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ST. PETERSBURG ART RESIDENCY
s e a s o n s
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#VIRTUALSPAR
Dear Readers, We’re so glad you are holding this publication in your hands or scrolling through it on your screen. In this zine we invite you on an imaginary journey during which we will visit 29 artists from across the world. While all these creators have unique backgrounds and interests, each artist also holds one thing in common — this year they were all part of #VirtualSPAR — an online residency program run by the St. Petersburg Art Residency at the Pushkinskaya-10 art center. The route and transport overview that you will find on the next pages invites you to imagine this trip as starting at our office in St. Petersburg and going through fifteen countries. We designed #VirtualSPAR shortly after Russia closed its borders due to the COVID-19 pandemic, making it impossible for us to welcome international artists and curators in person at our residency in St. Petersburg. The platform was originally intended as a temporary online work space for our team and several artists whose upcoming projects were put on hold. However, in just several weeks after its launch we saw our online initiative expand and attract an increasing number of creatives. Some artists were looking for a space to share their work and to exchange with other art professionals while self-isolating as everyone tried to develop new routines. Others found themselves in need of practical advice or emotional support during these turbulent and insecure times. This is how #VirtualSPAR turned from a DIY initiative into an ongoing online residency program. We have come to find the space also exists as a valuable, self-developing collective archive documenting how artists from around the world live and create through the pandemic. As of December 2020, over 100 artists had joined our platform. With over 25,000 views we began to develop and recognize a community of people interested in watching the artistic activities taking place in our virtual studio. Many viewers joined us for“Transpositions III: Mind The Gap“ — a group show of our recent artists-in-residence that had to be moved from the physical Museum of Nonconformist Art to an online format. 3
To reflect on the current changes and the phenomenon of virtual art residencies we organized a panel discussion: “Beyond distance: how art residencies are migrating online” which featured international experts in the field, and produced three special episodes for the Kulturcafé — a video journal of the Goethe-Institut in Russia. The recordings are available online. I would like to thank my SPAR colleagues Liza Ordinartceva and Nazar Niazmetov for their engagement and openness towards exploring new formats, as well as Sophie Cloherty for joining our team and working on both ”Transpositions III“ and this zine publication. We thank all the artists, who are the core of #VirtualSPAR, for joining the platform, making amazing contributions and participating in the public events. On behalf of the Pushkinskaya-10 art center and the St. Petersburg Art Residency I would like to thank the International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut and other partners for their kind support: www.goethe.de/relieffund. Last, but not least, we would like to thank those who supported our initiative in its initial stage by spreading the word and making donations. We are looking forward to new seasons of #VirtualSPAR in 2021 and we invite you to follow the updates on our webpage and social media. And now, let’s start this international journey. virtualresidency.p-10.ru @spb.art.residency #VirtualSPAR Anastasia Patsey, Head of the St. Petersburg Art Residency
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о u r
j o u r n e y
2 0 2 0
Nether la nd s / Utr echt Ger ma ny / I r ela nd / Dub lin Ger m Ger UK / I slew or th Ger Nether la nd s / E ed e I ta ly / M ila n
Nether la nd s / E ind hov en
U SA / All en t ow n
S p a in / B a rcelona
U SA / L i t h on i a Me x i c o / M ex i c o C i t y
Bra zil / B elo H or izonte
A rgen t i n a / B u en os A i res
8
SPAR / Ru ss i a / S t . P e t e r sb ur g
Russi a / V o lo g d a
Russi a / Mo sc o w / Ham bu r g m a n y / B e r lin rmany / L eipz ig rma ny / M un ich R o man ia / Crai o va G r e e ce / Ath en s I n d i a / N ew D el h i I n d i a / Va d od a ra
I n d on es i a / B a n t en
New Zea la nd / Duned in
9
A n a sta si a Pa tsey / Intr o d uctio n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 O u r r o u t e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Sta r ti n g th e j ourney / SPA R / Russia / St. P e t ers b u rg . . . . . . . 7 Va le n ti n B oi a n giu / Ro m a nia / C raio va . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Robe r ta Or la n d o / Ita l y / Mil a n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1 Ir a Pa pa do pou lou / Gr e e ce / Athe ns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 4 N i n a An n a belle Märkl / Ge r many / Munich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 7 Stef a n i a S m olkina / Ge r m a ny / Le ip z ig . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1 A m a li a G i lm er ino / Ge r m a ny / Be r l in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4 Eli zaveta Osta penko / Ge r m a ny / Ha mbur g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 7 N o o r va n de r Brug g e / Ne the r l a nds / Utr e cht . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 Ma r i elle va n den Berg h / Ne the r l ands / Eindh ov en . . . . . . . . . 3 3 Mels Dees / Ne the r l ands / Eindho ve n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 5 N a n da Ra e m a n s ky / Ne the r l ands / Ee d e . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 9 Kj ell Z i llen / UK / Isl e wo r th . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 Ci a n a Fi tzge r a ld / Ir e l a nd / Dubl in . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5 Cy n th i a Fu si llo / Spa in / Barce l o na . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 9 Em i ly Or ze ch / USA / All e nto wn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2 Cr ysta l M a r sh all / USA / Litho nia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5 F e r n a n da Oli vares / Me xico / Me xico C ity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 8 Eli a n e Velozo / Bra z il / Be l o Ho r izo nte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 1 Ia r a Abr e u / B ra z il / Be l o Ho r izo nte . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 4 Pa u lo C a r va lh o Ferreira / Bra z il / Be l o Ho r izon t e . . . . . . . . . . 6 7 Cr i sti n a Gu ti errez / A r g e ntina / Bue no s A ir e s . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 0 W esle y J oh n Fourie / Ne w Z e a l and / Dune din . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 3 Ta a r n S co tt / Ne w Z e a l and / Dune din . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 6 N e n a Na sta si ya / Indo ne sia / Bante n . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 9 Ri ddh i Pa tel / India / Vad o da ra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 2 N e e r a j j M i ttr a / India / Ne w De l hi . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 5 Bor i s M oz / Russia / Mo sco w . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 8 Ili a B o u sla k ov / Russia / Vo l o g da . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 1 Li za Odi n o k i k h / Russia / St. P e te r sbur g . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 4
Our journey starts at the SPAR office in the very center of St. Petersburg. We’re ready to head off to our first stop to visit Valentin Boiangiu. He comes from the UK and is based in Moscow, but currently Valentin is staying in Craiova, Romania.
TAXI
TRAIN 049Б
TRAIN EC 131 TRAIN IR 73
https:// virtualresidency.p-10.ru
The Pushkinskaya-10 art center, where SPAR is based, is located right across from the St. Petersburg main railway station, but it’s of no use for us this time. We take a taxi to Vitebskiy train station — a magnificent example of Art Nouveau — and catch a train 049Б to Brest, Belarus. There we change to the train EC 131 to Budapest, Hungary. Our third train — the IR 73 then brings us to Craiova. It takes us about 3 days, this was quite a journey! Nice to meet you, Valentin.
S P A R n i c e
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https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/valentin-boiangiu
C r a i o v a
VALENTIN BOIANGIU Valentin Boiangiu is an educator and visual manipulator based in Russia. Originally from the UK, Boiangiu moved to Moscow in 2015 to teach Fine Art at the British Higher School of Art and Design. His practice is generally interested in the specifics of place and local culture. Over his SPAR residency, Valentin shares music, food, and art inspired by a continually shifting relationship to the city of Moscow. In an April filled with the sounds of Four Tet, Chaka Khan, the Doo-Dooettes, and Apparat, Valentin in contrast meditates on the quiet language of form and the visual language of Moscow natives.
“I want to present a set of paintings from my own photographs which I have taken around residential areas in Moscow of some curious but iconic sculptural elements, which can be easily recognised by the local population and perhaps not so easy to decode by a foreigner.”
T h e h a v m o n e m p t h e 8
s e s t e b e c u m e n t y c i l o c k
r u c t u r e s o m e s i l e n t t s o f a n t y d u r i n g d o w n .
M y m a i n c o n c e r n i s t h e n o t i o n o f ‘t h e p r e s e n t o c c u p i e r ,’ m e a n i n g t h a t o n e i s o p e n t o c o a t i n g a n d c o n t a m i n a t i o n s o f w h a t a p a r t i c u l a r p l a c e c a n g i v e a t a n y p r e s e n t t i m e .
“Moscow has been extremely offering and since I moved here I have been trying to deal with the local and the specific cultural/visual elements around me.” 9
C r a i o v a
v i s i t 10
t o
‘TRENO REGIONALE’ RE_2
g r e a t
PLANE W6 3751
We found a direct connection from Craiova to Bergamo, so it is time to visit Roberta Orlando. Roberta is actually based in Milan. But we take the plane W6 3751 and arrive at Bergamo airport — one of the main low-cost airports in Europe. It is also a good occasion to visit the magnificent Bergamo upper town. We take a ‘treno regionale’ RE_2 that brings us to Milano Centrale in less than an hour. There is an option to go by bus, but Italian trains are too nice to miss this chance. Great to see you, Roberta!
s e e
y o u
M i l a n
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/roberta-orlando
M i l a n
ROBERTA ORLANDO
Roberta Orlando is an interdisciplinary artist, whose work investigates the relation between human rights, technology, and the role of visual and socially engaged practice. She develops her artistic research through video, photography, installation, performance and sound. Roberta has participated in exhibitions in various European countries, the US, and the UK.
s i l e n c e w a s p r e s e n t o n m a n y o c c a s i o n s
At the moment when #VirtualSPAR was launched, disturbing news broke in the North of Italy, where Roberta is based. The artist joined the virtual residency from Lombardia, where she remained during the pandemic with her partner, a medical worker. Her striking works experiment with photography, video, sound, and even poetry, capturing universal feelings of emptiness, insecurity, and silence. Her posts, however, also communicate messages of hope and peace. The artist begins an uplifting series with the words “Art can…”. 11
I w a n t e d t o c a p t u r e a b s e n c e , t i m e , a n d m o s t l y , h o w t h e e m e r g e n c y a f f e c t e d o u r e v e r y d a y l i f e
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MALPENSA EXPRESS XP2 FLIGHT A3661
T h r e a n d h o u r w e ’ r a l r e i n G
e a s e a d r e
To catch our flight A3661 to Athens, Greece, where Ira Papadopoulou awaits us, we take the Malpensa Express XP2 and get to the airport in 50 minutes.
h a l f l a t e r y e c e !
A t h e n s
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https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/ira-papadopoulou
A t h e n s
IRA PAPADOPOULOU Born in Athens, Greece, Ira Iliana Papadopoulou is a cultural manager, freelance curator and researcher. She holds a PhD in Communications & Media Studies and has extensive experience in planning, curating and promoting art programs and educational events. During the pandemic Ira selfisolated for more than 3 months with her new-born baby. This quarantine gave her time and space to start exploring transdisciplinary art practices and to cultivate her creativity.
S o , r e m e m b e r r e m e m b e r t h e r e m e m b e r t h e 14
t h e c o l o r s , f e e l i n g s , s k y .
S B d C o c m o k
k r e o n o a w a
y e e n
. a t h e p l y . c e n t r a t e t h e l o r s … k e y o u r n m i n d l e i d o s c o p e .
H o w m a n y d a y s c a n y o u s t a y s a n e w h i l e s t u c k i n a f l a t ? W h a t ’ s y o u r e m e r g e n c y e x i t ? I f o u n d m i n e i n a b a l c o n y v i e w . Looking at the same view from her balcony day after day, Ira gazed at the sky and made observations of its appearance at different times. These were collected in a meditative and poetic photographic series entitled “Sky gazing as a test of courage.” The point of view remains the same, but each image shows a new, different skyscape. Going back to her childhood memories, Ira remembers a hexagonal kaleidoscope she used to have and chooses this form to collect a variety of colour samples from the sky.
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M u n i c h
m o v e
FLIGHT A3802
REGIONAL TRAIN 6862
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It’s time to hit the road again and move towards Germany. Four artists are expecting us in different cities. We take the flight A3802 from Athens and land in Munich in 2 hours 40 minutes. The regional train 6862 brings us to the central station where we meet Nina Annabelle Märkl.
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/nina-annabelle-maerkl
NINA M u n i c h ANNABELLE MARKL Nina Annabelle Märkl is a visual multidisciplinary artist from Germany. She studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich in the class of Stephan Huber focusing on drawing, installation and sculpture. Since 2011 she has taught drawing at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich. She has exhibited and participated in residency programs internationally, including the ISCP in NY.
F a c i n g p a n d e m i c t i m e s m e a n s f a c i n g y o u r s e l f .
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Nina’s work focuses on the intersection between drawing, installation and space. She shifts between figuration and abstraction, closeness and distance, conceptual and intuitive aspects. One of her lockdown projects titled “Mikroklima” opens up unusual perspectives on things, words and connections between them.
E t b a y a s o c 18
a h e n o
c h o b j e c t , e a c h i n g , e a c h t h o u g h t c o m e s s t r a n g e d q u e s t i o n a b l e i f u s t a r e a t i t f o r l o n g t i m e . A n d i t e e m s t o c o n t a i n y o u r w n e x i s t e n c e i n a o n d e n s e d w a y .
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INTERCITY-EXPRESS TRAIN ICE 504
From Munich we head off to Stefania Smolkina who is based in Leipzig. The Intercity-Express train ICE 504 is pricy, but very convenient. In just 3 hours and 15 minutes we arrived at Leipzig central train station.
L e i p z i g
a r r i v e d
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https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/stefania-smolkina
L e i p z i g
STEFANIA SMOLKINA Stefania Smolkina is a visual artist working mostly with film and textiles. In her artistic practice and research, she explores the topography of remembrance, gaps in history, along with the position and affiliation of persons and groups in a society. Her goal is to work with the stories of figures left outside of history and to tell their previously untold stories. Stefania is based in Leipzig, Germany, where she currently studies at the Academy of Fine Arts.
E s t A S “ a
v o r n t L
e r y l i f e i s l i v e d m e w h e r e b e t w e e n u t h a n d f i c t i o n . d a s B e r n a r d i e g l e r p u t s i t : i f e i s a l w a y s c i n e m a . ”
“A woman is stuck on a small island in the ocean. She neither understands, nor speaks any foreign language. Her holiday that just started is increasingly concerned with the situation on the island, which is changing more and more due to spreading pandemic. She records all her experiences and worries in voice messages. Each message begins with the same announcement: “News from the island, news from the island ...”, like a lost radio station, sends its signals to other parts of the world. The news from the island is received in Germany, in a student dorm and disperses in space. In a depersonalized architecture, space enhances the feeling of alienation and distance. Through panel buildings from the GDR era, streams of students from all over the world now without leaving any evidence or trace. People cook, do the laundry, use different strategies to survive the isolation. Different stories and fates move between different layers of glass – screens of devices, mirror, window glass, camera lens – and link together to a form of a film.” 21
News from an island Film by Stefania Smolkina, 14:22 min, 2020
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B e r l i n
After having a great time with Stefania, we are on a train again. This time we’re going to Berlin. The ride with the ICE 692 takes just 1 hour and 13 minutes and ends at Berlin Hauptbahnhof. A beautiful train station, which is a piece of art itself! The Bundestag building, one of the city’s top 10 attractions is just a 10-minute walk away, so we can’t miss this opportunity. After some sightseeing we meet Amalia Gilmerino.
w e
TRAIN ICE 692
m e e t 23
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/amalia-gil-merino
B e r l i n
AMALIA GILMERINO
Amalia is a Spanish and now German-based artist and sculptor. She studied in Paris and Berlin, where she graduated from the University of Fine Arts and Archaeology in Ancient Cultures. She also holds a diploma in sculpture from the L’Academia dell’Arte in Florence. Her artworks immerse into contemporary myths and anthropomorphic metamorphic shapes.
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During her online residency at #VirtualSPAR Amalia exploded new spaces and contexts for her sculptures in an intuitive dialogue between the handmade and the natural.
T h e i d e a o f e x c a v a t i n g t h e p a s t s u r r o u n d s m y a r t p r a c t i c e , e s p e c i a l l y m y s c u l p t u r e s , w h i c h I l o c a t e d a s p a r t o f t h e l a n d s c a p e ; a s i f , d u r i n g t h i s l o c k d o w n t h e a r t w o r k s t h e m s e l v e s w e r e p a r t o f t h i s n a t u r e . 25
H a m b u r g
t i m e
i n
We’ve spent quite some time in trains recently. Our next connection is 2 hours with the ICE 898 from Berlin Hauptbahnhof to Hamburg. This is where we meet Elizaveta Ostapenko.
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t r a i n s
TRAIN ICE 898
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/elizaveta-ostapenko
H a m b u r g
ELIZAVETA OSTAPENKO
T h e s e i m a g e s c r e a t e d a f o u n d a t i o n f o r m y q u a r a n t i n e s k e t c h b o o k p r o j e c t w h i c h I w o u l d l i k e t o s h a r e w i t h y o u n o w . I w i l l c o n t i n u e w o r k i n g o n t h i s s e r i e s u n t i l t h e e n d o f t h e q u a r a n t i n e
Elizaveta Ostapenko is a Russian artist based in Hamburg, Germany. Born in 1999 in Moscow, she moved to Hamburg where she currently studies at the University of Fine Arts. Previously Elizaveta studied at British Higher School of Art & Design and the Berlin Art Institute. Her work was presented at the Second International Print Biennale Yerevan in Armenia and Monumenta in Germany. In 2019 she was a part of a collaborative group of artists DEMSAM. She received a Wand 5 Award at Stuttgarter Filmwinter — Festival for Expanded Media. In several volumes of her “Quarantine Sketchbook” project, Elizaveta revises her photo-archive and translates it into small paintings. 27
D u r i n g m y s t a y a t h o m e , I d e c i d e d t o g o t h r o u g h m y o l d p h o t o a r c h i v e o f f o u n d o b j e c t s , s t r e e t e n c o u n t e r s , a n d c o m p o s i t i o n s .
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U t r e c h t
Now it is time to leave Germany and move to the Netherlands, where we will visit 4 other artists. Our first destination is Utrecht, where Noor van der Brugge lives. The morning flight KLM1776 takes one hour and brings us to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Of course we use this chance to take a long walk around the city. In the evening at 18:32 we catch the intercity train and in 35 min sharp we are already in another city! We’re in Utrecht. It’s great to see you again, Noor!
g r e a t
t o
s e e
y o u
FLIGHT KLM1776
INTERCITY TRAIN
a g a i n 29
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/noorvanderbrugge
U t r e c h t
NOOR VAN DER BRUGGE Noor van der Brugge is an illustrator based in the Netherlands. Her art practice centers on the ancient and persistent book form as a site of expression. She has produced art books about Sigmund Freud, Alberto Giacometti, Damien Hirst, Nikolay Gogol among others.
Her work has been globally distributed and appears in multiple international collections such as the Freud Museum in London, UK and the Central Museum in Utrecht, Belgium. Part of the SPAR residency in May 2019, Noor’s original project was to make an artist book centered on Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. No longer on the streets of St. Petersburg but rather in her studio in Utrecht, Noor visits our virtual residency again in conversation with Pushkin. 30
Sharing new illustrations for her book on the poet with #VirtualSPAR, she relates her own experience in quarantine to that of Pushkins in 1830 Boldino, during which he completed some of his most prolific works. In doing so, she asks us to conflate the novelty of the present with the familiarity of history.
“ I w a s i n s e a r c h o f A l e x a n d e r P u s h k i n . . . “I walked through the city as a simple fan: “this is where he really worked, had coffee, met his friends” but in the course of the weeks I noticed how many people who sat on the benches around Pushkin’s statues were probably talking to him in their minds. The things you discuss with a trusted friend. Pushkin still seemed so present in St Petersburg.”
” P u s h k i n w r o t e t o h i s f i a n c e e :
I have just been told that five quarantaines have been set up between here and Moscow, and that it will be necessary for me to spend fourteen days in each; do a little counting and then imagine what a bitch of a humor I must be in.” 31
E i n d h o v e n
There are more of our friends in this area, which participated both in the online and offline SPAR programs. From Utrecht we are heading to Eindhoven. This time we decided to take the 530 bus, the travel time is 1 hour and 15 minutes. We arrive at the John F Kennedylaan Eindhoven Bus Station and meet Mariëlle van den Bergh and Mels Dees. After a short city tour we head off to their studios, which are based at the Ateliers Patagonia studio complex.
t r a v e l 32
t i m e
530 BUS
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/?s=mariëlle+van+den+bergh
E i n d h o v e n
MARIЁLLE VAN DEN BERGH s y m b o l i s m
Mariёlle van den Bergh is a Netherlands-based visual artist working in a variety of mediums to create installations and sculpture. She has worked in the Textile Museum in Tilburg as well as the European Ceramic Work Center in Oisterwijk. In her art, she often draws symbolism from her natural materials, reworking their original connotations. In 2017, she was part of a joint artist residency at SPAR in St. Petersburg. She currently lives and works in the Netherlands.
A s a r t i s t s , y o u ’ r e o u t o f w o r k .
n e v e r
33
S o m e h o w t h e d f e e l i n g o f b e i n e v e r l a s t s f o e x p e r i e n c e o r c a n b e i n s p i r a m a y t r i g g e r a o f t h o u g h t s , l t o n e w w o r k .
e n r i t n e
l i c i o u s g b o r e d l o n g . A n y m p r e s s i o n i o n a l a n d e w f l o w a d i n g
Already before COVID-19 spread in the Netherlands, Mariëlle with her partner Mels Dees self-isolated on a Northern deserted island and created a new series of works that she shared on #VirtualSPAR. Her work and commentary over her time at SPAR gave voice to the wonderful annals of boredom. 34
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/mels-dees
E i n d h o v e n
MELS DEES
I n s p i r e d b y t h e n a t u r a l w o r l d
Mels Dees is a multidisciplinary and installation artist based in the Netherlands. Over several decades Dees’ work has been exhibited internationally. His mediums include photography, paper reliefs, etchings, computer animations among others. Inspired by the natural world, his artistic interests come to rest on nature’s interactions with man-made reality, “the analogies and contradictions between our technological culture and the natural processes we remain part of”.
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Old-axehead-scaled. Possible tools, digital watercolour, 2020
Nailn-1. Page from the notebook IPOTOT (In Praise Of The Opposable Thumb) nr. 2, Terschelling 2020
S o m e t i m e s t h e r e a r e d e t a i l s I l a b o r i o u s l y c o l l e c t e d o n t h e i n t e r n e t : n o t s o m u c h o b j e t s t r o u v é s a s o b j e t s c h e r c h é s .
During the Pandemic, Mels spent time creating on the island of Terschelling just north of the Netherlands with his partner and fellow SPAR resident Mariëlle van den Bergh before returning to his studio in Eindhoven, Holland. His contributions to #VirtualSPAR explore the wonder of everyday findings and the careful project of connecting to the histories of place. “Although pictures I have taken myself are often the source material for my work, I hardly consider myself to be a photographer — in fact, I do not care where the images come from. Sometimes I use found footage, even negatives found in the garbage or in the street. Sometimes there are details I laboriously collected on the internet: not so much objets trouvés as objets cherchés.” 37
E e d e
Our next destination is Eede — a village right at the border between the Netherlands and Belgium. There are no convenient connections by public transport, so we kindly ask Mels and Marielle to drive us there. The fastest route goes via E34 highway, part of which crosses through Belgium. And finally, we are glad to meet Nanda Raemansky.
BY CAR
c o n n e c t i o n s 38
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/nanda-raemansky
E e d e
NANDA RAEMANSKY Nanda Raemansky is a multidisciplinary painter from the border village of Eede in Holland. She holds a degree in experimental painting from Academy of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. As an artist she is interested in social commentary, urbex places, and the graffiti and street art movements. Themes of Raemansky’s work often find their roots in the artistic, musical and largely anachocommunist environment of her childhood. She currently lives and works in the Netherlands.
s u g s
o r r t
c b a r
i e f e
a l c o m m e n t a r y x p l a c e s f i t i e t a r t
39
Nanda’s series meditates on openings and closings of borders during the pandemic, and her own Covid scares. She brings us to a Black Lives Matter protest in the Netherlands, explains the difficulties of visiting her grandmother, and shares a deep dive into digital painting techniques. Her #VirtualSPAR residency grapples not only with the fluctuating borders of countries, but also with the smaller blurred boundaries we might encounter in our personal lives — between friends, between mediums, and between notions of freedom.
f r e e d o m “I wasn’t allowed to be on the other side of this gate… At first, I didn’t know there were exceptions for emergency situations, like with my grandmother. But the need to see her one last time was so great, that I tried it anyway and surprisingly they let me in.”
n e e d
40
t o
s e e
h e r
I s l e w o r t h
a p p o i n t m e n t Nanda drops us off at the train station in a nearby city named Aalter. From there we take an intercity-express train towards Brussels. We change at the BrusselsSouth railway station and take the ES 9119 train. In 2 hours we arrive at the St. Pancras International station in London. Our next appointment is with Kjell Zillen in Isleworth. We take a South Western Railway train from London Victoria, change in Clapham Junction and arrive in about 40 minutes.
INTERCITY-EXPRESS TRAIN TOWARDS BRUSSELS
TRAIN ES 9119
TRAIN TO ISLEWORTH 41
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/kjell-zillen
I s l e w o r t h
KJELL ZILLEN
M y l a t e s t i l l u s t r a t i o n , m a d e a m i d s t t h e L o n d o n p r e - l o c k d o w n : a l o n g o v e r d u e p l a n e t p i e c e .
42
Kjell is a mixed media artist based in Isleworth, London. He divides his time between illustrating on paper and painting on the city’s walls. Kjell had originally planned to join SPAR in 2020 for an in-person residency, which was postponed due to travel restrictions.
Kjell works under the pseudonym BatsWearBlack and draws quirky creatures with pen and paint on both fabric and paper. His style has been described as ‘Delicately Odd with a dollop of the Peculiar’. He has recently been engaged in a project in which he creates handmade images on skateboards. In addition, Kjell often works with music and graffiti, exploring London in these unusual times and gaining new perspectives on urban space.
I t o L b l a s s a S
m a n a g e d o g o u t i n t o o n d o n e t w e e n o c k d o w n s n d d o o m e t r e e t r t i n e p t e m b e r .
43
D u b l i n
Our next stop is in Ireland. From Isleworth we travel back to London. We walk to London Paddington station and take the TfL Rail train to Terminal 2 of the Heathrow airport. Our flight EI151 to Dublin takes less then 1,5 hours. From the Dublin Airport Bus Park in Zone 15 we take a ride to the city center. We’re glad to meet Ciana Fitzgerald.
TFL RAIL TRAIN
FLIGHT EI151
BUS
n e x t 44
s t o p
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/ciana-fitzgerald
D u b l i n
CIANA FITZGERALD “ Self-Isolation Self-Portrait, in my makeshift studio”
Ciana Fitzgerald is an Irish painter and experimental video artist. She graduated from the National College of Art and Design in Dublin in 2016 with a BA in Fine Art Painting. Largely influenced by avant-garde film, she creates paintings in the tradition of surrealistrealism.
M y p r o n g a t o n e t h c o O l w i c o u n
p a i n t i n g a c t i c e f o c u s e s b r i d g i n g t h e p o f m o d e r n i s m f u s e o l d w i t h w , r e c a l l i n g e t e c h n i c a l m m a n d o f t h e d M a s t e r s b u t t h a d i s t i n c t l y n t e m p o r a r y e a s e .
45
“I am influenced by Irish history in my work and creative process, it is one of suffering and rebellion, and I still enjoy the visual elements of religious art, music and architecture. I find that it evokes a sense of calm and beauty for anyone, not just those associated with it in a fundamental way.” 46
Ciana’s virtual residency allowed her a return to her video art practice amidst the Pandemic. She reflects on her encounters with the influential work of Andrei Tarkovsky, explores empty train stations in Berlin, and meditates on notions of archetype and public space.
A Type of Dreaming. 50 x 50 cm, oil on canvas
I t i a o o
o n r r r
d o n ’ t w a n t m y f i g b e o f s p e c i f i c d i v i d u a l s , t h e y ’ r c h e t y p e s , s o I b l e r a s e t h e i r f a c e t h e y l o o k a w a y .
u r e s e u r s
51
B a r c e l o n a
e n j o y
a
w a l k BUS 109A
FLIGHT RYR6875
BUS 109A
Ahead of us lies a long transatlantic trip. But there is one more place to visit before we leave Europe, and it’s Barcelona! From East Wall Road in Dublin we take a short ride with bus 109A to get to the airport. The flight RYR6875 to Barcelona takes 2,5 hours. We reach the city center by bus in just 10 minutes. And finally, we meet Cynthia Fusillo and enjoy a walk through the evening city. 48
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/cynthia-fusillo
B a r c e l o n a
CYNTHIA FUSILLO Cynthia Fusillo is an American artist who has lived in Barcelona, Spain since 2002. Inspired by the human experience, notions of the feminine, and our evolving relation to the natural world, her multi-disciplinary practice includes textile design, painting, collage, installation, sculpture and monotype. Fusillo holds a Masters of Fine Arts from New York University and a Masters in Psychology from the University of Santa Monica in California. Her work has been exhibited in international spaces and has also been shown at several art fairs including Art Miami, Art Chicago, Scope New York, and Scope Basel. She was most recently awarded the Silver Award in the international competition ARTFAD.
h e r w o r k s a r e a l c h e m y o f m e t a p h o r a n d s y m b o l i s m 49
Quarantined in her Barcelona Studio, Cynthia’s residency with #VirtualSpar explores an evolving and physical relationship with the natural world. Her commentary pines for her birthplace of New York and offers solidarity. She considers the work of Thoreau, reflects on the joys of swimming, and looks to understand the importance of reuse and return. Her projects ask us to consider the ways in which revisiting old work and ideas in new contexts might drive us towards a more innovative and exciting future. “With the use of seemingly ‘fragile’ materials (paper, twigs, flowers, leaves) I have an intention to show the power of vulnerability. Layering transparent papers, combining image and word and the practice of collage helps me make sense of things.”
I n m y r e c e n t w o r k I u s e t h e b o d y a s a m e t a p h o r f o r t h e h u m a n e x p e r i e n c e . 50
A l l e n t o w n
We are now in the very middle of our journey and it is time to travel to a different continent. We are heading to Allentown, Pennsylvania in the US. We take a bus to the airport and arrive at the El Prat de Llobregat Terminal. The flight UA121 lasts over 9 hours. After arriving at Newark Liberty International Airport we still have a 2-hour bus ride ahead of us. Emily Orzech gives us a warm welcome in Allentown. Thank you, Emily, that was a long trip!
a
w a r m
BUS
FLIGHT UA121
BUS
w e l c o m e 51
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/emily-orzech
A l l e n t o w n
EMILY ORZECH
Home studio. The table is set up to film online teaching demonstrations.
52
Emily Orzech is a US based artist who works in a range of media including screenprint, lithography and cyanotype. Her work has primarily focused on urban spaces, although her most recent series is a personal meditation on caregiving and the health system. She received her MFA from the University of Michigan School of Art & Design and her BA from Smith College. She currently lives and works in Allentown, Pennsylvania, where she has a studio and teaches printmaking as an Associate Professor at Muhlenberg College. Besides sharing her past and new works, Emily gave a valuable insight into the printmaking process, some technical nuances and the backstage of her studio.
H o m e s t u d i o
“In Turn (2017), pictured above, I re-enacted the motions of turning someone over using a blanket, an action repeated every two hours throughout the day and night. In other prints, I piece together the space of the bedroom or hospital out of fragments of memory. Now, in the context of Covid-19, I keep coming back to these images. I don’t know what this will mean for my next body of work.”
53
j o u r n e y
L i t h o n i a
FAB 20 BUS
THE DAL2029 DIRECT FLIGHT TO ATLANTA
SUBWAY TO KENSINGTON STATION
Our second stop in the US is Lithonia, Georgia, where we would like to visit Crystal Marshall. From the Amtrak Station in Allentown we take the FAB 20 bus to Philadelphia and with one change arrive at Airport Terminal B in about 2 hours. The DAL2029 direct flight to Atlanta airport lasts 2 hours and 11 minutes. From there we take the subway to Kensington Station and then switch to a train to reach our destination. The whole journey took us almost 8 hours!
54
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/crystal-marshall
L i t h o n i a
CRYSTAL MARSHALL Crystal Marshal is a fine artist based in Atlanta, Georgia. Originally from Kingston Jamaica, her paintings pay homage to her life’s experiences rooted in cultural disparities in the modern day African diaspora. Her distinctive personal style emanates isolation, self reflection and expresses the spirit and atmosphere of the black consciousness in efforts to reconcile its relationship with true identity and image. She holds a Bachelor of General Fine arts from Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland and has also studied fine arts at Edna Manley College of Art in Kingston, Jamaica.
h e r l i f e ’ s e x p e r i e n c e s r o o t e d i n c u l t u r a l d i s p a r i t i e s i n t h e m o d e r n d a y A f r i c a n d i a s p o r a
a t m o s p h e r e o f t h e b l a c k c o n s c i o u s n e s s 55
T h e m y n o t t h a t e r b o d
b o d y i n w o r k i s h i n g m o r e n a f r a g i l e r e s t r i a l y s u i t .
“The face was made with soap using a mold. The smaller figures are miniature toys that I bought. The soap itself is a metaphor for something that can be easily molded, heated thus manipulated.”
During #VirtualSPAR, Marshall explores new materials and somber color palettes to investigate identity, scripture, and her own spiritual journey. Most notably she considers wool as a symbol of protection, the suppression of black hair in popular imagery, and misconceptions of identity as propagated by industry. She particularly relates to the Biblical story of Samson, who is robbed of his power when his hair is cut.
From the series “ Black Body Summit” . Digital photography
T r u t h i s s t r a n g e r t h a n f i c t i o n a t t i m e s 56
M e x i c o
Our next trip is also a long one. From Lithonia, US we need to get to Mexico City, where Fernanda Olivares is based. We go back to Atlanta airport and take the 3,5 hour flight DAL614. From the Benito Juárez International Airport we take the subway to reach Fernanda’s studio in Mexico City. We have to change two times between lines 5, 9 and 2. Finally, we’re there!
w e ’ r e
C i t y
FLIGHT DAL614
SUBWAY
t h e r e !
57
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/fernanda-olivares
M e x i c o
C i t y
FERNANDA OLIVARES
V o l a d o r e s i s a m e t a p h o r o f b e i n g u p s i d e d o w n o r a “ h a n g e d m a n ” f o r v i e w i n g o t h e r p e r s p e c t i v e s , w h i c h I t h i n k i s v a l u a b l e r e m e m b e r i n g d u r i n g t h e s e u n c e r t a i n t i m e s . 58
Fernanda Olivares (b. 1990) is a visual artist based in Mexico City. Her work is focused on themes of the body, influenced by her extensive education in dance. Often working with live dancers, she approaches painting in an anthropological way by studying individual and collective rituals. She holds a BFA in Fine Arts from Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura y Grabado “La Esmeralda” in Mexico City. Fernanda has exhibited internationally and her work lives in both private and public collections in London, Florence, and Mexico. In 2019, she received the National Award for Women for her career in the artistic and cultural field, an award endorsed by the Senate and the National Chamber of Women.
During the residency at #VirtuaSPAR, Fernanda shares work made during her prepandemic collaborations with “the Flyers”, a group of folklore Mexican Dancers, as well as with the Het National Ballet in the Netherlands. Responding to the new, more isolated world, she begins to experiment with the inanimate. This conscious shift both questions and offers remedy to current challenges of creating.
u f v n s e
r i n g t h e s t a r t t h e p a n d e m i c e r y t h i n g b e c a m e t i m a t e a n d o l a t e d , s o I c i d e d t o m a k e s h i f t i n m y w o r k u r i n g t h e s e t i m e s .
One of the latest paintings before confinement “ Divine communication”
D o e i i d a d
59
B e l o
H o r i z o n t e
BUS NUMBER 4
FLIGHT AM14
FLIGHT G31442
BUS 8205 BUS
Next stop — Brazil! We are traveling to Belo Horizonte and planning to spend a while there to meet three artists: Eliane Velozo, Iara Abreu and Paulo Carvalho Ferreira. We take bus number 4 to reach Terminal 1 at Mexico City’s airport. Our next flight takes nearly 12 hours. We board the flight AM14 and after 9 hours 45 minutes change to G31442 in Sao Paulo. The Aeroporto Confins is about a 1-hour bus ride away from Belo Horizonte. We change to the 8205 bus at Ave Amazonas and arrive at Eliane Velozo’s place. We know each other from her offline residency at SPAR in 2019 and it’s really great to meet again!
g r e a t 60
t o
m e e t
a g a i n
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/eliane-velozo
B e l o
H o r i z o n t e
ELIANE VELOZO
Eliane Velozo is a Brazil based artist, curator, and writer. She holds an MFA from the University of Illinois in Chicago. Her artwork has been exhibited in many Brazilian States as well as abroad in Italy, Portugal, the US and Russia. “As if I were an archaeologist, I dig inside myself and revisit my photographic collection, my memories of lived places, and establish relationships with small objects and residues of experiences, which are stored somewhere in my brain, in my heart and / or in my home.”
Diving/Mergulho. Ephemerality/Efemeridade. 2020
E p h e m e r a l i t y
Ephemerality Like never before in life I focus my attention to observe what is ephemeral. Thus, I sharpen my perception on the preciousness of lives ... of my own life and of other people’s lives and of everything that makes our Mother Earth. Though my vision is blurred by deposites of uselessness. 61
Diving/Mergulho. Terra/Land. 2020
s o m e w h e r e
i n
m y
b r a i n
Diving/Mergulho. Mãe/Mother. 2020
Eliane has been developing a new series “Diving / Mergulho” where she worked with her personal archive. Combining photographs with poetry, she creates strong statements addressing the current humanitarian crisis and its ramification on a local and global level. As well as art, Velozo has produced musical works, most notably with the composer Jorge Dissonância. She currently works with low visual ability caused by macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa, a condition that leads to blindness. 62
B e l o
H o r i z o n t e
We continue to explore Belo Horizonte. Iara Abreu’s place is in 1-hour walking distance, which is a great occasion to see more of the city. It could also be a nice bike ride!
n i c e
b i k e
BY BIKE
r i d e 63
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/iara-abreu
B e l o
H o r i z o n t e
IARA ABREU
Iara Abreu is a visual artist, illustrator and designer based in Brazil. Her work explores the architectures and inhabitants of cities — their histories, their idiosynchrasies and their evolutions. She is particularly interested in the dialogue between visual arts and poetry. Iara’s work has been exhibited across Brazil in both collective and solo exhibitions.
F I p p a a 64
r o m m y e x p e r i e n e x t r a c t t h e v i s o e t i c s , w h e t h e r a i n t i n g , o r c r e a m o n g o t h e r l a n g n d t e c h n i q u e s .
c e s u a l d r a w i n g , t i n g u a g e s
T h a c o w i f o s i d e
e r e s u l t i s m e m o r a b l e n f r o n t a t i o n t h v a r i o u s r m s o f l e n t s t r u c t i o n .
M d a q t
n i n g a n d f o r e s t a t i o n e n o t a r a n t i n e d i n e A m a z o n
i e r u h
Iara brings #VirtualSPAR to her home in Belo Horizonte, the capital of Minas Gerais in Brazil. Her topical work dissects the socioeconomic narratives of the pandemic and her country. Her pictures and meditations bring us from the waterfalls in Minas Gerais to the sprawling boundaries of the Amazon and to the poems of Regina Melo.
65
3301A BUS
BUS 410
SHORT WALK
B e l o
Our last guest in this region is Paulo Carvalho Ferreira, who lives in the other part of Belo Horizonte. We walk to Rua Sena Madureira 335 and take the 3301A bus from there. We then change to bus 410 and take a short walk to our destination. Nice to meet you, Paulo!
H o r i z o n t e
d e s t i n a t i o n 66
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/paulo-carvalho-ferreira
B e l o
H o r i z o n t e
PAULO CARVALHO FERREIRA
Paulo Carvalho is an artist based in Brazil. Born in Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais Brazil, Paulo graduated from the Guignard School in 2011 with a degree in Art Education. He began his artistic career in 2017, focused entirely on paper collage. Inspired by concretism and minimalism, Paulo’s work is also inspired by the work and research of figures such as Arthur Luiz Piza, Matisse, and Romare Bearden. In 2019 he held his first solo exhibition in Brazil and the US.
T p e h s f b
h r x i u a u
e o p s r t s
g e o m e t r i e s t h a t m p t e d h i s w o r k h e l a i n s , s p u r f r o m c h i l d h o o d s p e n t r o u n d e d b y h i s h e r ’ s t a i l o r i n g i n e s s . 67
During his residency at #VirtualSPAR, Paulo explores geometric compositions, Brazilian architecture, the discarded furniture of Minas Gerais, three dimensional illusion, the work of Japanese architect Tadao Ando, and our changing relationship to family. In his intensely present commentary and careful drawings, he questions his own relationship to the environment and prompts us to look twice at our old sofas. “The reflection serves for the discarding, what we are today, what we will be tomorrow through aging and maturation. Will we have the respect we think we deserve or is the disposal a fact? Will the family base support us at this moment?”
68
“ o I i t
I f ’ s h
t ’ s t h e e n c o u n t e r w h a t I a m w i t h w h a t m b e c o m i n g . T h e r e n o m i x t u r e b u t e e n c o u n t e r . ”
B u e n o s
There are no direct connections from Belo Horizonte to Buenos Aires where we’re heading to. We take the G34729 flight to Sao Paulo Governador André Franco Montoro International Airport, where we change to G37452. In about 6 hours we arrive at Ezeiza International Airport in Buenos Aires and take a 30-minute bus shuttle from there to get to the city center, where Christina Gutierrez already awaits us.
A i r e s
FLIGHT G34729
FLIGHT G37452
BUS SHUTTLE
69
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/titi-gutierrez
B u e n o s
A i r e s
CHRISTINA “TITIHOON” GUTIERREZ Titi Gutierrez (artist pseudonym: titihoon) is an illustrator and architect. A Venezualan artist, Titi has been based in Buenos Aires for 12 years. In her practice she produces comics, animations, and zines. Her work has been included in international festivals and exhibitions including the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires, the Paraguay Festival of printed Art, and Bauhaus 100 in Germany. Titi is currently the Printer of Risography and Editor for Independent Publications at the Berlin Grafik Press in Buenos Aires.
“ R e a d i t q u i e t l y a n d m e w h a t i t s a y s . . . ” 70
t e l l
Titi designated her #VirtualSPAR residency to develop a graphic novel. The work in progress details the artist’s experience with breast cancer, examining the effects of the treatment and the fact of the diagnosis on a life. The novel is structured into four subtopics: diseases and immigration, the physicalemotional effects of the treatment, the accompaniment of family, friends, and doctors, and how to relax pain through drawing. Employing a lens of science fiction, the artist re-examines the stigmas of disease, binding her work with humor and color. Her summer sketches are as naturally honest in their design as the artist is in her commentary. The work perhaps operates as a love letter to itself, radiating a warm sense of gratitude to the art forms that keep her going.
D c d i
i s e a s e s a r e i r c u m s t a n c e s t h a t o n o t d e t e r m i n e a n n d i v i d u a l a t a l l .
71
l o n g
j o u r n e y
D u n e d i n
The next part of our long journey takes us to a different part of the world. We are traveling to New Zealand to visit two of our online artists-in-residency. The whole trip will take us over 24 hours. We take a cab to El Palomar Airport and take our first 2,5 hours JAT1004 plane to Santiago. Our next flight is LA801. It will last 12 hours and 30 minutes and land in Auckland. After changing terminals we board our last plane — NZ671 to Dunedin. A shuttle takes us to the city, where we get on the 8 bus to get to our first guest in this country — Wesley John Fourie.
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CAB
JAT1004 PLANE
FLIGHT LA801
PLANE NZ671
BUS
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/wesley-john-fourie
D u n e d i n
WESLEY JOHN FOURIE Wesley John Fourie is a textile artist based in the UNESCO World Heritage Site, Fiordland National Park on the Milford Track located on the west coast of New Zealand’s south island. Wesley John creates site specific textile installations that pay homage to each place in which they inhabit. Their work explores themes of nature and spirituality, drawing heavily upon Hindu philosophy in which all natural resources are considered gods.
W h i l t e x t a l s o p e r f a n d
e
f o c u s e d o n i l e , t h e i r w o r k h a s i n v o l v e d w r i t i n g , o r m a n c e , d r a w i n g , p a i n t i n g . 73
Due to an interest in spirituality, they have held multiple art residencies and spent extended periods of time across the Indian subcontinent. Their work is held in private collections across New Zealand, India, Japan, Nepal, Germany, Italy, and Australia.
I F f a b
s t i l l i o r d l a e e l y o n d I s r e a t h i
f e e l y o u , n d , a n d I s t i l l u r s a f e t y , t i l l h e a r y o u r n g . Wesley entered the #VirtualSPAR in between two worlds. Made to leave their post in the mountains of Fiordland at the onset of the pandemic, their work and commentary explores connection to place, the limits of memory, and the joys and solace of the natural world.
74
D u n e d i n
The same bus number 8 takes us to our next meeting — with Taarn Scott. Taarn and Wesley who we’ve just visited are practically neighbors. But they didn’t know each other until they joined #VirtualSPAR. It’s incredible how from all the possible meeting occasions they met at an online residency operated from St. Petersburg, Russia. It’s a small world, really.
i t ’ s
a
s m a l l
BUS NUMBER 8
w o r l d 75
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/scott-taarn
D u n e d i n
TAARN SCOTT
“ I a m s t a r t i n g t o p a i n t a g a i n , a b i t o f e s c a p i s m c a n b e n i c e ! ” 76
Taarn Scott is a multidisciplinary artist from Dunedin, New Zealand. She graduated from Elam school of fine arts and works across a variety of mediums including illustration, printmaking and sculpture.
H e w o e n t h o f
r r e c e r k i s g a g e d e c o n c p l a c e
n t w i t h e p t .
Over her residency with #VirtualSpar, Taarn finds the act of painting an effective means of escapism. In addition, she looks to expand her mediums by dabbling in woodwork. All the while, she contemplates found objects, the beauty of edges, and the role of work that does not offer comment on its larger moment of creation. Her recent work is engaged with the concept of place. Moved by her pre-quarentine return to Ōtepoti, she details the process of reengaging with familiar land and nature. In her woodcuts, Taarn is interested in trace and mark making, adding physical substance to her illustrations and her fleeting thoughts.
Woodwork with an element of functionality, having never really dabbled in either. This is a book holder. 77
B a n t e n
Now we’re heading towards Indonesia, which will be another long trip. To see more of New Zealand before leaving we chose to take a road trip to Christchurch Airport. Part of the road goes along the coast with amazing views. We fly for over 10 hours with SQ298 to reach Singapore. There we change to SQ966 and arrive at Terminal 3 at Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in 1 hour and 45 minutes. Finally, we meet our next host — it’s Nena Nastasiya.
r o a d 78
t r i p
CAR FLIGHT SQ298 FLIGHT SQ966
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/nena-nastasiya
B a n t e n
NENA NASTASIYA W a o a
h e n k i d f b e n a s
I
w a s , I d r e a m e d c o m i n g t r o n a u t
Nena Nastasiya is a visual artist working internationally. Originally from Indonesia, Nena spent time in Berlin where she first refined her childhood creation, Space Robot. Since then she has continued to develop the project, participating in group shows and pursuing residency programs in Tokyo and Amsterdam. Her work often involves social research and her project develops through particular explorations of her surrounding local environment. She explains that the project centers on “hopes and gratefulness towards little things in the daily expression of the modern world.” Nena plans to collaborate with other artists and to develop the series into different forms such as sound and installation.
79
a n d I c a l l e d S p a c e R o b o t
t h e m
The #VirtualSPAR finds Nena biking across Amsterdam to the Utrecht Centraal, walking through a Tokyo memory, and making music in an abandoned school. Throughout the summer months she builds on her childhood illustration concept “Space Robot” .
I s t a r t e d m a k i n g t h i s r o b o t c h a r a c t e r f r o m o u t e r s p a c e
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“I got quite a lot of influences from Japanese Animation at that time which we had a lot in Indonesia. The reason why I made Space Robot was simply that I want to have my own character which is related to space and I can play with them (you know, a child and its imaginary friend).”
V a d o d a r a
From Indonesia we will be traveling to India, where two of our participants are based. From Soekarno–Hatta International Airport in Banten we fly with UL365 to Colombo, and from there with the AI276 flight we get to Mumbai. We’ve been on board for over 7 hours, but there’s still one last flight left — 9I649 to Surat. From there we take the 22955 train to Vadodara. This is where we meet Riddhi Patel.
o n
FLIGHT UL365
FLIGHT AI276
FLIGHT 9I649
22955 TRAIN
b o a r d 81
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/riddhi-patel
V a d o d a r a
RIDDHI PATEL Riddhi Patel is a visual artist from Gujarat, India. Originally trained as a classical dancer, Riddhi recently received a dual degree in painting and pottery from Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda. Interested in themes of the sublime as well as Zen, Dao and Eastern philosophy, her work, she writes, “revolves around the idea of transcendence and ephemeral qualities of nature.” Ridhi often takes textile and surface patterns as inspiration for her minimalist and abstract drawings.
“ h t a t
H u m a n a v e a o p e r s t t a c h o f a b r
b e i n g s d o t e n d e n c y o n a l l y t h e m s e l v e s i c . ”
During her residency with #VirtualSPAR, she explores the anatomy of cloth. Her medium of choice, Khadi cloth, whose origin coincides with India’s fight for freedom, imbues her work with particular ethnic and traditional symbolism. She offers both visual and written poetry, and asks us to contemplate the network of relationships that define our day to day — our relationships to touch, to repetition, to music, to the sea. “I feel, repetition of lines is just like repetition of sound or beats, which remains constant with the tune but varies in its temperament.”
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e n d l e s s
s w i m
83
N e w
D e l h i
There is a direct train 22209 from Vadodara to New Delhi. The ride takes 12 hours and 25 minutes, so we head off early in the morning. In New Delhi we take a taxi and in just twenty minutes we arrive at the studio of Neerajj Mittra.
a r r i v e 84
a t
TRAIN 22209
TAXI
t h e
s t u d i o
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/neeraj-mittra
N e w
D e l h i
NEERAJJ MITTRA Neerajj Mittra is a visual artist and curator based in Delhi, India. Over 30 years, he has cultivated both an artistic and curatorial practice that spans painting, fashion, sculpture, design, and film.
A s f l
r p r a
t i s o n t a e e d o n g u a
m y b e i n g , n e i t y a n d m a r e m y g e . . .
Mittra received a BFA and MFA from the College of Art in New Delhi. In the following years he completed a prestigious mentorship with Stalwart Shri as well as an internship in the Jangpura studio of Amar Nath Sehgal, noted Indian modernist artist, poet, and art educator. Mittra has participated in over 65 national and international art exhibitions including 17 solo shows. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Curator for Gallery Art’est, a nonprofit collaborative space for young curators and artists interested in contemporary Indian art. 85
Neerajj’s time at #VirtualSPAR is characterized by a deep affinity for his equine muse. His vibrant color palate is complimented by music created by Kabir Dev Mittra, “The Star.” While experimenting with watercolor and ink, the artist contemplates the themes of childhood, celebration, religious practice, and the total embrace of the notion of artist.
“ t o a
86
O u r h e r f o u c r o s
b e i n g s a r e e f l e c t i o n s r g a l l o p s s t i m e s ”
M o s c o w
This has been a long and exciting journey taking us to different countries and continents. Now it’s time to go back to Russia. But our trip is not over yet. We still have three more artists to visit. We start at the Samaypur Badli station in New Delhi and take the yellow metro line to New Delhi. There we switch to the orange line and take the airport express — all together in less than 1 hour. We’re lucky to get on a direct flight to Moscow, which takes about 6 hours. We land in Sheremetyevo airport and take the airport express train and the subway to get to Boris Moz. Nice to meet you!
o u r
t r i p
METRO LINE
FLIGHT TO MOSCOW
EXPRESS TRAIN
SUBWAY
i s
n o t
o v e r 87
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/boris-moz
M o s c o w
BORIS MOZ BoRis Moz is a Russian artist working in mosaic and painting. BoRis Moz is a pseudonym. For the artist, the letters represent important acronyms and the result presents a particular irony, as in Russia male names cannot be used for women. She writes, “In my art you can find eyes that in turn are the characters representing the residents of the metropolis. Their seeking worried eyes are in search of the desired.” Born in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Moz graduated from the Uzbekistan State Institute of Arts and Culture where she studied to be an FEA manager. After spending an informative time in a mosaic workshop she decided to pursue a life as creator. She has been living and working in Moscow, Russia since 2009.
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A resident at #VirtualSPAR through the summer months, Moz explores how art serves as a constant point of connection, whether stumbled upon virtually or strung across a balcony. Wielding the power of social media, she builds a community whose diverse energy is captured by the very mosaics she creates. When her final project crashed to the floor with all eyes on her, Moz took the misfortune as an opportunity to explore artistic notions of loss, secrecy, and reconstruction. The work was fully restored and later exhibited.
T h e d i s t a n c e b e t w e e n u s w a s a w h o l e f l o o r
E v e r y d a y I m a d e m o s a i c s o f t h e e y e s o f a n o t h e r f r i e n d f r o m t h e I n t e r n e t i n s p i r e d b y t h e i r s t o r y
“I live on the second floor and there was a place on the balcony where I could fix the pictures. Thus, for those brave people who went outside to go to the store, throw out the trash or walk the dog, delivery men and couriers, my balcony became a gallery.”
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g r e a t t o b e h e r e
V o l o g d a
From Moscow we travel to another city in Russia — Vologda, where Ilia Bouslakov lives. We take the subway to Komsomolskaya station and walk to the Yaroslavsky Railway Station. The trip with the 126Я train lasts about 8 hours and we travel conveniently overnight. Hello, Ilia! Great to be here.
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SUBWAY
126Я TRAIN
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/ilia-bouslakov
V o l o g d a
ILIA BOUSLAKOV Ilia Bouslakov is an emerging artist based in Vologda, Russia with a professional and technical background in finance. His interest in art spurs from a particular fascination with numerical forms and their connotations. Both drawing and working with threedimensional forms, Ilia has produced over 400 works.
T “ N A r h i
h e u m t ” s p
p b l r
r e e a
o r a c
j e c t s a s d s t i c e .
Ilia’s residency with #VirtualSPAR is a continuation and another iteration of this ongoing project, in which he contemplates visual confrontation with numerical form. In November 2020 Ilia became the first offline artist-in-residence at SPAR after a long break, presenting his first solo show at the Pushkinskaya-10 art center. 91
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( r u l e s o f r e a d i n g i n o r d e r o f p r i o r i t y : a t t e n t i o n t o d e t a i l s , f r o m l e f t t o r i g h t , f r o m t o p t o b o t t o m , c o m m o n s e n s e ) .
One of the basic principles within this project — there should be no ambiguity in reading a specific number
S t .
P e t e r s b u r g
Our last stop is already in St. Petersburg. The fastest train is 071E from Vologda to St. Petersburg Ladozhsky train station. However, St. Petersburg is so big that it will take us 1,5 hours more to get from one part of the city to the other. We enter the subway, take line 4 and switch to line 1 at Leninsky Prospect. After a short walk we get on the K-35 bus and arrive at our meeting point with Liza Odinokikh.
m e e t i n g
TRAIN IS 071E
SUBWAY
K-35 BUS
p o i n t 93
https://virtualresidency.p-10.ru/author/liza-odinokikh
S t .
E v u p w r t h i n
P e t e r s b u r g
LIZA ODINOKIKH
e r y d a y a f t e r w a k i n g , I t a k e m y p e n a n d i t e d o w n o n p a p e r e f l o w t h a t i s s t o r e d s i d e m y h e a d .
Forms №1, 2020, tempera on canvas
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Liza Odinokikh was born in 1990 in Novosibirsk. She lives and works in St. Petersburg. She graduated from the St. Petersburg University of Technology & Design with the Bachelors degree in fashion design. Liza advanced her artistic education at the Italian academy NABA. In 2019, she graduated from the Paideia School of Interpretation of Contemporary Art. Liza Odinokikh works in various media including painting, graphics, sculpture and collage. She frequently incorporates the vintage ready made in her works.
She tends to re-interpret stories stored in objects to establish connections between past and present. In her artistic practice, Liza explores personal internal processes, search, questions, and memories. Her projects appeal to people with unexplained emotional experience. Prototypes made of clay
T h e c h o i c e i s u p t o u s : a c c e p t , r e s i s t , o r i g n o r e t h e s e o b s e s s i v e f o r m s . 95
T f o j
h a n k y o u o r j o i n i n g u s n t h i s l o n g o u r n e y !
The travel itself was imaginary, but the places, the people and their stories are real. You can learn more about these and other artists from #VirtualSPAR at virtualresidency.p-10.ru
ST. PETERSBURG ART RESIDENCY
Disclaimer: please note that the routes and travel connections used in the texts only serve the storytelling purpose. They don’t claim objectivity and might alter from those available at the moment. The chosen connections do not promote any particular companies or products nor do they represent our position on carbon footprint policy and those of our partners.
This zine was produced by: SPAR team: Anastasia Patsey, Liza Ordinartceva, Nazar Niazmetov Texts about the artists and editing: Sophie Cloherty Travel connections: Liza Ordinartceva, Anastasia Patsey Design: Sveta Nosova With generous support of the International Relief Fund of the German Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut and other partners: www.goethe.de/relieffund
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