Svetlana Smetanina
Meet BRICS Art 3D Exhibition
Meet BRICS Art is an international project that brings together artists from Russia, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa. Their virtual exhibition was opened in January. In addition, the project participants will hold online discussions. For example, they will discuss how artists can participate in the design of the cities of the future for the BRICS countries. Anna Kurumchina, director of the Agency for Cultural and Science Diplomacy (Yekaterinburg) and the organizer of the exhibition, shared the details of the international project.
– How did the idea of Meet BRICS Art come about?
– I am an expert in the field of cultural diplomacy of the BRICS countries by profession. So I have been dealing with this topic for quite a while now. There came the idea to develop a project that would enable artists from these five countries to meet in a virtual environment. It was our specific intention to make it virtual, so as not to depend on the circumstances of the external world. We managed to accomplish the Meet BRICS Art project with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives.
– How did you search for artists in each country? Were there a lot of applicants?
– We posted announcements about our project, and quite a few artists responded. We selected 35 of them. We had a rather strict quota as to the number of participants. But there were cases where we tried not to refuse and accept more artists. Because this is not a competition but an exhibition. Our task is to introduce artists from BRICS countries to each other so that they can establish contacts and, perhaps, joint projects in the future.
– Russia is represented by artists from the Urals only. Why is it so?
– We decided to do this on purpose. Artists from our region have been left out of international art projects for a long time. This refers to artists from Kurgan, Nizhny Tagil, and Yekaterinburg.
– Where can we see their paintings? Is there a special website?
– We have utilized a special service for virtual exhibitions. Everything was designed in a 3D environment: visitors can "walk" through the exhibition, and look at the paintings. After the official opening of the exhibition, it will be available for all interested people to visit for three months. We announced the commencement of the exhibition on our website and on social networks: Facebook, Vkontakte, and Instagram. We have already started introducing the artists who participate in the exhibition on the above platforms.
– You have planned not only the exhibition but also panel discussions. Are they intended for the communication of the artists?
– Yes, they absolutely are. Artists, of course, are not very conversational people. They are more accustomed to expressing their thoughts and emotions visually. Nevertheless, we have ten discussions and online meetings planned. Each meeting will be devoted to a different topic. For example, we are planning to discuss traditionalism as a basis for BRICS art because these countries have very strong ancient traditions. And the Urals as a region has its own cultural peculiarities as well, and they are different from those of Central Russia or Siberia. This is why I think it would be interesting to introduce artists from India or Brazil to our Urals art.
We will also discuss the impact of digital technology on contemporary professional art. We focus on professional art rather than conceptual one as the latter gets a lot of attention and grants for promotion.
Another topic is young artists of the twenty-first century. It would be nice if they could talk to each other and perhaps discuss some common problems. Surely, their art has also been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Last year I was able to visit an exhibition of artists from the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East in Chelyabinsk. And it was evident there how artists reflected the current situation in the world through their paintings. And of course, we could see that their paintings are very different from the artworks of the 1960-70s. There is often a sense of hopelessness, loss, lack of meaning of life. Why this happens may also become a topic for discussion at our roundtables.
We also plan to discuss how to include artworks into the urban space design - whether they complement or, on the contrary, expel each other, how the image of modern cities is changing. Here also the theme of corporate towns comes up - it is much discussed today. Just recently it has been announced that they founded a youth city of the future of the BRICS countries in the Ulyanovsk region. We would like to discuss how contemporary artists can participate in the design of the future city.
– But it should be discussed not only by artists but also by architects and designers, shouldn't it?
– It absolutely should. We will have these meetings once a week, and we are now selecting interesting speakers.
– And as for the further development of the project: are there any plans for it to shift to offline?
– Our project is the first impulse. Its task is to introduce people to each other. And if they develop something further, without our project, I think this will be one of the most important results of it.
