The exposition features Uldus Bakhtiozina's photographic works from various years' series (‘RUSS LAND’, ‘Conjured Life’, ‘Circus 17’, ‘The Little Humpbacked Horse’), new works and author's costumes with headdresses from the play ‘Aisha and Abhaya’ at the Royal Opera House and the debut full-length film ‘Tzarevna Scaling’, presented at international film festivals in Berlin, Riga, Shanghai and London.
Especially for the exhibition the artist has created a new video work, ‘Fur in the Game’, in which she reflects on the risks of free self-expression, referring to the cultural code of the fairytales. All the heroines in this work are Princesses in furs or rather fairy chimeras, whose fur coats are turned into real skins, like those of the Swan-Princess or the Frog-Princess. The artist draws parallels between visual and literary narrative, referring to philosopher Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book ‘Skin in the Game’, in which he describes a category of people who put at stake not only their skin, but also their soul. The fur coat as one of the most important attributes of 'tsarevnost' (royalty) becomes a symbol of risk. The project offers viewers an ironic and philosophical dialogue: is the symmetry possible in relationships, if one of the parties inevitably puts the fur coat at stake?
The exhibition is on view from 23 October to 25 November at the Record Culture Centre, 11/7 Piskunov St. The admission is free.
The project is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Nizhny Novgorod region.
General media partner: Sobаka.ru
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