City Exhibition Hall of Petrozavodsk
Karelia, 2021







The personal show "INTROSPECTION" presented our photographs since 2016 - these are land-art objects and figures. The exposition in the gallery space also included "Wandering Objects", "Catchers of Silence" and "Vertical Thoughtforms" by Anton Krafstky, the Vietnamese series of ecobots and the series "Altitude" by Lia Schell, video installations to the music by Vadim Rumyantsev and Snezhana Reisen, and the consequential self-released album "In Silence" оn bandcamp. This was a special event for three reasons: first, we shared the collection of the photo material as a vast retrospective exhibition; second, the event was performed in the capital of Karelia, which is the birth-place of our project; third, we made the preparations separately due to the global pandemic, for Lia Schell being in Vietnam with the borders shut it was held distantly, and inspite this condition succeded in presentation of the artworks to the public.

Photos: Andrei Gelishvili

INTROSPECTION is a look into oneself, an analytical method of immersion in various manifestations of one's mental activity (thoughts, memories, images, dreams, desires), the study of one's soul, the peculiarities of consciousness. This is a state when it is easier to see yourself inside than a professional analysis from the outside can do. The activity of the mind is expressed in symbols, geometric shapes and color images, hidden from the sensory experience of others. This is the inner subjective world, acquaintance with one's unique "I", self-observation and comprehension of the nature of Consciousness.
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The City Exhibition Hall is deeply involved in a rapid performing practice of the local academic musical scene, for the students and city dwellers it is the perfect chance to experience the live instrumental music of classics and avant-guarde composers in the space filled with surrounding pieces of visual art, video and object installations. Thus our point of the art synthesis here is gained more fully. And the most moving insentive of our activity is to make the gap between the times smooth and not so radical as we can combine the past and the future in a free way. This combination we see as not an anachronism but as mindful match of the heritage and the new. Thanks to everyone who came to our exhibition despite the problematic time for mass gatherings. Special gratitude to Maria Yufa, and the Petrozavodsk State Exhibition Hall, also to the organizers, journalists and visitors, musicians with unexpected chamber music by Bach and Schnittke.
WANDERING OBJECTS
by Anton Kraftsky

These are the parts of the forest material, torn out of the environment by the elements, brought by the sea to perfection of irregular shape and left by it on the shore, are the product of the natural creativity of the planet, from which everything superfluous and temporary is cut off. They carry the structure of their origins and the traces of their wanderings. These are the objects for contemplation, through which a connection is established with the "untouched", with the space, which we are now deprived of in the world of civilization. Their abstract, organic forms and living textures tell us (our unconscious) about the magical secret of natural creation that they constantly and with their whole being, remind and wake us from our egocentric, anthropocentric sleep.
Drift-wood, tinted primer, steel
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VERTICAL THOUGHTFORMS
VIETNAMESE SERIES "ECOBOTS" AND "ALTITUDE"
by Lia Schell

For Lia the situation with global pemic made the borders shut in an unusual and incredibly picturesque place - Vietnam. The series on ecological agenda with ecobots, mountain stations and high altitude were created in beautiful Sapa, Ta Phin and Ninh Binh where the nature so contrastly differ from the nordic one that comprises its counterweight for balance in Asteroidea's artline. The so called ecobots, each named after Greek nymphs of water basins, mountains and caves, are designer's layouts all made in smaller scale and put into environment with optimal posterious editing, they are presumed to be eco robots working with ai neuronets for the purpose of regaining the planet from disastrous aftermath of human activity. Connected to Stations - Cogito and Nature Spirits Alliance - they are made to deal with water and air pollution by receiving directives and sending data to stations that coordinate the future clean-up of the ecosystem. The year when people were required to stay at home, while the robots went about their business, was the salvation of the world in this perspective.

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Some of the works were made in Finland during the winter art residence program with the following exhibition there, the earliest ones - in Karelia, so habitual for the locals, with the incredible nordic landscapes, others in the central part of Russia and even mysterious Vietnam. Thus the works are versitile and devided into series for better perception of the unconprehansible subjective inner being - Introspection.
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The "Wandering Objects" of Karelia on the background of the series "Messenger" from Finland
Contemporary art project "Asteroidea" seria #09 "Transition Points"_ labyrinth 04
Karelia, 2021

EXHIBITION

"IN SILENCE"
KultuuriKauppila Art Centre
Finland, 2020
CONTACTS
asteroidea.ru@gmail.com

akraftsky@gmail.com