Organizers: Media Art Centre Now&After, CCI Fabrika

Curated by Marina Fomenko.  Artists: Roman Korzhov, Russia/ Alexandra Mitlyanskay, Russia/ Gioula Papadopoulou, Greece/ Shen Wei, USA/ Victoria Ilyushkina & Maya Popova, Russia/ Marina Rudenko, Russia/ Natasha Dahngberg, Sweden/ Marina Fomenko, Russia/ Elena Ivanova, Russia

OLIVIER SPACE, CCI Fabrika , Perevedenovsky Pereulok, 18

Opening 11 March, 20.00

Everybody knows what portrait is. It plays kind of memory support function having a portrait close at hand makes forgetting impossible. A portrait reminds about the subject with its mere presence. A portrait reminds subject itself by having similar features. A portrait represents an image of the person.

Video artists create a person's images with the help of video camera, using the advantages of image evolution in time. At their disposal there are moving pictures, world of sounds, spoken speech, playing with time, a possibility of creating a performance and dialog with a viewer. And the most valuable thing is those few minutes of the subject’s life that an artist captures with his camera and extracts from the reality.

In “The Portrait of the Series “Missing” video by Roman Korzhov from Samara the man, pictured outside his habitual life context, is looking with detachment through the camera not seeing a spectator.

Accordion player from Marina Fomenko's video "Solo" is feeling deeply the emotionality and dramatism of the composition that he is playing, coalescing himself with the instrument and music score.

A lady's plait in the video «Within a Hair's Breadth» by Swedish artist Natasha Dahnberg is creating an image of a dear person and reminding of impermanence of life.

"A Call" by Alexandra Mitlyanskaya from Moscow makes us remember how fragile life is.

A portrait as a look-alike, a portrait as a reflection - that's what we see in «Doppelgenger» performance of Viktoriya Ilyushkina and Maya Popova from St. Petersburg.

Remaining within the framework of portrait, Shen Wei from the USA in the performance named "Bubble" sublimates an existential drama in such a simple action as blowing saliva bubbles.

Marina Rudenko from Moscow presents her self-portrait showing an artist in dialog with art («Inter View»).

Another Moscow author Elena Ivanova demonstrates "Self-portrait not as an artist or a cleaner, but just as a fact».

Gioula Papadopoulou from Greece in her video "Ophelia x2" creates a fictitious character portrait - a new vision of everlasting Ophelia.