"The history of the development of multimedia art. Leningrad - St. Petersburg. 1986-2001" Automatic translate

Exhibition “History of the Development of Multimedia Art. Leningrad - St. Petersburg. 1985-2000 ”recreates a diverse picture of the intensive development of new ways and technologies in art that took place in those years. Since there is still no objective and complete research, we have brought together and systematized this process of transition from analogue to digital technologies by years and directions. From the first filming of independent and parallel cinema by underground directors and artists - to video art, to synthetic performance and happening; from traditional and photo collage to computer collage, working with programs and effects, editing and installations. This path led to the emergence of new languages ​​in art: to network art (web art and net art), VJing, DJing, sound art and artistic experiments with a new media space, so relevant in the 21st century.

Independent Films and Parallel Films, Necrorealists, New Wilds, Rivermen, New Artists, New Composers, Pirate Television, New Academy, New Dull Fellowship, AXE, Art Engineers, Cyberfeminism, Gallery 21, Emergency Exit group, Svoi group, PNO are those associations and trends, whose activities in Leningrad - St. Petersburg at the dawn of the 90s and during the Perestroika period contributed to the emergence of new trends in art.

The spirit of freedom, democracy, and creative experiment that perestroika brought with it was reflected in the quests of these young independent artists and directors of the time, who developed their vision and avant-garde art through the development of new technologies.

Experiments by pioneers of media art in Russia - films, collages, installations by Olga Tobreluts, Konstantin Mitenev, Dmitry Pilikin, Timur Novikov and Sergey Shutov, the Engineers of Arts group, Galina Ledentsova and the Zapasnoy Vyhod group, Lyudmila Belova and many others will be presented at the exhibition.

The exhibition begins with independent films from the mid 80’s and 90’s. In experimental films and photographs of the late 1980s, echoes of the foresight of the computer aesthetics of the future appear. The artists of parallel cinema were breaking the traditional vision of the film process, they used the techniques available to them to create a new idea of ​​the film, editing, and plot. Today we can say that their experiments were not in vain, they began to be actively used in modern cinema, advertising and video art. The exhibition will feature films by Bella Matveeva and Vladimir Zakharov, Ivetta Pomerantseva, Oleg Kotelnikov, Evgeny Kondratyev, Andrei Mertvyi, Konstantin Mitenev, Oleg Maslov, Andrius Venzlova, Dmitry Frolov, the AXE group and others.

It should also be noted that the development of Russian media art is unique. In the early days of the Internet era, independent artists and filmmakers who picked up a camera had no idea what their Western counterparts were doing. This knowledge came to me indirectly: through personal communication, exchange of experience with foreign colleagues during exhibitions organized by the Department of Newest Trends of the Russian Museum. John Cage, Pontus Hulten, Bruce Sterling, Joanna Stingray, Brian Eno came to Leningrad and talked with artists. With the advent of the computer, the accessible internet, and the ability to travel, there has been a transgression of physical and mental boundaries. The Internet was not yet burdened with commerce and its development took place in a creative way. In many ways, artists became pioneers of new territories and pioneers. They put out CDs, internet magazines,made the first sites, organized raves, international conferences and teleconferences. The exhibition and catalog included memoirs of participants, documents and photographic documentation.

The history of the punk art ship Stübnitz, which docked off the banks of the Neva River in 1994, is legendary. Equipped with computers and becoming a creative conceptual laboratory for new media, it influenced the emergence of the techno-culture of the Techno-Art Center and Cyber-Femin-Club, Gallery 21, which became the organizer of new media workshops and seminars that practiced various aspects of cyber theory, collaborated with conferences on computer art held in the city. Several CDs were published: “From Neoacademism to Cyberfeminism”, “Game without Rules”, the magazine “Virtual Anatomy”, the website of the Cyber ​​Feminine Club, the project of Dmitry Pilikin “Witnesses of the Epoch” and the web projects of Konstantin Mitenev “ Bioloid Factory ”and“ Undina ”, the first Internet TV“ Twins TV ”.In St. Petersburg at the beginning of the 90s, the first in Russia computer studio "Krate" appeared, which united around itself artists who were keen on new technologies. The works of these artists are widely known abroad, have received many prizes at international festivals, but it is almost impossible to see them here. Personal exhibitions of the pioneers of media art travel to museums around the world. Therefore, it is in St. Petersburg, the cradle of the Russian media revolution, that it is important to show their works in full, from experiments in parallel cinema to lenticular panels.Personal exhibitions of the pioneers of media art travel to museums around the world. Therefore, it is in St. Petersburg, the cradle of the Russian media revolution, that it is important to show their works in full, from experiments in parallel cinema to lenticular panels.Personal exhibitions of the pioneers of media art travel to museums around the world. Therefore, it is in St. Petersburg, the cradle of the Russian media revolution, that it is important to show their works in full, from experiments in parallel cinema to lenticular panels.

An important section of the exhibition is Collage-Montage. It is interesting to trace the evolution of this method in works from analog to computer. From application collages "Engineers of Arts", cut and assembled by hand, animated collages of parallels, photo collages by Alexander Filipchenko, to the first innovative computer photo and video collages by Olga Tobreluts, Yegor Ostrov, animations by Timur Novikov, Sergei Shutov, to the palette of computer music videos by Andrius, Rechnikov and New Composers.

In 1993, at Pushkinskaya 10, the New Academy of Fine Arts (NAII) was opened. Here at the same time, old photographic equipment was revived and new technologies were actively used. Timur Novikov, a cultural trader of the art of St. Petersburg, taught technology at the NAII, from where many contemporary artists later came. The famous "Pirate Television" (PTV), created by artists from Timur Novikov’s circle, Yuris Lesnik, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe and Georgy Guryanov, edited short films, clips, cultural news for a week for a small circle of creative youth, united by the address of Fontanka, 145, which later shown in clubs and at parties.

The artists also worked on the Leningrad television. The two author’s programs "DEMO" and Oleg Povarov, "SUBKULTUR", were distinguished by the innovative author’s video editing of the image, which was more reminiscent of video art than a news program. The famous media intervention "Lenin-mushroom", which was believed by numerous TV viewers, was carried out by Sergei Kuryokhin in Sergei Sholokhov’s television program "Quiet House" in 1990.

The history of the first video and multimedia installations is presented by several authors. This - "Labyrinth" by Olga Tobreluts, filmed and edited in Germany on the Offene Channel in 1990, documentation of the experiments of the "Emergency exit" group, which took place in the Reserve Palace of Tsarskoye Selo in the mid-90s, "Digitization of blood" 1998 by Lyudmila Belova and her "Forced Angle" 1999-2000, presenting a three-screen installation and winning the International Media Art Award at the ZKM in Karlsruhe in 2000.

I would like to note those who had a great influence on the development of media technologies in art at the very beginning of their appearance, having developed in their works such artistic approaches and techniques that have found application in various fields of art in the future. This is a whole constellation of names: Evgeny Yufit, Konstantin Mitenev, Evgeny Kondratyev, Andrey Dead, Sergei Dobrotvorsky, Eduard Shelganov, Dmitry Lurie, Ivette Pomerantseva, Oleg Kotelnikov, Ivan Sotnikov, Oleg Maslov, Viktor Kuznetsov, Timur Novikov, Sergei Shutov, Sergei Kuryokhin Bella Matveeva, Vladimir Zakharov, Rivermax, Yuris Lesnik, Georgy Guryanov, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Olga Tobreluts, Andrius Ventslova, Valery Alakhov and Igor Verichev, Yulia Strausova, Inal Savchenkov, Franz Rodvalt, Sergei Stankov, Egoriy Grigoriy Island, Boris Kazakov, Zhora Baranov,Dmitry Frolov, Irina Aktuganova, Alla Mitrofanova, Dmitry Pilikin, Vita Buyvid, Pavel Semchenko, Yuri Sobolev, Galina Ledentsova, Sergey Nikokoshev, Vladimir Bystrov, Tatyana Podvigina, Lyudmila Belova, Natalia Lyakh and many others.

CURATOR - VICTORIA ILYUSHKINA.