Sketches for the Antigone Update /Installation and Performance at solo -show in Framer Framed , To those who have not time to play 2022-23
Drawings in relation to the exhibition To those who have no time to play /2023
Framer Framed Amsterdam
Club of Unpredictable Drawing 2023
Performative encounter with PACT + Students
Spontaneous drawing session is dedicated to Well Being.
Wellbeing is an abstract notion and because of the nature of its abstract universality it is open for our interpretations. I propose to think about the wellbeing through the lenses of imagination and unpredictability. Unpredictability can be resolved through the spontaneousness, which in turn can be understood as a result of the freedom to do the action which is coinciding with our entire feeling of truth, which in other turn can be understood as a creation of the entire free space which might lead to the act of the creativity.
The other notion I propose to explore during our encounter is the movement. We are all migrants and defending the idea of the rights of migration we are interested in moving matters. A combination of moving and drawing might bring us to the de-conventionalization of the idea of a drawing as just sitting in one place and focusing on the particularity.
When we are lost the time is our friend.
Practical realization :
The group of 4 students, 2 observers ( Misty and Renee ), several parents ( some of them might be with kids ) and artist Gluklya are gathering in the circle . Gluklya invite everybody to share a thought about well-being. What it might mean for each of us. Gluklya also explain the rule of this session: everybody has to speak not more than 3 min. We will do one or two rounds of speaking like this. One of the Observers is controlling the time and after every 3 min is saying: Clock!
After that, when all the ideas about the well-being is collected, the wests with the drawing tools will be introduced to people and everybody is welcomed to dress them on.
Gluklya will explain the rules: Everybody are invited to move freely in the room, trying to mark the surface of paper by the attached drawing tool.
We might do two sessions: one with closed eyes and other with open eyes
Students are invited to listen carefully one by one each of the parents and write down or record the impressions of different outcome: with open eyes and close eyes.
After the session Gluklya and students and all participants are connecting stains made by unpredictable drawing session together by the red color.
Session finished.
The graphic outcomes might be used by Pact in their future campaigns.
Utopian Unemployment Union /London 23
by invitationto the project Drawing in Social Space Project 2
I was invited to be the Project Artist for ‘Drawing in Social Space Project 2’, a knowledge exchange project with Camberwell College of Arts Fine Art and Drawing Room in London exploring drawing beyond the gallery walls.
Always feel more friend than a teacher and this workshop fully served this intention, which was exciting!
The outcome of the process was a performative drawing session in St. Michaels Church with the art students and local mothers from PACT, which is a sort of a caring club for local migrant community who are gathering regularly at the church to support their wellbeing. It was the most organic place for the workshop which was planned with and supported by curators Renee Odjidja (Camberwell) and Misty Ingham (Drawing Room).
I proposed to extend the idea of drawing to the scale of the body and came up with the preposition for the original design of the “VESTS WITH ATTACHED PENCILS ” allowing to draw and dance at the same time. The workshop starts with short breathing and movement exercises, which Renee kindly shared with the group, and then we talk using the spiral conversation technique (round talk with the care control over the time) about well-being, and what it means for each of the participants.
I proposed to think about Wellbeing as something which embraced also the dark side of each of us and asked Misty to read part of my proposal for this encounter which was on the abstract notion of wellbeing, spontaneousness and movement.
“We are all migrants and defending the idea of the rights of migration, we are interested in moving matters. A combination of moving and drawing might bring us to the de conventionalisation of the idea of drawing as just seating in one place and focusing on the particular subject in the classical way.
When we are lost the time is our friend.”
After that, with the help of Irish music, everybody starts to draw on the carefully prepared paper over the windows. Wonderfully, Misty took the initiative to announce the start of this process.
Migrant mothers came with kids and there was a special place for them that was organized so that they can draw as well.
After the drawing session was accomplished and the mothers left us, we talked with students and staff from PACT about the process.
Club of Unpredictable Drawing
Performative encounter with PACT + Students
Spontaneous drawing session is dedicated to Well Being.
Wellbeing is an abstract notion and because of the nature of its abstract universality it is open for our interpretations. I propose to think about the wellbeing through the lenses of imagination and unpredictability. Unpredictability can be resolved through the spontaneousness, which in turn can be understood as a result of the freedom to do the action which is coinciding with our entire feeling of truth, which in other turn can be understood as a creation of the entire free space which might lead to the act of the creativity.
The other notion I propose to explore during our encounter is the movement. We are all migrants and defending the idea of the rights of migration we are interested in moving matters. A combination of moving and drawing might bring us to the de-conventionalization of the idea of a drawing as just sitting in one place and focusing on the particularity.
When we are lost the time is our friend.
Practical realization :
The group of 4 students, 2 observers ( Misty and Renee ), several parents ( some of them might be with kids ) and artist Gluklya are gathering in the circle . Gluklya invite everybody to share a thought about well-being. What it might mean for each of us. Gluklya also explain the rule of this session: everybody has to speak not more than 3 min. We will do one or two rounds of speaking like this. One of the Observers is controlling the time and after every 3 min is saying: Clock!
After that, when all the ideas about the well-being is collected, the wests with the drawing tools will be introduced to people and everybody is welcomed to dress them on.
Gluklya will explain the rules: Everybody are invited to move freely in the room, trying to mark the surface of paper by the attached drawing tool.
We might do two sessions: one with closed eyes and other with open eyes
Students are invited to listen carefully one by one each of the parents and write down or record the impressions of different outcome: with open eyes and close eyes.
After the session Gluklya and students and all participants are connecting stains made by unpredictable drawing session together by the red color.
Session finished.
The graphic outcomes might be used by Pact in their future campaigns.
Drawings in relation to the exhibition To those who have no time to play /2023
1 May 2017,2018,2019
Melting Snowball
The installation consists of three videos of demonstrations unfolding in the streets of St. Petersburg on 1 May 2017, 2018 and 2019. This demonstration had happened almost every year since Soviet times. Now it has stopped, an unbearable and tragic reality.
The title comes from the playful winter fight when children are throwing snowballs at each other. In the context of protest, the snowball might be thought of as a precarious relative of the revolutionary cobblestone – as the Russian protest is fragile. 1 May – the day of Labour and Spring – became an important possibility for the artistic community of St. Petersburg to express political protest. This day was only one during which it could be imaginable to unite progressive critical thinkers with other citizens. Year after year it became a sort of protest art festival. More and more people were joining. The imagination of artists brought unique aesthetics to the expression of indignation.
We began to film the 1 May demonstrations in 2017, inviting Nastya Molchanova as a camera person. In preparation, I invited people for a workshop at my studio in St. Petersburg to create costumes to wear during the protest and banners using their clothes (I had conceived of these banners, clothes on conceptual sticks, during the first 1 May protest in 2012). We decided to name the demonstration Column of Fragility. Our costumes took the form of green cucumbers, referencing the young mind as a reflection on the slow process of raising critical voices among the Russian population. Already in the first 10 minutes of our appearance at the square where the march would depart from, the police came and demanded to make a hole in the costumes, explaining that it was forbidden to cover one’s face during the demonstration. We subordinated to the demand with regret.
In 2018, I invited the Union of Convalescents to join the demonstration together and filmed it myself.1 The debate revolved around the topic of forced hospitalization in mental institutions and stigmatization of people with diagnoses of mental illness. Covering both problems: the topic of protestors being sent to psychiatric hospitals to shut them up and the orthodox condition of the post-Soviet countries regarding correct diagnoses, horrible treatment of patients and the lack of the support for institutions of care in general.
2019 brought the topic of police corruption, abuse of power, cruel torture of prisoners and extreme work conditions, especially for migrants. I had decided to film with two cameras; while I focused on people, Vanya Shatravin Dostov would film the police. But this year we faced a new obstacle; the police had installed a check point, like in an airport, and investigated every item of our protest banners. They asked, why is this written here? What does it mean? Why are they looking so ugly and so on… And then they confiscated it all and threw it in the garbage! After the demonstration, we came back and took what had survived.
I do not know when or if the 1 May demonstrations will ever be possible again. Most of the artistic groups and individuals seen in the videos – my dear friends – are now facing investigations by the Russian government for their political position, with many forced to evacuate the country.
1 Union of Convalescents consisted of: Natalia Nikulenkova, Egor Safronov and Pavel Mitenko.
Last News
Sanatorium for Seamstresses
Chuikov Gallery and Library of Rescued Books Bishkek,Kyrgyzstan6-19 OctoberINTERPRETING THE HISTORY OF POLLUTIONArt Prospect & TRASH-5
Field wifes
Museum Rijswijk/NL
Installation of two parts
IMAGES OF POWER/Textile Bienalle
26 June -12 November 2023
Against the War
Museum Helmond /NL
RESILIENT REBELS
14 October -24 March 2024
Drawing Room, ( UAL) London
September 2023
The show is the result of the project: Drawing in social space, collaboration with UAL students and migrants from PACT, following the method: Utopian Unemployment Union
Zimmerli Art Museum
"The Body Implied"
16 February - 30 July 2024
https://zimmerli.rutgers.edu/
Curator:
Stephanie Dvareckas
Solo Show:
To those who have no time to play
EXHIBITION OPENING:
13 October, 19:00
ARTIST:
Gluklya (Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya)
SUPPORTED BY:
Ministerie van Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap; Gemeente Amsterdam; AFK; Stichting DOEN; Van Abbemuseum
IN COLLABORATION WITH:
Moawya Alkhadra
BiSCA (Saadat Aitalieva)
Shepherd Camara
Roger Cremers
Liah Frank
Natalia Grezina
Marianne Koeman
Vladimir Rannev
Benjamin Roth
Gulmira Tursunbaeva
Anna Bitkina
Shaiymkan Chylgobaeva
Kunduz Asanakunova
Anisa Ibrayeva
Nurlan Alymseitov
Dinara Akylova
Rahat Bolotbek Kyzy
Zayna Ayazbekova
Open Line Foundation
CURATOR:
Charles Esche
Framer Framed presents To those who have no time to play, the largest solo exhibition for the Amsterdam-based artist Gluklya (Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya), curated by Charles Esche. In keeping with her previous work, the exhibition involves many collaborators from Kyrgyz textile workers and recent migrants to the Netherlands to musicians and writers.
The exhibition is structured around four elements, each with its own unique architecture. These are two yurts, a dome, and a stage on which there will be occasional live performances. The works take us from Amsterdam to Bishkek, and via St. Petersburg back to Amsterdam again.
Although conditions in Bishkek or St. Petersburg might seem far from Dutch society, bringing these different social and emotional geographies together through art emphasises connections between them. It is impossible to ignore the many disasters looming on the horizon: the climate crisis, extreme social inequality, the war in Ukraine and the harsh working lives of people supplying cheap goods to Western high streets. Gluklya relates it all in a surreal landscape, where humour appears unexpectedly. She takes us on an associative journey through global abuses, whether they be forced labour and migration, economic exploitation or abuse of power.
CONTACT:
www.framerframed.nl
info@framerframed.nl
ADDRESS:
Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71,
1093 KS Amsterdam
OPENING TIMES:
Tue – Sun (12:00 - 18:00)
Free Entree The libretto for the performance Antigone Update
The libretto was written by Gluklya and Matras Platform for the performance Antigone Update, performed first time in Framer Framed Amsterdam on 13 October 2022 at the opening of the exhibition To those who have not time to play, with the speaking clothes and special music composition by Vladimir Rannev.
Performance Antigone Update
Performance Antigone Update /2022 was performed first time in Framer Framed Amsterdam on 13 October 2022 at the opening of the exhibition To those who have not time to play, with the speaking clothes and special music composition by Vladimir Rannev. Staring : Liah Frank , Georgia Boddez and Shepherd Camara
Photos: Marlise Steeman
The book “Two Diaries”
This book emerged as a collaboration with Kurdish activist Murad Zorava, who started to write during this project and I hope he might continue.
In 2017, I was renting a studio in one of the two towers of Bijlmerbajes, a former prison in Amsterdam-Zuid-Oost. The second tower was then used by the government as an Asylum-Seekers-Center (AZC). My plan was to attempt a collaboration with the refugees staying there at the time, among whom was Murad.
During my project in Bijlmerbajes, I was confronted with eye-opening questions: What does equality mean, when it is equality between a refugee and an artist, between – so to speak –trained artist and the person who did not study art at all? Can we imagine rethinking and abandoning the idea of enlightenment? How to deal with the notion of Care without falling into patronization, but soberly staying within the frame of Radical Care?
At the start of my research, I visited AZC meetings. These were some of the regular lessons provided to the refugees to teach them about the social structure of the Netherlands and what they could expect here. Nothing was said during those meetings about culture and art, let alone contemporary art. This was surprising to me. It felt as if these people were held not equal to us, westerners, as many westerners believe they cannot survive without a breath of cultural or artistic air. Another thing that struck me was the fact of placing people in the environment of a prison: bars on windows, no locks from inside the rooms, no actual privacy, and unpleasant communal places.
Being haunted by this image of Murad in the cell of the former prison, I started to think about what exactly I could do in this situation. During one of the workshops, I proposed participants write a diary, and Murad accepted this idea. I am very happy to hope that the project had a practical outcome in reality. Murad believes that work with the publishing of his Diary helped him to settle down in Amsterdam.
The book can be purchased here https://www.buchhandlung-walther-koenig.de/koenig2/index.php?mode=details&showcase=1&art=1638030