05 Jun 2008

Olga Kisseleva at Jozsa Gallery

Graduated from St. Petersburg University, Olga Kisseleva (1965) is one of the most accomplished Russian artists of her generation.

From the beginning of the 90s, on the invitation of the Fulbright Foundation, she found a roof for her work in the research group in the United States which dealt with the development of digital technologies. In 1996 she is getting her PhD for her theoretical work on the theme of new forms of hybridization and she is invited to the Fine Art Institut of 'Hautes Etudes' in Paris. Since then she has been developing original work in which is oscillates between truth and untruth and she is searching for improbable boundaries that separate both. In all of her projects the viewers very much take part, thereby the artists challenges the ability of new media to create a true picture of reality.

For her first personal exhibition, Jozsa Gallery shows a selection of her most recent works - an opportunity to discover the artistic approach of this important Russian post-diaspora artist.

The lighting of 'Conclusive Evidence' shows that the distance between Brussels and St Petersburg is turning to 0.

The digital animation 'Conquistadors' examines the tensions and conflicts that define the Russian territory in the age of privatization. Ironically commenting the 'global conquests' that has become standard practice in the current stage of post-communist capitalism, this work provides a dystopian picture of space completely reappropriated by the capitalist enterprise.

In 'Fitness Art Centre', a screen is linked to a body-building machine that visitors are invited to use. Doing so activates images of demonstrators projected onto the screens but blurred by the random appearance and disappearance of big brand logos. The whole set-up bears witness to world dominated by a state of political confusion and individual manipulation.

'CrossWorlds' helps visitors to translate in real time the subliminal information in textual form. Olga Kisseleva places electronic tags detectable with a simple mobile phone in photographs or in a video-animation. Into the 'CrossWorlds - Dow Jones' the messages encoded are from propaganda both from the American style of life and from Soviet propaganda. According to Susan Buck-Morss' analysis, the similarity between them is evident although they are formulated in different ways.