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David Bowie in Moscow by Geoff MacCormack, 1973.
“David Bowie In The Soviet Union” by Geoff MacCormack.
The Wende Museum, Los Angeles, US.
Guest curated by Olya Sova
April 1 - October 22 2023
Exactly 50 years ago, David Bowie and Geoff MacCormack travelled through the Soviet Union on the Trans-Siberian Express. MacCormack’s photos show Bowie unguarded, documenting their close friendship and shared sense of adventure. While on the train, they participated in drinking sessions with sailors and soldiers, meeting fans and tourists, and providing impromptu performances. The exhibition also includes David Bowie’s film The Long Way Home, which documents various stages of their trip on the train, including their time in Moscow during the May Day Parade.
More information here.
Photography exhibition by Geoff MacCormack “David Bowie. Rock’n’roll with me”
New Holland Island, St Petersburg, Russia.
Curated by Olya Sova
27 October – 16 December 2018
An exhibition of works by the British photographer and producer Geoff MacCormack, which documents his friendship and travels with David Bowie. Geoff MacCormack, perhaps better known as Warren Peace, was David Bowie's closest friend. For three years between 1973 and 1976, MacCormack accompanied Bowie on tour as a backing singer, dancer and percussionist. During that period, he was involved in making six Bowie albums, starting with Alladin Sane and ending with Station to Station. He was also a co‐writer on the tracks Rock'n'roll with Me from the album Diamond Dogs and Turn Blue from the Iggy Pop album Lust for Life. In addition to the 70 photographs, the exhibition also includes Bowie and MacCormack’s film “The Long Way Home”, a diary of their journey to Moscow on the Trans‐Siberian Express. Bowie films using a 16‐mm cine camera, while MacCormack takes the photos, resulting in a travelogue made by wandering musicians - if Bowie mainly filmed the Russians, then MacCormack mainly filmed Bowie.
More information here.
Post-nomadic Mind. Focus Kazakhstan. Exhibition.
Hydraulic Power Station, Wapping, London
19 September – 16 October, 2018
Curated by Indira Dyussebaeva-Ziyabek, Aliya de Tiesenhausen with consultant curator Olya Sova.
Post-nomadic Mind examines Kazakh contemporary art, drawing parallel dialogues between contemporary artists, their Soviet predecessors, and the newly termed subject matter of post-nomadism.
There are 32 artists in the exhibition including Almagul Menlibayeva, Yerbossyn Meldibekov, Gulnur Mukazhanova, Saule Suleimenova, and Aza Shadenova. They all use a common language of Kazakh post-modernism, working in various mediums including, painting, photography, sculpture, installation and video.
The art history of Kazakhstan is viewed through a series of dialogues held by modern and contemporary Kazakh artists -- drawing from nomadic and shamanistic art influences; The Soviet Union’s imposing of the western fine art tradition; the post-Soviet move away from traditional methods by contemporary artists; and the current era of open discourse and revival of previously suppressed culture.
The exhibition considers the history of art in Kazakhstan on an international stage and the developments of the society of Kazakhstan during the process of globalisation. Amongst the region, there is a societal trait to search and find individual and collective identities through the prism of historical and mythological nomadism and its rapid disappearance. The artist’s works selected challenge the viewer to consider the roles they play on such subjects as nationalism, traditionalism, consumerism, feminism, post colonialism, and post-nomadism.
More information here.
The Return of Memory. Exhibition.
21 Oct 2017 – 7 Jan 2018, Preview Fri 20 Oct, 18:00 – 21:00
Manchester, UK.
Curated by: Olya Borissova, Anya Harrison & Sarah Perks
Artists: The Bureau of Melodramatic Research, Declan Clarke & Sarah Perks, Stephen Coates, Phil Collins, Callum Cooper, Gluklya, Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho, Irina Korina, Victoria Lomasko, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Yevgen Nikiforov, Marta Popivoda, Aza Shadenova, Ruslan Vashkevich
Comissioned by HOME Manchester
Unofficial histories, suppressed memories and strategies of resistance all converge in HOME’s new major group exhibition, which seeks to redress the legacy of the Russian Revolution on its centenary by exploring how contemporary artists are responding to the state of the ‘New East’ today. Rather than a nostalgic look at the past, new commissions and existing works reactivate and repurpose key emblems and stories of this past – from the avant-garde and revolution to the collapse of the Communist system and ideology – addressing key questions around the concept of The Return of Memory.
Subkultura by Artemy Troitsky is co-published by The New Social & HOME, and will be launched at the opening weekend. The exhibition will also include a special film and performance programme.
More information here.
Generations. Russian Cinema of Change.
Film festival. Barbican. London, UK.
26 - 30 Sep 2018
Curated by Olya Sova.
Defiant, electric and subversive, this season of cult and landmark films charts an extraordinary century of change in Russia.
The world’s largest country has undergone profound upheaval in recent history. The early idealism of the 1917 Revolution, suppressed during Stalinism, was revived in the relatively liberal Khrushchev’s Thaw of the ‘60s. The following Brezhnev era of stagnation ended with the perestroika, before the turbulent ‘90s and the contemporary political moment.
The films follow the lives of young people at key points in Russian and Soviet history, showing how these moments raised, in new ways, old questions: what sort of person should you be? How can you be a good citizen amidst such social and political change?
This season explores the shifting forms of self-expression, independence and defiance through Russia’s seismic cycles of reinvention.
More information here.
Ceremony
Closing Ceremony by Phil Collins
16 July 2017
Commissioned by Manchester International Festival
14-18 NOW: WW1 Centenary Art Commissions and HOME, Manchester.
Associate Curators: Anya Harrison and Olya Borissova
Friedrich Engels - philosopher, writer, radical thinker - is coming back home. Turner Prize-nominated artist Phil Collins is returning Engels to the city where he made his name - in the form of a Soviet-era statue, driven across Europe and permanently installed in the centre of Manchester.
To find out more, click here.
Photo: Phil Collins in Maryanivka, Ukraine, December 2016 , © Yevgen Nikiforov
Subkultura: Stories of Youth and Resistance in Russia, 1815-2017 by Russian writer and critic Artemy Troitsky.
October 2017
Co-published by The New Social & HOME, Manchester.
An antidote to official 'History', Subkultura presents an alternative view of Russia’s past from early 19th century to today, narrated through its youth movements and subcultures.
The publication will be launched at the opening weekend of the exhibition co-curated by The New Social, The Return of Memory at HOME, 21 Oct – 7 Jan.
More information about the exhibition, here.
Institute of Contemporary Arts London UK
Voices from the Underground
15 November 2014
Curated by Olya Borissova and Anya Harrison
Voices from the Underground is an afternoon of films that explore the artistic environment in Russia during, and just after, perestroika. Bringing together documentary material, most of which has never been shown in the UK, it charts a crucial period in Russian contemporary art and a breaking point in the country’s history.
Perestroika and glasnost – these two politically loaded terms have long ago entered the collective unconscious and have remained ingrained there ever since, outliving the dissolution of the USSR in 1991. They are synonymous with political reform, a relaxation of rules and impending freedom. Yet little else in cultural terms is known or understood about this short-lived period, a singular event of the late 20th century, which left behind hardly any material, cultural traces. Voices from the Underground demands, how can we understand the cultural specificity of the perestroika years and its impact on local artistic circles? What differentiates this unique historical period, and wherein lies its significance for us today?
More information here.