Exhibition LOFT PROJECT ETAGI
Together with the Russian video artists Masha Dantzis and Asja Kopitschnikova, the 8 young exhibition ambassadors from St. Petersburg were developing an extraordinary project: In their video works they articulate their subjective perceptions to and combine the art of Ernst Barlach and Käthe Kollwitz with current topics from their living environment. These cut-and-produced video-clips, shot with their smartphones, were presented to the public in St. Petersburg until June 6. In total, over 583 visitors came during these six days to discuss the significance and background of the video-works of the young artists.
It is very touching to see the intensity and aesthetic perfection of the different video contributions. They raise the question about the real quality of our lives and make us think. See for yourself! Here you find all the ART:
The presentation concept was developed by the Hamburg artist Arne Lösekann. His idea of the crutch sculptures, which serve as presentation surfaces for the videos, reflected one of the monumental figures of Ernst Barlach, the “beggar on crutches”. Disabilities can have a variety of causes: they can be caused by war, accident, violence or illness. Every society is obliged to reflect these causes and to integrate people with their special needs. The crutches thus become a multi-layered symbol of humanity, lost in our increasingly profit oriented world. Anyone who shows weakness appears worthless in this system. The growth society dictates effectiveness and self-optimization. That’s exactly what the crutches boycott symbolically: In this world we cannot and will not progress! Future can only go (without the crutches), if we rethink, collectively reflect what we really need to live for. In the opposite sense, these crutches stand for the realization of having to say goodbye to the idea of permanent enrichment, this misguided concept of progress that not only provokes new wars but, above all, destroys our common livelihood, our planet Earth.
Performance Team St. Petersburg
Together with the art mediator and dance trainer Irina Sokolova and supported by art mediator Ksenia Shafronenko, the performance team worked five days in the exhibition in Marble Palace, Russian Museum St. Petersburg. The 10 young exhibition ambassadors explored giving a voice of the present to the figures and images of Ernst Barlach and Käthe Kollwitz, connecting them with their personal questions and observations to develop a touching presentation concept. Their goal is to let the artworks become perceptible in an emotional context and to guide the visitors into an active process of confrontation. How do the images of war, poverty, hope and despair affect us today? What do they have to do with our reality?
Their performance has been presented for the first time to the public June 2, 2018 at the opening of Face Art-Face Future Video Exhibition in LOFT PROJECT ETAGI. Further presentations followed June 3 and June 4 inside the Barlach-Kollwitz exhibition: A total of 184 visitors from all generations took part in the FA-FF program of the Performance Group.
Exhibition Ambassadors Performance Team: Aleksandra Kolabinova, Alexandr Kapelyush, Anastasiya Martynova, Anna Cherepovskaia, Anna Vetoshkina, Elizaveta Kalugina, Maria Lebedeva, Natalia Naboyshchikova, Polina Safronova, Lidiia Grigoreva.
