Exhibition "Paradise on Earth"

The CK19 Cultural Center presents the exhibition "Paradise on Earth" — a transmedia art-and-local-history project. The exhibition includes more than 50 works in various genres by 10 contemporary artists: Svetlana Savinskikh, Anna Kokotova, sad expertz, Alina Sukhina, Filipp Krikunov, Lolita Moistsrapishvili, Dmitry Pozdnyakov, Sonia Voron, Anastasia Ermysh, Tina Kamaro.

"Art about the local context is a rather rare phenomenon for our city. Ten artists from across Siberia were invited to research the Tikhy settlement neighborhood in the Zaeltsovsky district of Novosibirsk and create works about it. Tikhy settlement — a social settlement/social town — was built in the 1950s for workers of the Ekran factory (which manufactured electro-optical instruments to supply television factories). <...> The aim of the project, in the genre of artistic local history in an interactive form, is to acquaint the viewer with the context and issues of the area," says the exhibition curator Anastasia Ermysh.

The project is a bold experiment by CK19. Among the participants are both self-taught artists and members of the Union of Artists. The many authors and genres are intended to reflect the diversity of contexts of the Tikhy settlement.

The exhibition is arranged as a mental map consisting of a "mosaic" of tags identified during the research: the Ekran factory, the alternative Tikhy center, Texas and Cuba, paradise on earth, the "Florentine Renaissance", ZHEK-art. The artists' works play on both these tags and the overall mysterious atmosphere of the settlement.

The project draws attention to the problems of deteriorating neighborhoods: lack of repair and restoration of architectural structures, issues of transport accessibility, and the threat of demolition of houses in favor of mass high-rise development.

"Paradise is a garden, therefore the exhibition is a kind of total installation. In this garden, a piece of paradise in the center of Novosibirsk, there is room for humor, serious reflection, and original artistic solutions," clarifies Anastasia Ermysh.

The exhibition runs until March 24, 2024.