Künstlerhaus Bethanien

Zoya Cherkassky

02 - 18 Nov 2007

Zoya Cherkassky
and Avdey Ter-Oganian
The New Discourse Group
"disobedience"
2nd - 18th November 2007
Studio 3

Zoya Cherkassky often develops her picture motifs on the computer, prints them onto canvas, and finally adapts the result using acrylics and oil paints - a process that consciously emphasises the serial aspect and expresses Cherkassky's interest in themes such as identity and individuality in the context of contemporary mass culture. For her project "disobedience", Zoya Cherkassky employed the label "The New Discourse Group" and worked together with the exiled Russian Avdey Ter-Oganian, who is known primarily for his performances criticising the censorship of free speech in post-Soviet Russia. The project is presented as a full-room installation, assembled from various components. Cherkassky and Ter-Oganian investigate the artist's role in current society and formulate their criticism of the institutionalisation of art by attacking art's operating system and its protagonists in an ironic way. In addition to a series of painted-over collages created from components of famous and generally recognised works of contemporary art, the installation includes images of agitation that adopt different techniques and perspectives to criticise the conditions existing in contemporary art, and reveal the crisis of critical discourse within an institutionalised system. Zoya Cherkassky holds a fellowship from IcExcellence - the Israel Cultural Excellence Foundation.