Aleksey Korneev
Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan
March-April '22
Georgia
May-October '22
Thailand
October'22 - January '23
Indonesia
January - April'23
Thailand
May-September'23
Serbia
September'23 - ..
art manager, curator, co-founder of the Moscow gallery “Adept”, founder of the international art association NO W Foundation. From the beginning of spring 2022 till today, he has been traveling to different countries, implementing various anti-war and humanistic initiatives.
Another author, or maybe these are the authors - guess what - remain in Russia and therefore do not want their names to be announced in the public field.
The format of the works is digital art/prints.
The series of works, which were initially inspired by the words of presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov, stating that the war is supported by "an absolute minority of Russians", began in March 2022. As the project progressed, the issues covered by the works gradually became broader, encompassing various social problems of the country.
The visual language created by the authors is suitable for highlighting a whole layer of sins of Russian society, which appeared long before February 24. The most significant of these issues is its all-consuming indifference, and occasional sprouts of humanity, which are not crushed by the huge letter Z.
The works are based on wartime photographs of Moscow created by anonymous artists still in Russia, co-authored by curator Alexei Korneev. The whole series is dedicated to the people who were unable to leave the territory of the Russian Federation and continue to resist, surrounded by those who prefer to close their eyes to the ongoing tragedy and go about their business.
The works are a reflection of the terrible feeling that the authors have in Moscow. When one goes out into the street, an apocalypse is happening in their world. Meanwhile, people go about their business as if there is no war, and nothing has happened. This feeling is close to many people. It is heartbreaking to see fellow citizens as an indifferent crowd of people who do not care as long as they have the opportunity to "live their lives". It creates an acute sense of loneliness and dissent.
In the project, this feeling is represented in the form of gray zombie-humans. However, we do not know how many people experience the same thing. So, each gray man on the test may turn out to be a colored one. The loneliness and detachment felt by the most conscious of citizens is one of the scars that this war and regime have left on Russian society.
At the same time, there are also "villains" among the colored people. In the works, this is primarily a marker of a consciously broadcast position. According to the authors, many Russian security forces are well aware that they are doing terrible things. However, they continue to do so because there are no orders that cannot be disobeyed.
"I collaborated with artists based in Moscow to ensure that the artworks align with their intended message. They took photographs showing the spring capital during the war, which served as the basis for the works. The files were transferred with utmost secrecy, as any form of dissent was considered extremely dangerous in Russia at the time, as exemplified by the case of Sasha Skochilenko. Although the original idea was anti-war, we discovered that the visual language we created was also suitable for addressing a plethora of issues in Russian society that had existed long before February 24th.
One of the works, for instance, is dedicated to Boris Nemtsov's assassination.
It depicts a man's beheading in a crowd against the backdrop of the Kremlin and cameras. Is it related to the war? Directly. But would it still be relevant without the war? I believe so.
There are also works that are not directly related to the war, such as one that portrays a typical situation in Russia where an official or law enforcer runs over a person in their official car and avoids punishment by taking advantage of their position."
