Exhibition 'Period of Solitude'

About exhibition

Artist Olga Babina, in the project 'Period of Solitude', explores the phenomenon of loneliness in contemporary society, drawing on the ideas of Zygmunt Bauman and Jane Bennett. Bauman regards loneliness as a structural feature of modern society, where individualism and personal responsibility dominate. In the metropolis a person often finds themself in isolation, at risk of becoming a faceless 'human-thing-mass' — a functional unit deprived of identity. Jane Bennett, in Vibrant Matter, offers an alternative view: the world is a network of interconnections among all objects. Even the most ordinary thing bears traces of numerous interactions. 'Period of Solitude' examines how individualism leads to alienation and isolation, turning a person into a 'human-thing-mass'. At the same time, the project emphasizes that even in such a state a person remains part of a complex web of relations, and their existence is not reducible to a faceless mass.