‘Defining Yourself: Subject / Process / Identity’: New Exhibition Opens at HSE ART GALLERY

Doves, 2022

Polina Frolova

From November 9 to December 4, the HSE ART GALLERY is hosting an exhibition of works by students and lecturers of the HSE Art and Design School. The ‘Defining Yourself: Subject / Process / Identity’ exhibition lays the foundation of a multidisciplinary project about building connections between folk crafts, artistic practices, and modern research. The exhibition also has a parallel programme in the form of a curatorial excursion, an open talk, and an evening of performances.

Defining one’s belonging to ethnic, geographical, subcultural or any other groups largely involves referring to the traditions of the past. The archaic structures and values which permeate our day-to-day activities and influence our views, behaviour, and habits are not always evident. The concept of the exhibition is built around addressing those fragments of the past which form personality and are closely linked to folk culture, family history, and territorial context.

Participants of the exhibition addressed self-definition through various categories of identity. What comprises identity? Should it be resistant to change? To what extent is this understanding self-sufficient?

The division into ‘subject / process / identity’ is a curatorial observation of how, over the last hundred years, the artistic optics of working with folk culture have changed from literal reference to the subject to a re-examination of one’s belonging to a place and traditions through procedural practices. Every work presented at the exhibition is based on a personal story, as family traditions, chance observations and acquired habits illuminate relationships with folk culture in all its many aspects.

Parallel programme of the exhibition ‘Defining Yourself: Subject / Process / Identity’

November 9, 19:00 — opening of the exhibition: curatorial excursion and concert by Sound Art and Sound Design students.

Opening programme:

19:00 — curatorial excursion by Arseny Sergeev

20:30 —live musical show by Sound Art and Sound Design students: Pospi association (Maxim Spitsyn and Mikhail Pozdnyakov), Alexandra Mikaelyan (Alex In Feral)

HSE ART GALLERY, 12 Malaya Pionerskaya

Register (in Russian)

November 19, 20:00 — concert by Petr Nesterov (Ikarushka)

Petr Nesterov was born in Voronezh, but his music was written in the mountains of India and China, where he has spent most of his creative career. Enjoy the lively sounds of traditional musical instruments, bass vibrations and folk singing accompanied by modern electronic beats.

HSE ART GALLERY, 12 Malaya Pionerskaya

Register (in Russian)

November 26, 14:00 — open talk with participants of the exhibition ‘Defining Yourself: Subject / Process / Identity’.

Guests will be able to speak to the featured artists in person.

HSE ART GALLERY, 12 Malaya Pionerskaya

Register (in Russian)

December 4, 19:00 — close of the exhibition: evening of performances.

19:00 — performance by Nigina Vakhidova ‘Плетень’ (Braid).

The performers will braid each other’s hair while performing a circle dance where each person becomes an inseparable part of the whole.

19:30 — performance by Diana Lee ‘Плести косу’ (Weaving a braid).

How can traditions passed down through the generations influence people’s everyday habits? ‘My Kazakh language teacher always said that a woman should never have her hair down, except if she has experienced great grief. And I always tell myself that things aren’t so bad—and continue to braid my hair.’

HSE ART GALLERY, 12 Malaya Pionerskaya

Register (in Russian)

Exhibition curators

Pierre-Christian Brochet

Curator of Contemporary art at the HSE Art and Design School, Head of the Bachelor’s course ‘Curatorship and Art Management’ at the HSE University Faculty of Creative Industries, collector, organiser of modern art exhibitions.

Arseny Sergeev

Head of Figurative Art at the HSE Art and Design School, artist, curator of public art projects, creator of the public art programmes of Koltsovo Airport (Ekaterinburg), the Street Art Museum (St Petersburg), expositions of the Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, founder of the ArtPolitika school of contemporary art, winner of the Innovatsia prize.

Diana Machulina

Exhibition consultant, lecturer at the HSE Art and Design School, modern artist, art critic, curator. Winner of the Kandinsky Prize, Fellow of the Joseph Brodsky Fellowship Fund, finalist of the Innovatsia prize, participant of international biennales and exhibitions.

Participants: Alena Astakhova, Alena Gerasimchuk, Alena Paskhina, Alena Filippova, Alesya Dogadina, Alisa Lapshina, Balzhima Balaganova, Varvara Panyushkina, Daria Kuzmina, Diana Lee, Diana Machulina, Dmitry Tsvetkov, Ekaterina Mordvinkina, Elizaveta Shal, Karina Batrachenko, Kirill Vasilev, Laura Sadek, Maria Avdanina, Maria Makedonova, Maria Panina, Mirra Orshanskaya, Nigina Vakhidova, Pavel Novak, Polina Frolova, Sabina Baysarova.