🗓️February 1, 2002
GALLERY D-137
📍90-92, Nevsky Ave, St. Petersburg 191025 Russia
◆”The Language of Symbols in Art Space”◆
An exhibition has opened at the “D137” Gallery, offering what exhibitions usually offer: a sign. In this case, it’s a sign that we are surrounded by signs and symbols in which life itself is encoded—and deciphering that is an art.
As children (and, truthfully, even now), there were moments during playtime when you’d say to yourself and others: “This is a room, and here is a large courtyard that leads to the sea. I’ll be the mom, and you’ll be the dad.” Over time, the number of signs increases, while symbols somehow disappear. This idea lies at the heart of the D137 exhibition “The Language of Symbols in the Space of Art” (art history moves from symbols to signs—from beginning to end).
For instance, “a tragedy torn from infinity,” as the curators described it, tells the story of the death of a hedgehog—through signs—by American artist Anna Franz. The infinity symbol appears at the beginning and the end; in between are photographs of distressed elderly women, eyewitnesses. One can guess that an accident occurred on the road, evidenced by traces of paper blood on the walls leading to a rag hedgehog.
In another part of the gallery, more traditional techniques are used. A piece of glass is inserted between the branches of a tree. This becomes a symbol—“Moon in Black Water”—by artists Gubanova and Govorkov… “Here we’ll have painting, here a video installation, and here—Timur Novikov will sit.”
This exhibition is also a sign of the launch of a multimedia laboratory on the website www.russkialbum.com, where artists are invited to share new technologies and collaborate on purely symbolic projects.