Strangers are everywhere Automatic translate

The exhibition “Strangers Everywhere” in the PARAZIT pavilion is designated as part of the upcoming 60th Venice Biennale (April 20 – November 24, 2024, curated by Adriano Pedrosa).

Russia is not expected to participate in the upcoming biennale, but the participants of the PARAZIT art association had an irresistible desire to experience a direct “aesthetic experience” and open the PARAZIT pavilion “Strangers Everywhere”.

As you know, the main postulated concept of the PARAZIT gallery is the parasitism “on the body” of various cultural institutions, as well as “on the body” of world artistic events in the field of contemporary art in order to rethink and create their own statements on the voiced topics.

Thus, the exhibition “Strangers Everywhere” is a rethinking of the main theme of the upcoming 60th Venice Biennale, exploring the concept of “being a foreigner” - “Foreigners are everywhere”.

The title “Foreigners Everywhere” is taken from a series of works begun in 2004 by the collective of Claire Fontaine, a native of Paris living in Palermo. Neon sculptures convey the words “Foreigners are everywhere” in different languages ​​around the world. The phrase comes from the name of the Turin society that opposed xenophobia in the 2000s: Adriano Pedrosa talks about the global crisis against the backdrop of which art is now being created, about endless migrations that are akin to the Babel pandemonium, and sacredly adds that wherever you find yourself, you always truly and deep inside - a foreigner.

Artists - foreigners, immigrants, expatriates, representatives of the diaspora, emigrants, exiles and refugees - are invited to participate. Biennale Arte 2024 will unfold and focus on exploring the phenomenon of the queer artist who is represented in different sexualities and genders, persecuted or outlawed, the phenomenon of the folk artist-outsider, self-taught.

Obviously, we have before us a form of manifestation of the process of social marking in society, which are branding, stereotyping, labeling, stigmatization. Labeling is a normal desire to control, analyze social processes, and attribute positive or negative characteristics to the actions of individuals or groups.

Today PARAZIT is one of the most powerful creative associations in St. Petersburg. It is known that systemic changes are taking place in the group; many new authors are joining the main composition. It is possible that the association is now experiencing benign (one would like to believe) collective narcissism, aimed only at creation and development.