Anna Nova Art Gallery, one of the leading Russian contemporary art galleris located in Saint-Petersburg, celebrated its 10th anniversary in October of 2015. It is a long time for contemporary art in Russia. Over the years the gallery has developped a range of artists who advanced a lot, not without help of the work done by the gallery.
"We must cultivate our garden" — this phrase is something like a manifesto or the conclusion of the suffering heroes of "Candide". Voltaire wrote this work in anatmosphere of looming war, and the triumph of obscurantism and reaction. Theprotagonist of the story is not making an apology for apolitical escapism as thispassage is sometimes interpreted. It is a call to do one’s own work, to follow one’schosen path no matter how much external circumstances change.
Summing up the first ten years of the gallery's history and marking the openingof the next decade of its work, the project "We must cultivate our garden" offers eachartist participating in the exhibition, his "six hundredth parts of a hectare" of thegallery space for its cultivation according to their will. Perhaps the recommendationof Voltaire after the changes in cultural and foreign policy, the 6th Biennial of Moscow, lost in the pavilions of the VDNKh, and the rise of hopelessness and frustration,will help artists and audiences to develop adequate strategies to adapt to the newconditions of existence."
Alexander Dashevskiy
Artists: Alexander Dashevskiy, Jury Alexandrov, Denis Patrakeev, Ivan Plusch, Irina Drozd, Petr Shvetsov, Rostan Tavasiev, Stas Bags, Sergey Shekhovtsov, Igor Shuklin, Uldus Bakhtiozina, Haim Sokol, Ilya Grishaev, Vlad Kulkov, Marya Dmitrieva, Anatoly Belkin, Gluklya, art group "SOAP".
The project was realised with the support of:
• Mikhail Bazhenov, businessman and patron of art, Vice-president of the holding company "Adamant", co-owner of several companies, including the brand "International Fashion Week AURORA FASHION WEEK Russia";
• Audi Centre Vyborgsky, the largest Audi dealership in Saint-Petersburg;
• The Fund for the Support of Culture, Art and Education "ALEXANDER";
• Neymaxx Multimedia.
