In our next exhibition in the Hidden Garden, we turn to the themes of everyday life and daily rituals. This side of life often remains invisible even for ourselves, but this time it comes to the fore and plays the lead role. And the scene will be set in the greenhouse of the Botanical Garden of the Samara University (Russia). This location is equally filled with rituals: the watering schedules, climate maintenance - for those who work there, this is a daily routine.
In the life of every person, there is a set of actions that he or she repeats from day to day, following a schedule, or inner need hardly evident to the others. Some of the rituals are consciously supported or even cultivated by us, while others have taken over us and impose their conditions. Rituals can become an expression of individuality, or take it away, conforming personality to social norms.
Each day is filled with ordinary events: a drive to work, a walk with the dog, breakfast, lunch, dinner. Commonly left out of conversation, they are routine, considered unworthy of attention. But it is these actions that take up a significant part of the time. And excluding them from our biography, we devalue time devoted to these activities. Shall episodes that take up most of our lives be called meaningless or boring?
The Everyday Episodes is an attempt to reflect upon mundane and daily actions. Presenting ambiguous situations, we create a display where artworks can argue and enter into discussion with each other in order to look at everyday life from different angles and see its hidden facets.
Search for a fresh point of view has determined the choice of the exhibition’s location. In the greenhouse, everyday episodes take place among subtropical plants, unusual for central Russia. Rituals, taken out of their usual context, may seem inconsequent or alien. But, it is exactly when the everyday environment vanishes, one is able to discover new meanings or feel complete meaninglessness of daily rituals.
Participants:
Anna Vodka (Odintsovo), Irina Grigoryeva (Moscow), Inna Grishechkina (St. Petersburg), Pavel Dokuchaev (Samara), Andrey Ishonin (Moscow), Artémise Ploegaerts & Louis Hothothot (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Konstantin Roslyakov(Tyumen), Oleg Semenovykh (Chelyabinsk), Evgeniya Sterlyagova and Veronika Pachina (Moscow)
Curators: Ksenia Kasko, Anastasia Senozatskaya, Kristina Syrchikova
Idea of the exhibition: Kristina Syrchikova
Translator: Dunya Barkova
