The Russian Museum is launching the exhibition "Future Dwelling" - a large-scale reflection on what the world and its environment will be like in dozens or even hundreds of years and whether there is a place for humans in this world. We tell you why you should visit the event and what inspired its creators.
From the library to the engine room
The visitor is offered to look at various rooms: a library, a greenhouse, a gym, an office, an engine room and even a technological basement, to imagine what will surround us in the near (or distant) future. The project includes 24 large-format easel photographic canvases, on which the authors of the project have been working for three years. The size of the largest digital picture is 4.3 meters wide, and the weight of some works reaches 200 kilograms. St. Petersburg became the first city in which all the works of the project will be shown. The space of the Russian Museum was not chosen by chance: the museum is a leading venue for the demonstration of works by contemporary artists. The space is adapted for this purpose, with plenty of light, high ceilings, and the walls were specially repainted in a neutral color so that nothing would distract the audience from viewing the works.
Meet the art group GrOM
The authors of the exhibition are the art group GrOM, which includes photographer Olga Michi, photography historian Alexey Loginov and art historian Artem Loginov. The art group was formed in 2020, founded the Béton Center of Visual Culture in Moscow, which hosts various photo exhibitions of Russian and international artists. Olga Michi, the founder of the art group GrOM, has already presented several successful projects to the public. For example, "Vulnerable" and "Deity's Likeness". The artist explores issues of the past and the present in them, and "Future Dwelling" has become a kind of closing element of the triptych, where GrOM is already thinking about the future.
Olga Michi. Photographer, member of the art group GrOM
All three exhibitions - "Vulnerable", "Deity's Likeness" and "Future Dwelling" - we united under the common title "Choosing the Way". I made the images for the first project while working in Africa, Myanmar and Chukotka. In the project "Vulnerable" I turn to the traditions, to what people want to take with them to the next stage of life. I reflect on how globalization affects small nations and put the audience in front of a choice: what to keep and what to give up. This story is more about the past. In my next project I use a collection of masks from different peoples, cultures and times. It's a big work, in which the curators and I explore the human being and society. Through the mask we talk about idols, symbols that are born here and now, and values in different time periods. It's more of a dialogue about the present. In "Future Dwelling" we reflect on where a person will come to if he or she makes one choice or another. What direction to choose for development? And the main idea - what will a human being be like and will he or she be at all?
How modern technology helps the arts
One of the main tasks for the art group GrOM was to achieve clarity of images on a giant-sized canvas. Modern technologies helped them to do so.
Olga Michi. Photographer, member of the art group GrOM
We shot in different large locations: in a bunker and in computer labs, in gyms, clinics, and in a library. We faced the question of how to get a detailed image and then transfer it to a large format. That's why we used not only the usual photographic equipment, but also a special photobot. He sequentially made hundreds of shots of the necessary space, and then we stitched them together. It is thanks to such technology that the viewer will see the author's perfect work.
After printing, the images were rolled onto a dibond composite base and topped with a special plastic that protects them from the sun and ensures that they will not lose their appearance for at least the next 200 years, which is in line with international museum standards.
Artificial intelligence was also used in the work, one painting was even completely entrusted to a computerized mind.
Alexey Loginov. Historian of photography, member of the art group GrOM
When programs using artificial intelligence appeared, we started working much faster. We did not need to engage additional technical specialists. If we did the first works in about 4-5 months, the next ones, using AI, took about a month. We bought licenses to use the programs and in the process of creating them, we made the requests more complex in order to get the result that best suited the creative intent.
Tatlin's Tower as a symbol of unity
"Future Dwelling" is not only a reflection on what awaits us, but also a large-scale dedication to the Soviet avant-garde artist Vladimir Tatlin and his design for a monumental statue to the Third International. Tatlin's tower can be found in all the works, sometimes in a very unusual form.
Olga Michi. Photographer, member of the art group GrOM
Vladimir Tatlin is the greatest artist to whom we wanted to make a dedication. That is why you can find the tower on all of the works, and we have transformed it in our own way. It serves as a symbol of human unity in the face of the exploration of new civilizations. Somewhere we ironize it - it turns into a small souvenir, like an Eiffel Tower trinket in every store in Paris. Somewhere it works for us as a kind of stock exchange that displays the quotations of good and evil.
References to the Düsseldorf School of Photography
The art group GrOM are the followers of the Düsseldorf School of Photography. Following the traditions of the school's founders Bernd and Hilla Becher, the artists strive to show that industrial objects can have a high aesthetic value. This is evident in all the works of "Future Dwelling": the rooms on them are not only functional, but also very beautiful.
By the way, the clarity of the image is also one of the foundations of the Düsseldorf School. That is why the artists were so keen on detailing. Among their inspirations, the authors name such famous followers of the school as Andreas Gursky, Candida Höfer and others.
Inspired by Avatar
However, GrOm is inspired not only by its predecessors, but also by everything modern - movies, theater, games and social media.
In the artists' works everyone will find references to something very familiar. For example, the movies "Avatar", "Judge Dredd", "Stalker", "RoboCop" and "Star Wars". On one of the works, for example, appears the legendary game "Mario". And if you still want the classics, try to find a fragment of Pablo Picasso's painting "Guernica" on one of the images.
Olga Michi. Photographer, member of the art group GrOM
We are inspired by modern life. This includes cinema, theater, games, and, of course, the great works of our predecessors. At the same time, it will be interesting for the audience to watch the exhibition, because in fantasies about the future they will see features of modern, today's life and elements that are already familiar to them - for example, from popular movies. In one of the works, we used the Klingon language, the language of an extraterrestrial civilization from the popular TV series Star Trek, imagining that it could become the language of the future.
Mission: to promote photography
As already mentioned Olga, Alexey and Artem are not only members of the art group, but also creators of the Moscow Béton Center of Visual Culture. Every two months it hosts photo exhibitions, which the founders fill with pieces from the center's extensive collection (from daguerreotypes to works by contemporary authors) and photographs by invited participants from Russia and abroad. Among the main missions of the Béton Center, the artists cite the promotion and study of photographic art.
Alexey Loginov. Historian of photography, member of the art group GrOM
We opened the Béton CVC in April 2022. This was preceded by my and Olga's trips to the world's photographic museums. We wanted photographs, as an author's work and a photographic print, to be perceived in our country as a work of art. We hold exhibitions every two months, usually accompanied by lectures and some kind of educational programs. We have our own collection of author's photographic prints. It includes the first daguerreotypes made in Russia and dated 1842, as well as works by contemporary authors. We always try to expand the exposition, filling it not only with photographs, but also, for example, with sculptures and paintings. We often hold traveling exhibitions, which, by the way, is the «Future Dwelling».
