04 March 2021 – 11 April 2021
Saint Petersburg, Birzhevaya Line, House 16, Art & Science Center
Supported by CYLAND MediaLab.
Exactly one year after the start of the pandemic, an international exhibition of scientific and technological art dedicated to exploring the dynamics of viral matter opened in the exhibition space of the Art & Science AIR Center. The project “Staying with the Trouble” brought together well-known contemporary artists from 7 countries, with this exhibition being the first in Russia for most of the foreign participants. Among the exhibits is a new project by the famous artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg, which is being shown for the first time in the world.
Viruses still remain a mystery. We still can’t find a definitive answer to a number of questions that arise when talking about the virus: friend or foe? Living or non-living? Edible or inedible?
The works presented at the exhibition approach the study of the virus from scientific, technological, anthropological, and poetic perspectives. Exploring the concept of the virus, the authors ask questions about whether a virus can be an artist, what role it has played in evolution, whether we can measure viral time, and sing a song of viral DNA.
The exhibition featured both young authors and artists with a world-renowned name. Many works were created specifically for the “Staying with the Trouble” exposition. For example, the world premiere of the work “Viral Time” by the legendary artist and biohacker Heather Dewey-Hagborg (USA) took place within the framework of the exhibition. In addition, the Russian audience for the first time had the opportunity to get acquainted with a number of key representatives of the Art & Science direction – such as Anna Ridler (United Kingdom), Pei-Yin Lin (Taiwan, Netherlands), and Harm van den Dorpel (Netherlands, Germany). Visitors could also see the famous video work of Franco-Algerian artist Neil Beloufa Screen Talk, in which the author predicted the sociopolitical scenarios of the past year six years ago. The exhibition also featured well-known Russian artists: Yulia Vergazova, the art group iBiom, Lera Lerner, and others.
The goal of the “Staying with the Trouble” project is to help people overcome their fear of the virus. The title of the exhibition refers to the book of the same name by American researcher Donna Haraway, which proposes to live through extraordinary times in the “authentically present,” not turning away from what inspires horror, but trying to find the possibility of coexistence with all the inhabitants of our planet. The authors of the exposition strive to move away from viewing the viral universe through the destabilizing logic of the pandemic and offer a discussion about the virus in all the diversity of this phenomenon.
Many projects were created specifically for the “Staying with the Trouble” exhibition and were presented to the public for the first time.
Exhibition curators:
Kristina Otz — curator of AIR (Art.ITMO.Residency), researcher.
Laura Rodriguez – Mexican artist and microbiology specialist, curator, lives and works in Saint Petersburg. Graduate of the master’s program and employee of the Art&Science Center of ITMO University. Laura’s works have been exhibited at various exhibitions, including Ars Electronica (2020).
Related links:
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