"Recognition / Riconoscimento. Russia - Italy" Automatic translate

The youth project “Recognition” is one of the next exhibition projects of the Grafcom Experimental Creative Workshop of the Volga branch of the Russian Academy of Arts and its director, well-known Kazan artist Alexander Artamonov, an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Arts, Honored Artist of the Republic of Tatarstan.

The idea of ​​the project arose during the visit of the delegation of Italian artists to Kazan in August 2018. Alexander Artamonov specially proposed for young graphic artists the theme of memory and its interpretation in various techniques of print art. The theme found a sincere response from 6 Italian and 5 Russian young artists and inspired them to express their attitude to the phenomenon of memory using printed graphics, using a variety of techniques - silk-screen printing, linocut, etching, collage.

The project involves artists from different cities of Italy and Russia: Virginia Dal Margot (Milan), Julia Gentilcor (Milan), Lucrezia Zaffarano (Milan), Giacomo Lambrugo (Giussano), Gloria Lavanini (Genoa), Cristiano Rizzo (Borgomanero), Regina Iksanova (Naberezhnye Chelny), Regina Mavrina (Zelenodolsk), Aigul Munirova (Naberezhnye Chelny), Ekaterina Semina (Zelenodolsk), Rushaniya Shaikhutdinova (Naberezhnye Chelny). Gloria Lavagnini (Genoa) and Marat Mingaleev (Naberezhyn Chelny) participated in the organization of the project.

They represent several art schools that have graduated in the recent past or which still continue to study: Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan, Kazan Art College named after N. I. Feshina, Moscow State Academic Art Institute. V.I. Surikova. The works of young authors reflect the specifics of art systems and worldviews, emerging due to different principles of art education.

Most of the project participants have never been to the friendly country to which they dedicate their works. In the plots of their works, they rely on historical and emotional memory: Italians - on the textbook images of the Russian icon, nesting dolls, birds Alkonost and others, trying to understand the history of Russia and the Russian national character through symbols and allegories. Russian artists turn to the creations of Italian architects in Russia; to the work of famous personalities whose life was connected with our countries; Italian architecture, not yet seen by them, but familiar from photographs and films; to Italian cuisine and Italian theater, which became part of the Russian cultural code.

Each artist in a given format created a graphic trilogy. In it, in the language of symbols and associations, they reflect on the history and culture of the two countries, share their ideas and memories of the past and future, of life, how it was once, what will become later, about the imperceptible, but rigorous movement of time that takes place before their eyes and entails inevitable changes.

Of course, during the work on the project, young artists saw and comprehended familiar images in a new way, learned many facts that were previously unknown to themselves. And for each of them, the country to which their thoughts and creativity were addressed has become closer and more understandable. And this is the main outcome of the Recognition project.

Marat Mingaleev, Olga Ulemnova