Irina Korina

Born in 1977 in Moscow. Graduated from the Russian Academy of Theatrical Art (2000), studied in the media class at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna (2002–2005). Took part in the 53rd Venice Biennale (2010, Russian pavilion). Winner of the Debut theatrical award (1999), the Soratnik award three times (2006, 2009, 2012), the Innovation state art prize in the New Generation category (2008). Longlisted for the Kandinsky Prize 2009 and a Kandinsky Prize finalist in 2011 in the Project of the Year category.

In Korina’s installation, tents are enlarged in size, though not so as to be disproportional to the human body but to create a sense of optical distortion that emphasizes the counter shift of the visible and the apparent. It makes tangible the important theme in Russian culture of the little person, which has obtained new meaning in the early 21st century. The entrances of these tents, which are like peasants’ homes from Russian fairy tales, face viewers (the entrance is open but inaccessible — the big top is surrounded by metal fencing, which is as recognizable a part of the modern Russian landscape as market stalls), but what does the back face? The fire in which human civilization was born? A ritual pagan bonfire? Or is it the source of energy that drives society forward, but the flames of which that threaten to destroy it?