Media Impactors
Aktivistische Kunst aus Russland und Katalog Veröffentlichung
23.06 ab 19.30h Vernissage und Party
Ausstellung vom 23.06 bis zum 17.06.Â
Öffnungszeiten:
Freitag – Sonntag 15:00 – 19:00
Media Impactors exhibition is a presentation of the young Russian activist art that emerged at the beginning of the century and is quickly developing.
Today, we witness important changes in Russian contemporary art.
Artists come out of the studios, museums and galleries to make interventions in the streets and online social networks. They take part in different forms of social activism from political to ecological actions and community work. The new type of emerging artists call themselves activists: no analogues to that have been known in Russian art before. They refuse to work with institutions, search for their own forms of artistic existence, cooperate with subcultures and social movements.
This exhibition will give the German audience an insight into the many forms Russian activist art takes today in format of video documentations of the actions. “Meda Impact. International Festival of Activist Art” (2011, Moscow) book will be presented within the opening.
Videos: Bombily / Kiss my Ba / PG / Denis Mustafin / P183 / Pussy Riot
Participating artists:
Kiss my Ba group was founded by Artyom Loskutov, an artist from Novosibirsk. Since 2004, they regularly hold Monstrations – artistic happenings in the form of public manifestations. The idea, based on traditions of dadaists, French situtianists, anarchism and Moscow conceptualism, is to mock and subvert the communist tradition of May Day demonstrations using absurd slogans. The number of participants involved in Monstrations has now reached 2000, and the movement has spread to other Russian cities. Â
http://kissmybabushka.com/
Denis Mustafin grew up in Saransk in the Volga region; as a young man, he moved to Moscow and started his own advertising agency in 2001. Since 2009 Denis works as an independent contemporary art curator. In 2011 he founded noart gallery – a project without a permanent space, holding art exhibitions at most unexpected locations. He also leads creative agency for artists “How does it work?”Â
http://noartgallery.livejournal.com/
His video “White on Red” documents a symbolic action of throwing white flags (meaning surrender and plead for negotiation), to the Kremlin wall by a group of activists, in a way similar to dumping the 3rd Reich flags by Russian soldiers at the end of World War II. By this work, the participants declare war on conformism and announce the end of loyalty and submission of Russian artists and citizens’ towards the central power. 
Anton Nikolaev was born in Novosibirsk in 1976 and studied literature at Moscow State University. Anton started working as visual artist and curator already in the late 1990’s. In 2007 he founded the Trade Union for Street Art together with Yemelyan Gdal and Oleg Vorotnikov from “Voina” art collective. At Welcome Back Putin, Anton will present his campaign in support of political prisoner Sergei Mokhnatkin – a simple Izhevsk citizen arrested and convicted during a peaceful opposition demonstration, who became a symbol of political injustice in Russia. A large group of artists and activists including Bombily group, Maria Kisseleva, Matvey Krilov, Victoria Lomasko, Artem Loskutov and Alexey Yorsh stood up for Mokhnatkin arranging exhibitions, happenings, actions and internet campaigns in his support.
http://halfaman.livejournal.com/
Pasha 183 is the most mysterious man at the Moscow street art scene. He has been making his interventions in Russia’s capital’s public space since the late 1990’s. Songs by famous Russian rockers and singer-song writers such as Vladimir Vysotsky, Egor Letov and Viktor Tsoi were his first great source of inspiration. He has recently become famous with the British press, which, in their own manner, calls him the “Russian Banksy”. Disregarding this media hype, Pasha’s works stay special and unique to him and his admirers. Â
http://www.183art.ru/
Pasha 183 about his work Truth vs Truth:
August 19th 2011 is the anniversary of 1991 military putsch. The country was brought to despair by the state politics. People took guns, and bloodshed was inevitable. Hardly can anyone tell exactly how many people died during this civil war and we don’t know their names already. We have decided to remind our citizens of those people and events of 1991-1993 and give them a chance to personally go through police riots of that day. The picket lasted for about an hour only; after that, like after the arrival of the new authorities, the workers of the civil war withdrew into the shadow”.
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PG group was founded in 2000. The abbreviation PG was given various explanations depending on certain project. The artists disguise themselves into social outsiders – thugs and hooligans, Chechen extremists, insurgents, etc. Claiming to be heirs of avant-garde art, PG employ all codes and modes of visual communication: magazines, postcards, music albums, concerts, meetings and social events.
http://www.pop-grafika.net/
Pussy Riot group is a feminist punk collective from Moscow whose members
hide their faces behind colored balaclavas.
Pussy Riot made a series of performances in a form of aggressive art-interventions into the public spaces of the city. The video-documentation of these live punk-rock impromptu performances is later posted on the web. During their actions the women-activists wear brightly-colored balaclavas and adhere to anonymity and interchangeability of the group’s participants. The lyrics of the songs that the group performs reflect its political views: anti-Putin, feminist, environmentalist and advocating the rights of the LGBT community.
The collective’s last performance – a punk-rock prayer “Virgin Mary, chase Putin out!” – took place at Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow leading to a widely-publicized court case. The suspected members of the collective were arrested and charged with hooliganism, facing a prison sentence of 7 years, if convicted. 
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http://pussy-riot.livejournal.com/
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Curated by Tatiana Volkova, ZHIR Project.
ZHIR project is an independent art institution based in Moscow, Russia; it works with emerging artists with active social position. It is aimed at researching and articulating engaged artistic practices, as well as supporting and developing activist community. ZHIR realizes its projects on different platforms, including public space and the world wide web.
The exhibition ist a cooperation from OKK and Zhir-Projekts
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