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Pavel Otdelnov

The artist was born in 1979 in Dzerzhinsk, Russia. He graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after V.I.Surikov and the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Moscow. Pavel Otdelnov lives and works in Moscow, Russia.
In 2020 he became a laureate of the Innovation State Prize in the nomination “Artist of the Year”. In 2020 Otdelnov was called “The Artist of the Year” by Cosmoscow Foundation.

PROMZONA

The Promzona project has started as the artist’s family saga. Three generations of the artist’s ancestors laboured at chemical plants of Dzerzhinsk. In the 1930s they were part of the Industrialisation endeavour and built production facilities; during the World War II, they would produce warfare poisonous agents; and in the subsequent time of peace, they would make materials for different sectors of national economy. In the period of Perestroika, when economical system was decentralised, those plants became private property, soon many were recognised inefficient and closed.

Nowadays all that is left of the once imposing and potent industrial complex are hectares of wastelands, ruins reoccupied by nature and chemical waste tanks.

The project consists of 6 parts: Traces, Wall of Fame, Museum, Ruins, Sand, Cinema Hall.

The latter will feature three films about the history of the industrial park. The films bring together panoramic aerial video shot from quadcopter and accounts by the artist’s relatives who used to work at the plants, so a bird’s eye view is complemented with microhistory