CYFEST 2017: ABOUT FESTIVAL – PROGRAM – EXHIBITIONS – SOUND ART – EDUCATION – PARTICIPANTS – OPENING HOURS AND TICKETS – PRESS AND REPORTS – CONTACTS
Youth Educational Centre of the State Hermitage Museum
Victoria Ilyushkina (Russia)
I Save Them
Installation, 2017
With the participation of Alexei Gittelson and ArtTerra Bureau
For 40 years, the classical violinist Dmitry Kramer lived alone in St. Petersburg in a communal apartment, after his family emigrated to the United States. Dmitry had the habit of paying regular visits to neighborhood dumpsters, looking for television sets, short wave radios and other electronic devices. He perceived those objects as abandoned and in need of being rescued, and displayed them museum-style in his room. In Victoria Ilyushkina’s project thisstory is recounted through an interview with Dmitry’s grandson, Alexei, who travels from the States on a work assignment and meets his grandfather for the first time at the age of 26. Also included is a video of Dmitry’s violin performance in his room, as well as an excerpt from his brother’s reminiscences. Through the story of one family, this project seeks to uncover theviews and the way of life of a personality formed in the Soviet era. It also illustrates the changing tides of times and mores, the values that shift at the mercy of technical progress.
Victoria Ilyushkina
Artist, curator. Born in 1971 in Leningrad, USSR. Graduated from the Ilya Repin State Academy Institute of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture (St. Petersburg, Russia) and the Pro Arte Institute (St. Petersburg, Russia). Her projects are the search for synthesis between contemporary choreography, painting, audio and video. Her works were exhibited at the Russian Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), Anna Akhmatova Museum (St. Petersburg, Russia), ART re.FLEX Gallery (St. Petersburg, Russia), Galerie Iragui (Moscow, Russia), Pfeister Gallery (Gudhjem, Denmark). She participated in the Manifesta 10 Biennale Parallel Program (St. Petersburg, Russia, 2014), ”On My Way”exhibition at Ca’ Foscari University (Venice, Italy, parallel to the 56th Venice Biennale, 2015) and the 6th Moscow Biennale Special Project “Urbi et Orbi” (Moscow, Russia, 2015). Since 2008 Victoria Ilyushkina has worked as curator for the CYLAND Video Archive and the Cyfest video programs. Lives and works in St. Petersburg, Russia.