Exhibition: Alexey Bogolepov. Efficiency Ritual
FotoDepartament presents:
Alexey Bogolepov / Saint-Petersburg
Efficiency Ritual
12 September – 15 October’2015
Opening reception: 12th September, 18:00
Location: FotoDepartament, 24 Vosstaniya St. / «Fligel» Creative Space / 1st floor
Entry is free
A sober look at the human condition instills little optimism – we are equally pressured by the ever-receding future, and an entropy, directly linked to the finitude of our bodies. We cannot do anything forever, least of all adhere to our principles. Every conscious act is steadily subjected to disintegration into a ritual, a habit, something done pro forma. Coherence of objects upon examination turns out to be a set of contingent coincidences. As with the probable case of the emergence of first amino acids, contingency is a starting point, a given that requires no explanation. Delving into this material equates to a general survey of processes beyond human control.
In this work a method of “speculative modernism”, combining construction and documentation is used to locate a specific point, where form over and over again loses its connection to function, and ritual equilibration replaces analysis. Architecture is the most visible example of this shift. However, it is observable in many areas of our life – in language, in relationships, in such seemingly paradoxical phenomena as modernist décor, technical aesthetics, highly laborious hobbies, outdated technologies, overly elaborated sciences with limited applications.
Ritualization is an anaerobic process, guaranteed to emerge in the absence of constant revisions, reconsiderations and updates. Spores of rituality cover everything human and find an especially nutritious environment in various linear and grid-based milieus and habitats. In these favorable conditions they start to sprout through the bodies of purisms via channels of detalization and texturization. A first acquaintance with efficiency rituals must entail collecting, drying and mounting them into a specimen folder in order to later learn from them certain skills, which fell out of the ethical spectrum: searching for cracks in any monolith, orientation to a goal, which you will not live to see, and a blind inclination to the closest light source.
About photographer:
1985 Born in Vyborg, Russia
2007 Graduated from University of Alaska, BLA in Fine Art
2008 Moved to Saint Petersburg, Russia
2012-2014 “Photography as Research” program at FotoDepartament Foundation, Saint Petersburg
Photographs have been featured in solo and group exhibitions in the U.S., Russia, Ukraine.
2004-2007 – UAS Juried, Baranof Gallery, Juneau, AK
2007 – High Gothic, Jaded Gallery, Juneau, AK
2009 – Lomo Sapiens, Kharkiv
2013 – Young Photography, FotoDepartament, Saint Petersburg
2013 – Russian Territory, Komaba, Tokyo
2014 – Young Photography, Syktyvkar, Russia
2014 – Shukhov Tower. The unmoved valuе. House of Architects, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2014 – “We-ll-timed”, FotoDepartament, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2014 – Institute.Production, Smena Center, Kazan, Russia
2014 – “Function”, Alvar Aalto Library, Vyborg, Russia
2014 – “BLOC”, Schusev Museum of Architecture, Moscow, Russia
2014 – “We-ll-timed”, ZEH, Minsk, Belarus
2015 – “We-ll-timed” at the IX Moscow Biennale “Fashion and Style in Photography”, Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
2015 – “White Nights”, ZIL Cultural Center, Moscow
Press-accreditation:
tel.: +7 (901) 301-7994 /e-mail: press@fotodepartament.ru
FotoDepartament
Vosstaniya street, 24, 2d yard, ground floor
art-claster “Fligel”
Saint-Petersburg / Russia
tel.: +7-901-301-7994
info@fotodepartament.ru
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