THE WINNERS
IN THE OPEN INTERNATIONAL GRANT COMPETITION
OF CREATIVE PROJECTS IN THE VISUAL ARTS
ARTKOMMUNALKA 2024–2025

 

1. Zhudro Lidia, Moscow, “Invisible/hidden” in the city”

“ … the feeling of connection between the place and the person grows stronger during the adverse weather conditions: rain, thunderstorms or downpours. The shelter becomes the place of special attraction for the pluviophile (“rain lover, from Latin. pluvia — rain water, and Greek. φίλος — loving, friendly) – the place of its own world, cut off from all external and incidental. Rain crystallizes, purifies and brings to light. Rain makes clear the thoughts, the man intentions, not only the objects. Rain converts — moisture absorbs all that was in the air before its appearance, dust establishes a close contact with the ground and a particular place

<…> The rain is my tutor… By learning from it, I will identify the implicit and the unobvious. The project will become a peculiar kind of «indicator», a tool for fixing hardly perceptible ideas, experiences, spiritual orders and processes. In this project I am seeing the local place as a specific space for storing people experience who were there and the events that happened in it, and the place dust as a microscopic medium of such information. Thus, I plan to implement my vision in a series of objects, which would accumulate air quantum of individual gravity points in Kolomna”.

 

2. Kordiuchenko Lina, Sankt-Petersburg, “Disappeared”.

“I plan to study the cultural context of the city of Kolomna, in particular local myths and legends. Next, create illustrations and art objects of them. After that locate them on the territory of the Residence, as well as, if possible, on the facade and on the street nearby. I plan to set down these objects in map and indicate what they mean. It would be ideal to make them in the technique of ceramics with glasswork, as this material is quite durable. I’m interested in how urban myths and legends create the identity of small cities, and the extent to which they keep up in the memory of the modern generation”.

 

3. Baldina Kseniya, Sankt-Petersburg, “Communications/connections”

“In the heaviest rainfall Me, little, loved to walk. Grandfather without question dressed and went with me. Grandma and Mom did not understand how it is to walk in the rain. And I’ve always had a special relationship with Rain.

<…> Rain for me is a time of remembrance, a reminder of love that never ends, never stops. And in this project, I want to take a journey through time: I want to create a series of ritual events based on my family’s life and to give space to the life stories and events of the people of Kolomna. I want all participants to feel the power of connection.

The basis of the project is the creative laboratory for older people. Grandparents have great experience and giving potential. These feelings and experiences often go unnoticed within their families. Communication is important for the older generation. It is important for them to be useful and meaningful. I want to give them a place for creative realization where they can apply their experience

<…> We go back to the Past, but meet in the Present. We share the personal and the intimate — it transforms into the collective. We feel a complicity and all become closer and closer. As rain washes away the roads, so do the boundaries between us.”

 

4. Nogovitsina Elisabeth, Kirov, “The city of K.”

“The City of K. is a project to continue the research of the sound environment of the city, the embodiment of the visual image of the city in the sound and attitude of residents to it. In the project for Artkommunalka in Kolomna will be used two media: sound (sound landscape) and photos (everyday life).

<…> The project is focused on dialogue with the local community. The main event of the project is the creation and implementation of a laboratory. Five participants of the laboratory will be able to get acquainted with the basics of sound art and to create their own sound tracks about their place/their district in the city. <… > In the making a sound track author and participants will combine urban noises recordings, synthesized instruments, voice.”

 

In the nomination/in the category «Silk and Loom»

Mahboubeh YazdanPanah, (Tehran, Iran), «Woven Rain: A Liquid Loom’s Song».

«The rhythmic patter of raindrops echoes myths of creation and renewal across cultures. This residency will be my exploration of this captivating connection, weaving together rain’s whispers and vibrant myths into pieces that sing stories of life and transformation.

<…> My goal is to create woven artworks that not only capture the fleeting beauty of rain but also transport viewers to a realm where time whispers its secrets, and the past dances with the present».

 

In the nomination/in the category “Literature”

1. Komadei Ruslan, Moscow, “Kolomna Meteorology, or Wet Letters”

My project explores how art-writing depends on the weather conditions of Kolomna.

<… > Every day I (possibly together with a group of local like-minded persons) will go to different parts of the city and there to fix accurately various small and large Kolomna weather changes while writing texts. To create texts, I plan to use papers of different textures and different production times depending on the location of the study on each day.

<… > Paper and letters on it will become the mediators/recorders. The project inherits independent publishing practices and various practices of “out-of-reach”, which were previously developed by unofficial Soviet writers (Ulitin, Bogdanov, Earl, etc.).

2. Makarova Valeria, Republic of Mordovia, Saransk, “What’s the matter with your rain?”

The author is going to write a play on the local context. The venue of the play is Moscow and Kolomna. <… I have a synopsis of the play and a monthly work plan. This is a play-dream about the possibility and impossibility of convergence in total alienation times. These are dolphins to dream about. A light homage to the poem «Moscow-Petushki», in which the train is the place of action, and the action itself is set during the journey, but partially.

3. Veryasova Daria, Krasnoyarsk Territory, Abakan, “The Name of the Rain».

<…> The rain covers the tracks, washes away the memory, cuts off the path from the present to the past. The rain, as one head sing, does not let us know the truth. But the rain is paving the way for the future. The past and the future of the city are undivided — like water drops or poetic lines.

The author was never been in Kolomna, but she’s thinking that «to love this city — a matter of five minutes». Daria will create a poetic map of the city and try to understand its history and identity in a literary way.