Artist: Kirill Savchenkov
Exhibition title: Office of Sensitive Activities / Applications Group
Curated by: Katerina Chuchalina, Maria Kramar
Venue: MMOMA, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Moscow, Rusia
Date: September 9 – November 5, 2017
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and MMOMA
Note: Exhibition text can be found here
V-A-C Foundation presents the exhibition of Kirill Savchenkov’s Office of Sensitive Activities / Applications Group. The exhibition is part of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art’s (MMOMA) programme Carte Blanche, which invites art institutions to implement their own curatorial initiatives at MMOMA sites.
Office of Sensitive Activities / Applications Group is a study of survival in an environment of crises, global instability and post-human future. The project studies the systems of knowledge and practices through which human intellect interacts with the non-human. ‘The way we interpret events and decide how to act will increasingly demand changes in logic, and, consequently, a change in the way knowledge is used and the process of education itself’, explains Kirill Savchenkov.
The project consists of an installation that doubles as an educational centre. The educational aspect is seen as a combination of physical and communicative practices, scientific and pseudoscientific disciplines — from cosmology and cryptozoology to paramilitary and meditative practices. Savchenkov calls the exhibition ‘a textbook manifested in objects’. The viewer finds him/herself in a hybrid environment, which includes elements of a library, a training centre, and a natural history museum.
Office of Sensitive Activities / Applications Group exhibition is presented not only through physical space, but also in time, reflecting an uncertain reality. Parts of the exhibition will be transformed throughout its duration and these changes will affect the modes of recognition, perception and interpretation of what is happening. The educational programme will include physical practices and reading groups.
Kirill Savchenkov is an artist and teacher at the Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia. Savchenkov studies the relationship between education, cultural conflicts and identity in marginalized communities and subcultures. The artist uses different media, including performance, installation, video and photography.
Launched in spring 2017, Carte Blanche is a new experimental programme by MMOMA, inviting art institutions to implement their own curatorial initiatives at MMOMA sites. With Carte Blanche, MMOMA aims to develop creative dialogue and synergy, strengthening cultural ties between state museums and other institutions. Guest institutions will select the theme, artists and format of the exhibitions they present, opening up new ideas to MMOMA’s visitors and giving invited institutions the opportunity to address issues such as the implementation of their projects in a different context and familiarity with new audiences. Building on the activities of the museum, it will further MMOMA’s ambition to broaden current perceptions of contemporary art.
V-A-C Foundation is the first institution to participate and presents four projects which analyse the format of museums and exhibitions, looking at new possibilities as well as existing boundaries and limitations. It expands on V-A-C’s long-term programme which explores the role of the contemporary museum.
