The Béton Center of Visual Culture has opened a new project of the art group GrOM «Future Dwelling».
"The concept of the exhibition is a story about the future through the present. We fantasize about the ways in which humanity will develop in the face of the problems that exist in the modern world. Therefore, we do not assert anything, we pose the question: how will humanity develop? Our only common message in this project is the desire to preserve and to evolve humanity. We must be united. We have Tatlin's tower as a symbol of this unity," says Alexey Loginov, a historian of photography, curator and member of the GrOM creative group.
The project consists of large-sized easel works that show the interiors of rooms with different purposes: a gym, a cave, a dining room, a library and even shelves in a store, modified with artificial intelligence.
"Here is a story about the stock exchange. But how to tell a story with a picture? It is clear that Andreas Gursky told a great story about the stock exchange and the problems of globalization. Of course, it can't be repeated. So we presented our own stock exchange, which was inspired by the Mario Bros. game. We went to the market, where we found a stand. There were flower packages on display, and we were very inspired by them. They were chaotically scattered. When we saw these rhythms, we realized that this is, obviously, an exchange - there are bitcoins, euros, dollars running around. The tower will become a kind of an information board, where all the good quotes go down and the bad ones go up, just like in modern social networks. Thrash content attracts a huge number of viewers, and the good and wise one goes down, because not many people are ready to adjust to the wise," says Olga Michi, a photographer and member of the art group GrOM.
Each work in the exhibition is accompanied by a depth of philosophical reflection, which is revealed through the text attached next to the artwork.
"For example, this Memory Cave, which presents three large data centers. On the first one is the Truth, on the next one is the Lie, and on the very last one is the veracity. It is just like in our life: the veracity is always unattractive, nobody really needs it," Olga Michi described.
The central image of the exposition was the image of Tatlin's tower. This object outwardly resembles Tatlin's "Monument to the III International" with the sphere of the Earth above it and fulfills a different function in each work. For example, in "Interstellar Shop" the tower is on the topmost section of the shelf and can be bought as a "souvenir". In each work, the tower symbolizes the unity of mankind in the face of the conquest of new worlds.
The objects made by Aristarkh Chernyshyov and Alexey Shulgin also became an important part of the exhibition. The works reflect the problems of modern society, which significantly affect the development of mankind.
The giant distorted iPhone 3G, depicted as the Tatlin's Tower or the Tower of Babel, creates an illusion of human almightiness: he has instant access to all the world's information. "Monument to the Third International" is an icon of the avant-garde, while the iPhone is a vivid technical icon of the present day. Aristarkh's work «3G INTERNATIONAL» brings together the beginning and current state of a century-long dialogue between art and design, and proposes a strategy for re-appropriating ideas from commercial space to art space.
Continuing the theme of today's technological progress, it is worth mentioning Aristarkh's PiO 1.0 2019 project.
"Here is a project of a living gadget: a smartphone-leech that lives on the arm, feeds on our blood, and in return provides an opportunity to connect to the information area, communicate with friends and with the entire planet. Since this smartphone is powered by blood, it can analyze blood data, health status and inject missing substances in case of anything. In case of a sugar spike, for example, it can inject insulin. It's a symbiosis that lives with you like a pet," says the artist.
About 20 artworks introduce the visitors of the Center to the author's views and problems that may await mankind in the future. The authors of the project were inspired by classic movies ("Interstellar", "Avatar"), the idea of Tatlin's tower, traditions of the famous Düsseldorf school of photography and worked with real and supplemented elements. Their work resulted in stories about the impact of progress on human life, inequality between people and loneliness.
"To shoot individual scenes, we went underground: into the bunker, into the sewers. We were looking for a place where we could create our own new world. If you have imagination and creative will, you can create and fantasize any scene on the basis of the real. Why based on the real? Because we believe that our future, particularly the cosmic future, is being built on Earth today, and the mistakes we make today will affect our future. We want our audience to consider this exact message and think about our future today," Olga Michi shared.
