Allegoria Sacra

Info

Video

Images

Stills

Concept

Exhibitions

Info

2011–

Third part of The Liminal Space Trilogy

1-channel (39′40″), 3-channel (39′39″), and 5-channel (39′39″) video installations, 44 video stills, 11 digital collages, ongoing series of paintings

Video

1-CHANNEL TRAILER

Images

Digital Collages

Stills

1-channel Stills
Special 1-channel Stills
3-channel Stills

Concept

Allegoria Sacra is the third and final part of The Liminal Space Trilogy, taking its inspiration from Giovanni Bellini’s eponymous painting hanging in the Uffizi of Florence, which, according to a nineteenth-century interpretation, depicts Purgatory. Much as in The Feast of Trimalchio, the setting of the archetype is transposed to a contemporary analog, in this case an architecturally futuristic international airport — a nonplace par excellence — populated by diverse passengers awaiting flights to their destinations. The setting evolves from snow dunes to desert and to jungle as it plays temporary host to refugees fleeing ethnic conflict in the Middle East, a group of transit passengers in traditional garb from Darfur or Peshawar, the cannibals of Papua New Guinea, a delegation of Chinese executives, Western same-sex multiracial family units, a missionary priest, and a neo-Nazi, among others. They are joined by those who represent more overt references to mythical personas in Bellini’s painting, such as Job as an elderly man in a high-tech life-support bed, St. Sebastian as a young nomad returning from the exotic South, St. Paul as a member of the tactical police yet brandishing a sword, a centaur, and the stewardesses from Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as stand-ins for angels and the Madonna. Threading together complex sociopolitical issues — from identity and Otherness to shifting economic hegemonies and regional conflicts, from transhumanism to climate change—Allegoria Sacra is a meditation on the wholesale transformation of post-colonial civilization instigated by Western globalist fantasies.

 

The entire work is composed of a video installation in 5-channel, 3-channel, and single-channel versions, a series of 14 digital collages as grand tableaux, oil paintings, and series of printed stills from the video, with a number of other components projected yet unrealized. Aesthetically as close to early Renaissance art as to the TV series Lost, the video component of Allegoria Sacra is accompanied by a classical soundtrack composed almost entirely of excerpts from eighteenth-century funeral marches: Vivaldi’s Stabat Mater, Händel’s The Ways of Zion Do Mourn, Chopin’s Marche funèbre: Lento, Schubert’s Der Leiermann as arranged by Liszt, and Tchaikovsky’s Pathétique, with the only contemporary exception being samples of Ryoji Ikeda’s Opus 1.

 

Allegoria Sacra was first exhibited as a video installation at the Moscow Biennale in 2011 and has since been shown in various configurations at many museums and festivals, notably the Museum of Old and New Art in Tasmania (2011), the Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid (2011), the 55th Venice Biennale in the Venice Pavilion (2013), the Art  Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide (2013), as part of The Liminal Space Trilogy exhibition at Moscow’s Central Exhibition Hall “Manege” and the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin (2012), the 1st Kiev Biennale (2012), the Helsinki Art Museum (2013), the Kumu Art Museum in Tallinn (2015), the group’s survey exhibition Theatrum Mundi at the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Geneva (2018), as a special project of the 5th Ural Biennial in Ekaterinburg (2019), and the survey exhibition Lost, Hybrid, Inverted at the Jeonnam Museum of Art in South Korea (2021). The project has also received the Sergey Kuryokhin Award (2011), the Kandinsky Prize in the “Project of the Year” category (2012), first prize at the NordArt Festival of Stein am Rhein (2014), and the international award of the Fondazione Pascali of Polignano a Mare (Bari, Italy) in 2015.

Exhibitions

Solo Exhibitions (and as part of Liminal Space Trilogy)

 

2021

"AES+F. LOST, HYBRID, INVERTED", Jeonnam Museum of Art, South Korea.

 

2020

"EUTOPIA: NARRATIVE AND RHETORIC", Art Museum of the Sichuan Fine Arts Institute in Chongqing, China.

"AES+F. WHAT CAME TO PASS", Tang Contemporary Art, Beijing, China.

 

2019

"AES+F. PREDICTIONS AND REVELATIONS", "Manege" Central Exhibition Hall, Saint Petersburg, Russia.

"AES+F. ALLEGORIA SACRA", Yeltsin Center, a special program of Ural Industrial Biennale, Yekaterinburg, Russia

 

2018

“AES+F. THEATRUM MUNDI”, Museum of Art and History, Geneva, Switzerland.

 

2015
“AES+F: TRILOGY PLUS”, Aeroplastics Contemporary, Brussels Belgium.

“001 INVERSO MUNDUS. AES+F”, Collateral event of 56th Biennale di Venezia, Magazzini del Sale, Magazzino 5 & Vitraria Glass +Art Museum, Venice, Italy.

“THE LIMINAL SPACE TRILOGY. Parts 2 & 3”, Platform Russia, MAMM, Art Stage Singapore, Singapore.

“ALLEGORIA SACRA”, public screening in Port Adelaide, Adelaide, Australia

 

2014
“AES+F. THE LIMINAL SPACE TRILOGY”, Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

 

2013
“AES+F: ALLEGORIA SACRA”, Art Statements Gallery Hong Kong, Hong Kong.

“AES+F. THE FEAST OF TRIMALCHIO” in frames of exhibition project “HAPPY END?”, Tennis Palace Museum, Helsinki, Finland.

“AES+F. THE TRILOGY”, featuring artists of Fresh Paint Art Fair, Tel Aviv, Israel.

“THE LIMINAL SPACE TRILOGY”, project room on Fresh Paint Art Fair, Tel Aviv, Israel.

“AES+F. ALLEGORIA SACRA”, “Pride” Wellness Club, Moscow Region, Russia

“AES+F. THE LIMINAL SPACE TRILOGY”, Faena Arts Center, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

“AES+F. TRILOGY. FINAL CUT”, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

“ALLEGORIA SACRA. AES+F” The Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, NSW, Australia.

 

2012
“AES+F. THE TRILOGY”, Kicik Qalart Gallery, Baku, Azerbaijan.

“AES+F. THE TRILOGY”, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany.

“AES+F. THE TRILOGY”, Central Exhibition Hall Manege, Moscow, Russia.

“AES+F – GUEST OF HONOR” Seoul Photo Art Fair, Seoul. South Korea.

“AES+F. ALLEGORIA SACRA”, Sergey Kuryokhin Modern Art Center, St-Petersburg, Russia

“ALLEGORIA SACRA”, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia

 

2011
“AES+F. ALLEGORIA SACRA”, Triumph Gallery, Moscow.

“AES+F. ALLEGORIA SACRA. PICTURES”. “Art Moscow 2011” Art Fair, Central House of Artist, Triumph Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

“AES+F. ALLEGORIA SACRA”, a special project of 4th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow, Russia.

 

Group Exhibitions

 

2022

“KANDINSKY PRIZE. 15 YEARS”, National Center for Contemporary Art "Arsenal", Nizhny Novgorod, Russia.

 

2021

"ART ON VIDEO", Galleria Paola Verrengia, Salerno, Italy.

"A SHADOW OF THE SOUL BUT SLIGHTLY SHARPER", Multimedia Art Museum Moscow, Russia.

 

2020

"INEFFABLE LONGING", G Museum of Art, Nanjing, China.

"MEDIA UTOPIA", Jeju International Peace Center, Korea

"#CUTE. ISLANDS OF HAPPINESS?", NRW Forum, Dusseldorf, Germany

 

2019

"LOVE, DISPLACED", PIAF – Perth International Art Festival, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, Perth, Australia.

"TIME CUBISM", Gwangju Museum of Art, Gwangju, South Korea.

 

2018

“OPUS MERRIWEATHER 2018", Symphony Woods, Columbia, Maryland, USA

"WUTHERING HEIGHTS", Schafhof - European House of Art Upper Bavaria, Freising, Germany.

 

2017

"HELLE KINDHEIT / DUNKLE KINDHEIT" - Museum Villa Rot, Burgrieden-Rot, Germany

"6TH LICHTSICHT PROJECTION BIENNALE" - Lichtsicht Biennale, Bad Rothenfelde, Germany

"STRESS FIELD / 4TH DOCUMENTARY EXHIBITION OF FINE ARTS" - Hubei Museum of Art, Wuhan, Hubei

"MIG 21" - MűvészetMalom - ArtMill, Szentendre, Hungary

"RENCONTRES INTERNATIONALES PARIS/BERLIN" - Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

"UNREAL. THE ALGORITHMIC PRESENT" - Haus für elektronische Künste Basel, Basel

"DISTURBANCE" - Kunsthalle der Sparkasse Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany

"MIG 21: MIGRATORY INTERDISCIPLINARY GRID", Museum Of Contemporary Art Vojvodina, Novi Sad, Serbia

 

2016

"BRIC-á-BRAC THE JUMBLE OF GROWTH", Today Art Museum, Beijing, China.

"PLATONOV ARTS FESTIVAL", Kommuna Art Center, Voronezh, Russia.

"HERITAGE, HIGH CLASSIC", Victoria Art Gallery, Samara, Russia.

"FOREVER", Bubox – Contemporary Visual Arts in Kortrijk, Belgium.

 

2015
“SCREEN PLAY: LIFE IN AN ANIMATED WORLD”, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo (NY), USA.

“AES+F”, Triumph Gallery at SCOPE Basel art fair, Basel, Switzerland.

“DEATH AND BEAUTY. THE CONTEMPORARY GOTHIC IN ART AND VISUAL CULTURE”, Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia

 

2014
“CREATIVE ZONE – “BAROQUE”: VISUAL AND HYBRID ART”, ArtCult & Gera Museum, Vrsac, Serbia.

“THE ROAD TO ELYSIUM”, Heist Gallery, London, UK.

“NORDART 2014”, Country focus 2014: Russian Pavilion, Kunstwerk Carlshütte, Büdelsdorf, Germany.

“GLASS +A”, Vitraria Glass +A Museum, Venice, Italy.

“NUIT DES IMAGES 2014”, Musée de l'Élysée, Lausanne, Switzerland.

“LAST RIOT AND OTHER CONTEMPORARY WORKS FROM THE COLLECTION OF DR. DICK QUAN”, BRAG (Bathurst Regional Art Gallery), Bathurst, Australia

“TRANSITION”, Art Statements Gallery, Hong Kong.

“TILT!” Kunst Raum Riehen, Riehen/Basel, Switzerland.

 

2013
“MONUMENTAL!”, Art Statements Gallery, Hong Kong.

“SILK MAP”, Padiglione Venezia at 55th Biennale of Venice Art Exhibition, Giardini, Venice, Italy.

“MEDITERRANIEN BIENNALE 2013”, Sachnin, Israel.

“NOTHING TO DECLARE? – WORLD MAPS OF ART SINCE 89”, Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany.

 

2012
“KANDINSKY PRIZE 2012”, “Udarnik” Cinema Theater, Moscow, Russia.

“SHENZHEN ANIMATION BIENNALE”, Shenzhen, PR China.

“13.0.0.0.0”, RH Gallery, New York, United States.

“HISTORY IS MINE!” (“L’Histoire est à moi!”), 22nd edition of “du Printemps de Septembre-à Toulouse”, Toulouse, France.

“MUSEUM. THE PHOTOGRAPHER’S VIEW”, The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (GMII), Moscow, Russia.

“ARSENALE 2012” The 1st Kiev Biennale, Mistetsky Arsenal, Kiev, Ukraine.

“SERGEY KURYOKHIN ART AWARD”, Sergey Kuryokhin Modern Art Center, St-Petersburg, Russia.

“THE SOUND OPTIC”, NCCA and “Gallery” Exhibition Center, Izhevsk, Russia.

“MEGACOOL 4.0” – Jugend und Kunst, Kunsthaus, Vienna, Austria.

“MOVING IMAGE CONTEMPORARY VIDEO ART FAIR 2012”, Anna Schwartz Gallery (Melbourne, Sydney), Waterfront NY Tunnel, New York, United States.

“ART WYNWOOD ART FAIR”, Juan Ruiz Gallery, Miami, United States.

“ARCO”, Triumph Gallery (Moscow), Madrid, Spain.

 

2011
“ART MIAMI 2011”, Juan Ruiz Gallery, Miami, United States.

“BEHOLDER”, Talbot Rice Gallery, The University of Edinburgh – Old College, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.

“A WAKE: STILL LIVES AND MOVING IMAGES” Momentum / Kunstlerhaus Betanien, Berlin, Germany

“inSPIRACJE”. International Festival of Visual Arts, Szczecin, Poland.

“COMMERCIAL BREAK”, Garage Projects, POST magazine, Digital mobile display, Venice, Italy.

“FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE”, City of Pietrasanta, Foundation for visual Arts, Palazzo Panichi, Complex Sant Agostino, Italy.

“RUSSIAN ART”, SEM-ART Gallery, Monte-Carlo, Monaco.

“HEROINES”, Museum Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, Spain.

“SCOPE NEW YORK Art Fair”, Juan Ruiz Gallery, New York, United States.

“ARMORY SHOW 2011”, Anna Schwartz Gallery (Melbourne, Sydney), Pier 94, New York, United States.

MONA (Museum of Old and New Art). Hobard, Tasmania, Australia.

VIP ART FAIR. Anna Schwartz Gallery (Sydney-Melbourne), New York, USA.