METROPOLIS. VYKSA
25.01.2019 – 10.02.2019

An exhibition by Vladimir Seleznev at the Vyksa Steel Works History Museum and Vyksa residents
Metropolis. Vyksa is perhaps the most famous work created by Vladimir Seleznev. Various versions of the installation were shown in Yekaterinburg, Kazan, St Petersburg, Seoul, The Hague and other cities. The name Metropolis refers to Fritz Lang's masterpiece, to the modernist dreams and fears associated with the city. In his work, the artist also demonstrates two sides of the metropolis. To see the complete work, one needs to look at it in two different light modes. The pile of rubbish, from which the city rises and which symbolizes the 'dark' domestic side, turns into a romantic image that can be seen at night from an aeroplane when the lights are turned off: rows of streetlights, illuminated pockets – lit windows in residential and industrial areas. Vyksa residents were actively involved in the installation's production, from collecting garbage to painting objects and installing them on-site.
At the exhibition, the Metropolis. Vyksa installation was supplemented by two new works from Vladimir's other serial projects: the first one, Hypertag, explores the street culture and its manifestations in the form of graffiti tags. A tag is a kind of graffiti, a mark, a name or writing on the wall. Such marks have become an integral part of the visual urban environment. As a rule, graffiti writers write their names and messages in the areas they are based. Tagging can be considered a way of owning space. A series of hypertags was created based on the artist's photographs taken on the streets of the town. With the help of a projector, the tags found in Vyksa were transferred to the canvas using the same media that the original signs in the urban space utilised. The images, stacked on top of each other, are almost impossible to make out. However, the abstract and expressive canvas conveys the energy of all tags on the town walls.

The second serial work, Present Moment, explores the historical or cultural urban sites. The fate of historic buildings or monuments in post-Soviet provincial towns has been the topic of multiple discussions. Yet, as a rule, local authorities do not even have a budget for the conservation of crumbling buildings. Therefore, buildings are slowly destroyed or demolished for the sake of new developments. The artist made a collage of such urban objects from the latest newspapers. The newspaper is traditionally perceived as a tool for actualising public opinion. The current events chronicle gets torn to pieces in order to create images of the past that have no place in the present life of the town. Instead of expressing opinions, the newspaper keeps records of losses. The collage of the crumbling Lenin House of Culture was created with the input from Vyksa residents during the artist's workshop.

Collaborators: Natalia Alexandrova, Shafiga Allakhverdiyeva, Nikolay Anikin, Dmitry Aidas, Daria Avdonina, Semyon Akishin, Marina Afonina, Ivan Belov, Natalia Guseva, Denis Zatukhin, Gleb Komarov, Olga Komarova, Kirill Komarov, Dmitry Kokorev, Daria Kolesova, Alexandra Kuznetsova, Marina Lunkova, Nelya Miticheva, Andrey Matchin, Ilya Matchin, Margarita Malinina, Anastasia Malinina, Artyom Makarov, Anastasia Makrakova, Irina Makrakova, Tatiana Melekhova, Tatiana Ostroglazova, Sophia Ostroglazova, Nadezhda Pankova, Valeria Petrenko, Polina Porkhacheva, Zakhar Rubashkin, Andrey Smetanin, Evgeniya Smirnova, Anton Fadeev, Irina Tsitsulina, Olga Chub.
Vladimir Seleznev
1973, Yekaterinburg | Russia
Vladimir Seleznev is a Russian artist and curator.
He received his degree in graphic art at the Nizhny Tagil State Pedagogical Institute.

Selected solo shows:
Shining Parasites – Pole Gallery, Yekaterinburg, Russia, 2010.
Immersion – OkNo Gallery, Chelyabinsk, Russia 2012.
Pornushka News – UnderdogGallery, Hamburg, Germany, 2016.

Selected group shows:
Nothing of the Sort – Museum of Moscow, Russia, 2013.
The Desire for Freedom: Art in Europe since 1945 – MOCAK Museum of Contemporary Art, Krakow, Poland, 2014.
Lost in Transformation – Klaipeda Culture Communication Centre, Lithuania, 2014.

Seleznev was part of the curatorial group to win the Innovation Prize 2018 in the Project of the Year category for the 4th Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art.
His works can be found in the collection of the Nizhny Tagil Museum of Fine Arts, the National Center for Contemporary Art (Moscow), the Museum of Contemporary Art PERMM, Stadtgalerie in Kiel, Germany.
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