Absolute Balance

Dates: 02.06 - 30.06.2024, Mon-Sun, 10:00-21:00

Vernissage: 6 June, Thursday, from 19.00 to 21.00. Welcome drink, saxophone jam by Sergey Goryachev, a tour with the curator and the artists.

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Guided tours with the curator:

22 June, 15.00-16.00. Admission is free; required registration. 

25 June, 20.00-21.00. Admission is free; required registration. 

EXHIBITION CATALOGUE

PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE VERNISSAGE 

Admission is free. 

Venue: Moscow, Artplay, Nizhnyaya Syromyatnicheskaya, 10, bldg. 3A (entrance via the British Higher School of Art and Design) or 3B, 2nd floor, hall "Laboratoriya" (next to the "Peredvizhnik" store)

Exhibition participants: 

Anna Mitrofanova, Pavel Kun, Anna Lalayan, Inna Makaganchuk, Ivan Pavlov, Stanislav Polikarpov, Irina Budnichenko, Vasily Razumov, Maria Shestakova, Maria Medvedeva, Dmitry Artishchev, Evgenia Shvetsova, Marina Kusraeva, Iskander Ilyazov, Yulia Khishchenko, Elizaveta Gorchak, Lyosha Nepetrovich, Irina Tatyanina, Anastasia Misharina, Lyudmila Pokachalova, Natalia Leonova, Tatyana Ogilvy-Stasevich, Marina Zubkova, Ekaterina Veselova, Tatyana Shin, Lidia Koroleva.

Following the open call held in spring 2024, the contemporary art gallery Kvartira S, together with the ARTPLAY design center, presents the exhibition Absolute Balance.

As part of the project, we invited the artists to reflect on the idea that the human being is, by nature itself, made to exist in stability and equilibrium — yet some systems are otherwise.

Since ancient times, humanity has sought ways to overcome instability and imbalance. The ancient Egyptians believed that a person’s life should unfold in balance and harmony with the earth and with other people. In antiquity the idea of ataraxia was born - inner calm, imperturbability, absolute balance. In ancient China it was held that emptiness lies at the foundation of all things, and through it one may attain “satori” - peace of mind and equilibrium. Yet this cannot be learned - balance can only be grasped; it cannot be described in words or explained to another.  And according to the Academic Dictionary, “a system is considered to be in a state of equilibrium if some influences upon it are compensated by others, or are absent altogether.”

“Every person is the smith of their own happiness. In this exhibition we speak of the ways artists find to reach harmony within themselves, of what that harmony and balance mean to them, and of the means by which the search for imperturbability can be expressed,”  - exhibition curator Maria Grafutko.