22 DECEMBER – 24 FEBRUARY / SMALL HALL

On December 22, the Small Hall of Zarya CCA will host the opening of “Stratum: Sanctuary,” an exhibition by the collective Hero4Hero. This exploratory initiative will offer an integral perspective on the cultural landscape of the Primorsky Krai. The exhibition, which will rely on works of augmented reality, will be open until February 24.

The collective uses the exhibition to explore the Primorye region as both a living thing, imbued with local meanings, and, at the same time, also an objective, tangible environment for human life.

Taking the emigration of people from the Far East of Russia as the point of departure for their research, the artists see the reason for the decrease in net migration in the population’s missing, unformed connection to the region. As one of the solutions to this problem, Hero4Hero proposes that the audience leaves their residency cards behind and restores life to the territory, discovering it as a place of strength. They should likewise leave behind the roles of colonizer and take on the mantle of the aboriginal, of those who do not conquer (that is, develop) the earth, but live (grow) on it, those who truly feel their roots in their place of residence, and not just the fleetingness of a forced stay here.

Engaging various semantic fields, such as the historical, ethnographical, archaeological and mythological, among others, the artists enter a dialogue with the territory itself. Using the tools of contemporary art, they translate the experience of space, throwing their own ethnic identity into question.

The artists parlay the space of the exhibition display into a sacred place, a laboratory of time, where symbols of the past, present and future mix with their own experience of the landscape in question. The audience is invited to interact with images of the region, restoring the balance between the territory and the perception of its space.

“Stratum: Sanctuary” is a continuation of research into the mythological reality of the Primorsky Krai that the collective first embarked on with their project SHAMAN SELFIE, which was shown at the Zarya Center for Contemporary Art in “One Northeast,” an international exhibition dedicated to the transcultural position of Vladivostok in Northeast Asia.

This project was realized with support from the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, within the Far East department of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and Bikin National Park.

For Reference: With the project, “Stratum: Sanctuary,” the collective Hero4Hero offers an integral perspective on the cultural landscape of the Primorsky Krai. Taking the emigration of people from the Far East of Russia as the point of departure for their research, the artists see the reason for the decrease in net migration in the population’s missing, unformed connection to the region.

Hero4Hero proposes that the audience leaves their residency cards behind and restores life to the territory, discovering it as a place of strength. They should likewise leave behind the roles of colonizer and take on the mantle of the aboriginal, of those who do not conquer (that is, develop) the earth, but live (grow) on it, those who truly feel their roots in their place of residence, and not just the fleetingness of a forced stay here. The artists approach the geographical space of the territory not so much in its geographical interpretation, as through the emotional sphere as a “landscape of the soul” of man, a multidimensional space that can only be truly grasped by the heart and mind.

The artists parlay the space of the exhibition display into a sacred place, a laboratory of time, where symbols of the past, present and future mix with their own experience of the landscape in question. The audience is invited to interact with images of the region, restoring the balance between the territory and the perception of its space.

The project includes an element of augmented reality, which Hero4Hero uses to act as mediators between the territory and the people, stepping in as guides to the memory of the place, as a means of drawing attention to its cultural layers.

This project was realized with support from the Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of the Peoples of the Far East, within the Far East department of the “Stratum: Sanctuary” is a continuation of research into the geophilosophy of Pacific

Russia (Primorye), that the collective first embarked on with their project SHAMAN SELFIE, which was shown at the Zarya Center for Contemporary Art in “One Northeast,” an international exhibition dedicated to the transcultural position of Vladivostok in Northeast Asia, which ran from October 7 until December 16, 2018.Russian Academy of Sciences, and Bikin National Park.