EXHIBITION “STAYING WITH THE TROUBLE”

🗓️March 12 – April 11, 2021

THE AIR GALLERY
📍16 Birzhevaya Liniya, St Peterburg 199034 Russia

With the support of CYLAND: Exhibition “Staying with the Trouble” at the AIR Gallery, ITMO University

The AIR Gallery — the art residency of ITMO University — opens an international exhibition project dedicated to the study of viral matter. The exhibition Staying with the Trouble presents projects by artists from seven countries, many of which are being shown in Russia for the first time. The project is supported by the CYLAND Media Lab.

Viruses remain a mystery. We still cannot find definitive answers to many of the questions that arise when speaking about viruses: Are they enemies or friends? Alive or not? Edible or inedible?

The works featured in the exhibition approach the study of viruses from scientific, technological, anthropological, and poetic perspectives. By exploring the concept of the virus, the artists ask: Can a virus be an artist? What role has it played in evolution? Can we measure viral time or sing the song of viral DNA?

The exhibition features both emerging and internationally recognized artists:
Anna Ridler, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Harm van den Dorpel, Neïl Beloufa, Pei-Ying Lin, Tuomas A. Laitinen, Lyndsey Walsh, iBiom, Natalia Balabanova, Yulia Vergazova, Lera Lerner, Natalia Tikhonova, Nadezhda Bey.

Many of the projects were created specifically for Staying with the Trouble and will be presented to the public for the first time.

Daily art mediations are held at the exhibition (at 7:30 PM on weekdays, and at 3:00 PM and 7:00 PM on weekends) — interactive tours during which mediators explain the ideas behind the art projects. You can register for a mediation via the provided link.

Exhibition curators:

Khristina Ots — Curator of AIR (Art.ITMO.Residency), researcher.
Laura Rodriguez — Mexican artist and microbiology specialist, curator, based in St. Petersburg. She is a graduate of the ITMO University Art & Science Master’s program and a staff member at the Art & Science Center. Her works have been exhibited internationally, including at Ars Electronica (2020).

Due to the ongoing epidemiological situation related to the spread of COVID-19, gallery visits are only permitted while wearing personal respiratory protection (hygienic masks).