«Landscape» in Tyumen

Group exhibition «Work Never Stops»

The special project of the 4th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art

November 9, 2017 — January 21, 2018

Tyumen Museum and Education Association

Curator: Svetlana Usoltseva

For centuries, carpet has been an integral part of human life. Carpet weaving was practiced not only in the East and Europe, but also in Central and South America, China, and India. For many countries it has been a whole layer of history, traditions, and culture. At different times, its purpose varied, but mostly it served to decorate and insulate the house. Carpets were brought from all over the world, served as gifts and heritage; having it in a family determined its prosperity. Gradually, it became a subject of art and luxury. For all Soviet families, a photo on the background of the carpet was an indispensable ritual. We still identify it with interior from the Soviet past. As a sign of a bygone era, the carpet on the wall leaves an empty space, but its image remains an imprint in the memory.

Contemporary artists often turn to handicraft and carpet in particular. For some, the carpet acts as a universal symbol of tradition which they seek to rethink or deconstruct, either as a form or as symbols and architypes of the place embedded in it. Fabric preserves memory, and artists reveal personal or family aspects of it in their works. Carpet can be a means of defining borders between private and public space that artists call into question and try to shift.

For some, handicraft is a kind of meditation, where the process itself is more important than the result. The ritual of repetition and extended time of creating an artwork open temporal boundaries that are measured by the process of the author’s work. Often handicraft acts as a universal tool for visualizing time. Yet, storing information about the universal tradition, it universalizes and anonymizes the author.

Time is measured by rituals that each of us performs. The exhibition offers different views on the speed of its flow, modes of interacting with it, and ways to resist oblivion.