PORTAL
14.05.2021

Performance by Vladimir Kartashov
The performance crown of the project that Vladimir Kartashov implemented during his residence in the spring of 2020.
The artist will present a performance together with the performers of the Bereginya folk group as part of the Night at the Museum program in the parterre of the city park, on the back of the Batashevs' house, where the museum of the history of the metallurgical plant is located.

In Vyksa, the artist worked with the history and cultural and historical memory of the place, looking for points of contact with Internet mythology. As a basis, the resident took the history of the creation of the world and the mythology of the Erzi people, who lived in the Nizhny Novgorod region.

Their ideas about the existence of other realities associated with ours are surprisingly similar to our modern concept of virtual space, and the myths themselves are similar to game lore, internal structures and game scenarios.
In legends and myths, the idea of three worlds connected by a mystical birch (Kelu) was widespread. These three portals-borders of worlds, Vladimir allegorically presents in the form of picturesque screens inspired by the game design of massively multiplayer online role-playing games. The artist reflects on how different worlds can coexist, somewhere in conflict, and somewhere merging into a single whole, he is worried about the topic of transgression, transformation when passing through a certain portal.

With the help of the Vyksa choir, the artist will revive local legends, create contact in the aesthetic harmony of two worlds — the virtual and the real. Thus, Vladimir managed to connect the local context with the network space, figuratively present an almost disappeared mythology through its refraction in a new, artificially created, but naturally developing Internet mythology.
Vladimir Kartashov
1997, Moscow, Russia
Vladimir Kartashov is a Russian artist.

Kartashov received his degree in painting from the Novosibirsk Art School, and participated in the Winzavod CCA Open Studios art residency in Moscow.
Kartashov explores the game space where he spends most of his time, making copies of the virtual worlds and embedding them into everyday life.

By combining the traditions of Mexican Muralism and New Leipzig School, Vladimir invents a brand new style – Cyber Baroque. Glitch-like effects on traditional hosts, idealised fantasy characters, angle shifts as if caused by 'lagging' – these and many other techniques enable Vladimir to shatter traditional ideas of perspective and explore the versatility of the brand new user-generated reality. Will humans disappear altogether? Will they go on to exist as disembodied artificial intelligence? Or will we go back to the post-Apocalyptic Mad Max version of materialism? These are questions Vladimir provides numerous possible answers to.

Selected solo shows:
ARCADIA: VR-project – ZIL Cultural Center, Moscow, Russia, 2019.
Pattern Recognition – Workshop of the Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantine Sorokin Foundation, Moscow, Russia 2019.
Come Look at Me – START, Winzavod CCA, Moscow, Russia, 2017.

Selected group shows:
Cosmorama XVIII – Museum of Moscow, Russia, 2019.
Victory Over the White – Open Studios, Winzavod CCA, Moscow, Russia 2018.
Strange, Lost, Unseen, Useless – Red Hall, Winzavod CCA, Moscow, Russia, 2018.
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