ANNA and VITALY CHEREPANOV
AUTUMN IN THE COMMUNAL GARDEN
(Yekaterinburg, Russia)
The front yard, garden, harvest and community – these are the artists’ treasures. Their garden plot appears before the audience as a complete installation on the topic of time, of October coming to Yekaterinburg. The artists invite the viewer to take a tour of the garden’s weird and wonderful nooks and crannies: several fountains, sculptures made from natural materials, winding pathways. The artists’ voices accompany the visitors on their route through the use of QR codes printed on surrounding objects. The viewers have the chance to find out how artists and art live, hiding out in the wild. Some visitors will be lucky enough to hear the music of the garden.
Anna and Vitaly Cherepanov work together and separately under different pseudonyms (Cick in Dunt, Tagil group, Yugo-Zapad [Southwest] and Beskonechny Chastny Sektor [Endless Private Sektor], and others). The artists employ various media in their work: performance, video art, installations, street art, painting – but more often than not it is a synthesis of multiple genres. The Cherepanovs are curators, art dealers, organizers of the Uralskaya Yazva music festival, who have conducted research on local art scenes and street art. Their photo book Streetok, dedicated to the street art of Nizhny Tagil, is included in collections and museum archives (NCCA, NTGMK, Garage, amongst others), while their zine SharMirDobro, published since 2016, can be found in private collections in Russia and abroad, as well as museum archives. Anna and Vitaly took part in the Workshop residency at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Jan-Jul 2019). In 2018, their series of video artworks Theatre Under Cameras was shortlisted by the Center Festival, and in 2019 two works (Theatre Under Cameras, Bone Auction) were shortlisted for the Innovation award in the New Generation category.