experts whether the organization of sport events is a business. Sometimes the answer was: «Yes, it is business». But in other cases the experts replied: «No, it is not a business», «This is a noncommercial activity, it develops sports», «I do it because I enjoy it». At the same time, the declared incomes and costs in the «business events» and «non-commercial events» were identical. Yet, the «non-profit» experts willingly shared the information that for «commercial companies» could be commercially sensitive. The competitions they organised attempted to be presented like business, but in reality they did not have any returns.

Andrej Adelfinski «A Pyramid or an Iceberg?»

VALANCINA KISIALOVA
Sniper therapeutic practices. Object. 2014

I’ve never been a sport fan, generally never watch any sports. But from early childhood my parents forced me to attend sports clubs: gymnastics, swimming, athletics. Although, I really wanted to dance and to play music. Sport was a very popular subject in the Soviet Union, and my mother thought that it’s right way for her child. But for me sport is directly related to violence self inflicted violence.

My visit to a shooting range is spontaneous yet, in my opinion, natural reaction to a chain of recent events: Majdan in Ukraine, Winter Olympics in Sochi, seizure of the Crimea and the events that followed. This is also my thoughts about the Championship in Minsk: suddenly my memories of Soviet childhood have returned. So, my shooting is emotional outburst, way out of a state of shock, helplessness, or rather confusion and further, I think, the fear possibility of returning back to the USSR.

This is a shot of my inner state, my fear, rooted in the past, which I was able to cope with, thanks to such sniper therapy. It’s a desire to shoot Soviet «ghosts». 

Valancina Kisialova

ALAKSIEJ ŁUNIOŬ (ALEXEY LUNEV)
Stirb und Werde, (Die and rise), Personal Icons series. Collage. 2014
HE 6056, Duty Free series. Object, photograph. 1998

Personal Icons is a story of my fetishisation. Initial impulse to produce them comes from the time when I was very impressed by the novel by Jean Genet «Our Lady of the Flowers», which I read over twenty years ago. A character was in prison and he used to make collages using books and newspapers at the back of sheet of paper with his daily prison schedule. It was his hidden world, his personal Freedom. At first I made my collages only for myself. I put them on the wall near my working table, and they were a source of reflections for me − from sexual perversions to religion. Later the works began to participate in various art projects. For the exhibition «OFFSIDE» I’ve chosen a number of collages which speak about victory.

Object HE 6056 was made specifically for installation «HEUTE», which is based on personal experience of physical trauma and a desire to overcome it. A number, which is marked on the bear was sewed on underclothes for laundry in Soviet times. If we try to discuss how my object works with sport subject − for me personally, it can only have that meaning if a jump of mine from the fourth floor of a building will be called an exercise.

Alaksiej Łuniou

In the context of the exhibition, the work by Alaksiej Łuniou shows how artists could use sport’s language and images for her or his artistic goals, but not only that. More so, the variations of meanings, which an artistic work has irrespective of artists’ initial ideas. Thus, the object HE 6056 seems to be one of the most remote from the theme of sport as to its original ideas. But when it comes into the context of the exhibition, it creates new associations and meanings. A Bear as a symbol of the Olympic Games in 1980 has become historical symbol, so HE 6056 could be understood as an artistic protest (very personal and emotional) against the domination of physical strength and a cult of athletic body.

The project curators

ANTANINA SŁABODČYKAVA
Untitled. It’s here series. 2012

For me personally, these works primarily talk about «patterns of understanding». I identify several topics: time, fear, religion, death. I used elements, vocabulary of sport deliberately, because for me they are symbols of the «purity of perception», synonymous with sincerity.

Antanina Słabodčykava

Conciseness, clarity of sport’s language help the artist create the same transparent concise statements. These works from the It’s Here series show how sport in its broadest sense could be presented at many different levels of our daily lives, especially their private aspect. Existential quest, dialogue with the Other, gender dimension, self-identification are areas that seem to us too private and metaphysical, but they also find the point of intersection with sport.

The project curators

PAŬLINA VITUŠČANKA
Morning gymnastic of young artist. Video, 4’23. 2014

My work is not about sport, but about art, and in the process it became clear for me that they have a lot in common. Wikipedia describes sport as «forms of usually competitive physical activity which, through casual or organized participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical ability and skills while providing entertainment to participants, and in some cases, spectators». It is a normal life of artists, only physical and intellectual value may vary.

In my work I focus on the feelings of a young artist who explores himself or herself and those older, trying to understand how the field of art works. Generally, the hierarchy in the art world is a very strong and ancient tradition, although now it is less visible. A Master who transmits to a student personal experience: this system is established for millennia. In my work I take this experience in the form of quotes with the idea that if you will repeat these quotes every day as a mantra, you become a really good artist, as the authors of those quotes. But in spite of the seriousness of the subject I believe, first of all, that my work is funny.

Paŭlina Vituščanka

Paŭlina Vituščanka’s work continues the tradition of Belarusian artists to make dialogue with authorities of modernism and contemporary art, which more actively began in the 1970s among the Belarusian unofficial art circles . But unlike their predecessors (Ludmiła Rusava, Siarhiej Kiruščanka, Uładzimir Vasiljeŭ, Alaksandr Małčanaŭ, etc.), who tried to find their artistic identity (as well as self-identity) in modernism (especially in Viciebsk School), Belarusian young artists of the new millennium who grew in a global art context, start to «talk» not only to the entire history of art (from Albrecht Dürer to Marina Abramovič). But also to their Belarusian teachers (in the case of Paŭlina Vituščanka it’s Valiancina Kisialova and Aleksiej Luniou), as well as media sources, which for new generation is one of the most important educational resources.

Video Morning gymnastic of young artist continues ironic style of the project Non-abstract art by Michail Hulin, the installation 15 minutes of Fame by Siarhiej Šabochin, the work by Žanna Hładko from Inciting Force project and other.

The project curators

PAŬLINA VITUŠČANKA
Olympic Gold. Installation. 2013-14

I think that laughter is the only adequate response to the current Belarusian  sports hype, especially to assignment of the hero status to the sportsmen. In Belarus, in general, it seems to me, people tend to like it, probably it’s a post-Soviet trauma. Every resident can be given a medal for something. Probably, I would have received a medal for a disarming smile; however, I wouldn’t come to collect it. I’m an artist, not a sportsman, so what are these medals for?

Paŭlina Vituščanka

JURA ŠUST (JURA SHUST)
A Winner. Installation. 2013-2014

It is not a mere chance that The Ice Hockey World Championships, a men’s sport for the brave, starts on May, 9^th − which is also the Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War: sport and victory’s triumph linked together (as in a situation when the Belarusian Olympic champions are awarded and their photos are printed on billboards and the same time athletes who have lost are condemned). The Tool of victory and power are used to create a new national identity and national pride.

The installation refers to May 9^th, a day which has become a day of power demonstration instead of the act of commemoration (as in the case of military parades, Stalin Line complex, or bright success of the Belarusian IT-corporation Wargaming).

Jura Shust

GROUP BOUILLON (GEORGIA)
Weightlifters. Performance, video, 20’32. 2009-11

Project Weightlifters parodies a rush of underdeveloped countries towards the Western Unions such as the EU, NATO and other. During a month of physical training six artists make attempts to achieve unrealistic results and become professional weightlifters. This action symbolizes the competition of  non-EU member countries to reach stated standards of western civilization in a short period of time.

At the same time, the project is a simulation of the corporate “ethics” of capitalist societies that is represented by the rules of sports games. The artists underline that the basis of  corporate ethics is the athletic principle of competition. The project blurs the boundaries between art, sports and politics demonstrating the combined cultural «bullion», where there is no longer differentiated space.

GROUP BOUILLON (GEORGIA)
Aerobics. Performance, video, 09’20. 2011

Particular religious movements (such as making sign of a cross, kneeling, touching one’s ears) contain an implicit meaning, a message, which has an objective, of one’s spiritual development. Faithful people used to know the meaning of these movements centuries ago, but they are being lost now. Today, they become somehow automated at times are totally meaningless − aerobics that does not necessarily exclude the some outcome. 

Our work is an attempt to understand the movements of the three religions of the world: Islam, Christianity and Judaism. We united them, made a performance, filmed it. The artists as sportsmen will present the aerobics video and performance.The movements do not represent the perfection of the body (as it seems at the first sight), but a deep understanding of these movements.

In 2013 the performance was a part of Georgia pavilion on the 55 Venetian Art Biennale.

Photos © 34mag.net