16.09.2015 – 04.10.2015
Central Exhibition Hall “Manege”, Moscow
www.moscowmanege.ru
curator
Yulia Aksenova
coordinators
Kristina Romanova
Sofia Simakova
technical director
Михаил Марткович
artists
Maja Bajevic
Aleksandr Barkovskiy
Anca Benera & Arnold Estefan
Sergey Bratkov
Sofya Gavrilova
Aslan Gaysumov
Shilpa Gupta
Shezad Dawood
Danika Dakic
Sitara Ibragimova
Yulia Kazas
Amar Kanwar
David-Perez Karmadavis
Urban Fauna Lab
Taus Makhacheva
Anja Medved
Yerbossyn Meldibekov
Mehreen Murtaza
Igor Mukhin
Nira Pereg
Dan Peterman
Tenzing Rigdol
Kristina Romanova
Stefan Rusu
Shahzia Sikander
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
Albert Heta
Elizabeth Hoak-Doering
Tiffany Chung
Shitamichi Motoyuki& Sophie Ernst
The exhibition Our Land / Your Territory brought together artists from different countries and global regions who investigate in their works the link between space and politics. The main topic of the presented works is the phenomenon of disputed territories, and also border zones in a state of constant instability and open conflict.
The idea of this exhibition was dictated by the circumstances of a specific political event — Crimea’s accession into Russia. This precedent has not only radically affected all areas of social life in our country, but also caused tectonic shifts in the global geopolitical landscape, resulting in open confrontation between Russia and the West. Finding oneself in this situation and ending up a hostage, one is bound to look for forms of critical revaluation, aware of the causes and effects. Here it would seem important to try and answer the issue of concern to us all: how this could happen at the start of the 21st century, when the concept of state sovereignty is incontrovertible, and the borders between states appear inviolable?
Today, the authors in their works turn on the one hand to academic disciplines — geography, sociology, anthropology, ethnography, and on the other hand the personal and biographical experience of individuals becomes the most important resource. The diversity of their world views and life journeys will enable us to exceed the bounds of the parochial problem of geopolitical confrontation, and gain a critical understanding of the more profound basis of the connections between the issues for the self-determination of the national community and its affiliation to the specific territory.
