Anna Nova Gallery presents another solo project by Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov – "The Moth and the Bat Flying to the Light". The artist explores the subject of the “foreign” and the friend/foe limits. He is concerned to know how these statuses come to be in the society – both in terms of social interaction and physically.
As the name of the project implies, the starting points for the artistic research are the images of a moth and a bat. Ilya attempts to discover how tolerance levels between the animal and human communities interrelate. For instance, a butterfly is a symbol of gender transition, as this insect transfigures not only in terms of its looks, but its brain and the digestive system change completely, too. Watching bats, they’ve noticed that differently colored animals become outcasts in the colony. The artist extrapolates this case to people, studying the boundaries of normal, aggression, and foreignness.
The exposition occupies both floors of the gallery. At the ground floor, there is a total installation covering communications between humans and moths. During the exhibition, the gallery will become a performance venue for vogue dancers, whose choreography the artist associates with how insects move. Moreover, vogue is a bright example of a “foreign” dance, as originally it was danced by gay and drag queen Afro-Americans.
The central piece of the project is the video installation showcased at the 1st floor of the gallery, The Moth and The Bat Flying to the Light, which gave name to the entire exhibition. The artist was inspired by a story of his Paris-based friend who used to breed butterflies and moths literally living with them in the same room. At that moment, the girl was going through gender transitioning and had to take hormones. Once, she forgot to discard an ampul after use, and the insects showed a vivid interest in the medicine: they were stuck all over the flask trying to drink the remaining fluid with their proboscises. This is how the artist came to think of a butterfly as a metaphor of transformation and transition.
The video was shot during the pandemics in a Swiss zoo Papilorama that was closed to the public. Letting the viewer peep into cages with birds, insects, and reptiles, the artist attempts to transform the anthropocentric paradigm of human/animal relations.
The public program includes an artist tour, an art mediation, and a talk with the artist.
18+
Media partners: Петербургский дневник, Business FM
