October 21, 2017–January 7, 2018
2 Tony Wilson Place
Manchester M15 4FN
United Kingdom
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 12–8pm
Sunday 12–6pm
T +44 161 200 1500
Unofficial histories, suppressed memories and strategies of resistance all converge in our new major group exhibition, which seeks to readdress the legacy of the Russian Revolution on its centenary by exploring how contemporary artists are responding to the state of the "New East" today.
Rather than a nostalgic look at the past, new commissions and existing works re-activate and repurpose key emblems and stories of this past—from the avant-garde and revolution to the collapse of the Communist system and ideology—addressing key questions around the concept of The Return of Memory, curated by Anya Harrison, Sarah Perks and Olya Sova.
Key commissions include a major multi-disciplinary project on St Petersburg's Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry—one of the world's largest seed banks—and the future of food security and evolution by Callum Cooper. Ruslan Vaskevich's video installation Victory Over the Sun reassesses the politics of the controversial Futuristic opera first organised by Kazimir Malevich and fellow avant-garde artists in 1913. Irina Korina recreates the peasant hut in which Lenin evaded arrest in plain sight by pretending to be a Finnish peasant, whilst Declan Clarke & Sarah Perks look at exactly who is betrayed by revolution, a legacy to their previous exhibition (What do you do with your revolution once you've got it?) A co-commission with Frieze Projects in collaboration with KCC UK from Moon Kyungwon and Jeon Joonho casts light upon the little-known story of a tiny village situated in the no-mans land between North and South Korea.
Subkultura by Artemy Troitsky is co-published by The New Social & HOME, and will be launched on Saturday, October 21. The exhibition also includes a special film and performance programme.
Artists: The Bureau of Melodramatic Research, Declan Clarke & Sarah Perks, Phil Collins, Callum Cooper, Gluklya, Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho, Irina Korina, Victoria Lomasko, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Yevgen Nikiforov, Marta Popivoda, Aza Shadenova, Ruslan Vashkevich, X-Ray Audio
