ПГ_21_150

Safronova Maria 

M.S.was born in 1979 in Rzhev.In 2003 graduated from V. Surikov Moscow State Academy Art Institute,the “Free Workshops”School at MMOMA and Institute of Modern Art Problems(2011).Finalist of Kandinsky Prize 2012,nomenee 2014,2017 Winner of S.Kurekhin Prize (2015) “For the Best Work of Visual Art”.The works are in the collections of the  MMOMA(Moscow),Erarta (St. Petersburg),The S.Kuryokhin Modern Art Center(St.Petersburg),Museum of Women and  Children (Pekin,China)and in the private collections.

What If ?

The entire culture today can be defined as the “space of fear.” We simply do not notice how false threats and our own concerns, reasonable or unreasonable, are gradually changing our perception
of the world and nudging our behavior. It appears to have been a non-existent threat, but what if it wasn’t? This question that doubles as the project title refers not so much to specific issues
of the day, i.e., threat of terrorism, global climate change and geopolitical disasters, but rather
to the sense of anxiety and constant doubt, which has grown to be part and parcel of our soul.The project combines two cycles work, created over the last few years. Depicting abandoned school classrooms with visual aids scattered on the tables, the artist intentionally omits to provide us with a reliable system of reference. The real question here is what is more terrible? A nuclear apocalypse or a slow but sustained process that leads to catastrophic consequences. The question remains open. In the next series, ghostly visions of deserted classrooms give way to images of civil defense classes. Children diligently perform drills for putting on gas masks and hazmat suits, and learning to set up tents or do basic first aid. United by the subject matter of the school, these two series in the shared exhibition space create a complex dramatic effect. The viewer perceives it not only as a nostalgic metaphor of childhood long gone, but also as a multifaceted artistic reflection on the modern world.