Moving in Circles or Breaking Out: New Exhibition at HSE ART GALLERY
From September 18 to November 19, the HSE ART GALLERY is hosting a new exhibition from the HSE Art and Design School: ‘Going Over Old Ground?’ Its curator is Alexandra Mitlyanskaya, artist and head of the Screen Arts and Video Art tracks at the HSE Art and Design School. Guests will see experimental cinema, video art, and animation created by students and graduates of the school.
For the second year in a row, the HSE ART GALLERY begins the exhibition season with projects created by students of the Screen Arts track. The exhibition theme, ‘Going over Old Ground?’, refers viewers to Walter Benjamin’s seminal essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, where the author examines the concepts of production and reproduction in art.
‘The question mark in the title gives a new interpretation to the theme of the exhibition, and in fact, given this question, we have two themes within one. This also gives us an opportunity to make a choice—to present the visual sequence as an endless series of repetitions or to make a decision and change the course of events,’ explains Alexandra Mitlyanskaya.
The exhibition curator said that students often added a loop effect (a fragment of an audio or visual recording played cyclically) in their works. ‘In such videos, the beginning of the storyline coincides with the end. They can be played non-stop and shown endlessly,’ explains Alexandra Mitlyanskaya. ‘It was possible to choose another path: interrupt the chain of repetitions and set a new trajectory of movement. Now, for the younger generation, the question of choice is perhaps more relevant than ever. Moving in a circle or, feeling the need for change, breaking out of it is a topic that young authors reflect on.’
Polina Karpova, a fourth-year student of the Contemporary Art track at the HSE Art and Design School, shared that her work is about a female character that moves from room to room trying to find comfort in each but failing. ‘This path has no end. These are her circles of hell: anxiety, isolation, and self-deception,’ says Polina.
The student notes that this story is personal to her. ‘The project was created when I began to gradually emerge from an extremely depressed state. I tried to recreate the work of my consciousness in reality, using my images and sensations.’ Polina added that it was difficult for her to decide what exactly should happen in the rooms, since it had to accurately convey her personal state.
‘The filming process itself was hard because everything was filmed in one day. It’s hard not only physically but also mentally, because the story is personal and I had to relive everything again,’ the artist recalls.
In his project ‘Eat the Frog’, fourth-year Contemporary Art student Slava Pak explores the topic of obsessive thoughts and their manifestation in dreams and reality. ‘In general, I’m interested in the line between the real and the imaginary,’ he noted. ‘While working on the film, my main sources of inspiration were the works of Lynch and Satoshi Kon. I also really love frogs; in my project, they personify any fear, thought, or experience that haunts me.’
The artist said that the creative process was difficult and intense. ‘At that time, this was the biggest project I had worked on, and I was shooting a film in another country. I had to look for a team, locations, actors and the necessary contacts from scratch,’ said Slava Pak. The first draft of the film was presented at the exhibition. Post-production is now underway and the team is working on the festival version, he added.
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