JANUARY 27 – MARCH 11

Crystal Tiger

Nabbing the name of the sole casino in the Primorsky Krai, the ZIP Group creates a total installation, where everything is not what it seems. The installation is based on a symbolic system, a cipher whose key is Vladivostok itself – a city that swirls together aspects of Europe and Asia, of a Chinese resort town or a Russian San-Francisco, an enormous international port, a mysterious territory once closed to the outside world, the grand park of an imperial dynasty and the furthest outpost of colonization.

The space of the exhibition remains, on the one hand, a transitional space (through which one enters into the large exhibition hall), while on the other, it constitutes its own isolated autonomous zone, stocked with everything necessary: from the cramped living quarters of a hikikomori (young Japanese hermits) to an underground Chinese casino. The rules here are set by the Crystal Tiger, a symbol of fortune and strength, the trump card in any hand.