Working primarily in moving image, photography and performance, Agil Abdullayev’s practice examines the Caucasian queer identity as it has been shaped by historical, cultural and social backgrounds. He aims to facilitate a dialogue between queer identity and society and address such subjects as femininity and masculinity, public and private life, politics and society, western and eastern cultural standards, and bridging the spaces between these topics. He was selected for Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2018 and was a recipient of Attic Residency by One Throsby Street in Nottingham, UK.  

Agil’s works have been shown in group and solo exhibitions, including Salaam Cinema, 2019; Photographers Gallery, 2019; Liverpool Biennial, 2018; Primary Contemporary Art Space, 2017; The Wrong – New Digital Art Biennale, 2017; Tate Modern, 2016; Yarat Pavilion at 4th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, 2012. He graduated from Nottingham Trent University with a BA in Fine Arts.

Website
Instagram

From Donetsk to Mariupol to Kyiv, Ukraine, Diana Berg transformed her practice from activist to artist, curator, and cultural manager amidst war and displacement. Founder of Mariupol’s Platform Tu, she has been working with gender inequality and human rights issues through art, persisting in activism and cultural preservation after being displaced twice by war. Diana’s work exploring topics of memory and war has gained national and international recognition. At documenta fifteen, she coordinated the 3-day Ukrainian program. Diana is currently developing a project on the environmental crises in the east of Ukraine affected by Russian ecocide. She is committed to leveraging art for social justice and environmental awareness.

Facebook
Instagram

Street art artist Pasha Cas is well known for his far reaching, socialIy acute works addressing societal indifference, corruption, and ecology.  In his work, Pasha uses minimalistic stencil presentation techniques to create street art that is a manifestation of the present reality and strives to challenge the observer to rethink the current world. He is one of only a few street artists, who choose not to hide their face behind a mask, but rather believe that it is important to have an open dialogue with the public. He was awarded the prize for Best Public Art Work in 2018 by the Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Awards for his work Happy New Year, Comrades in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Facebook
Instagram

A researcher, artist, and science fiction writer, Anastasia Kizilova began her artistic career in 2001 as a student at the Stieglitz St. Petersburg State Academy of Art and Industry. In 2013, she presented the project The Artist’s Uniform, the aim of which was to interact with the participants of the professional art system, and in 2015 she co-organized the horizontal initiative, Flying Cooperation, which unites multi-skilled young artists, who were born in the Post-Soviet space (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine).

Since 2016, Anastasia has been collected an archive of unrealized artists’ ideas entitled Found Project: authors share their ideas for free so that other people who are in need of ideas can realize them. She currently works in the field of environmental communication, focusing on post-humanist and non-humanist ways of interacting by bringing together theoretical approaches such as queer-ecology, cyberfeminism, bio-anarchism, and practical methods such as performative creation of an interspecific collective body.

Website

Zhazgul Madazimova worked in post-war emergency relief with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) Doctors Without Borders and, more recently, has been involved in projects helping labor migrants from Central Asia in Moscow. For the last four years, the focus of her work has been the exploration of the relationship between art and society through the ArtEast group and collaborative projects with other artists in Bishkek.

Zhazgul’s work focuses on gender, migration and contemporary social issues in Central Asia.  She has been involved in art and activist alliances to create a public dialogue through the tools and language of art. Madazimova studied contemporary art practices at the ArtEast School and the Central Asia Cultural Managers’ Academy organized by the Goethe Institute Tashkent-Berlin and International and Comparative Politics at the American University of Central Asia.

Nikita Seleznev works with installations, sculpture, and objects.  During the past few years, he has participated in international group exhibitions, including the Special Project of the 5th Moscow Biennale of Young Art, The Parallel Programme of the 4th Ural Industrial Biennale of Contemporary Art, and the 5th Art Prospect Festival. Seleznev’s recent solo exhibition projects in St. Petersburg include:  My Green Crocodile, Navicula Artis; Pets, 2.04 Gallery; My Little Protest, Quartariata residence. He graduated from the St. Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design and the PRO ARTE School for Young Artists.

Instagram

Nadezhda Valetskaia is a member of the Nadenka Creative Association established in 2014. This feminist art group of five artists includes Anastasia Makarenko, Maria Rybka, Maria Alexandrova, Alena Isakhanyan, all alumni of the School for Engaged Art “Chto Delat”, St. Petersburg.  She creates textile objects, video art, performances and public art, holds talks and seminars, as well as feminism awareness events and recycling workshops.  Nadezhda is interested in collectivity, sisterhood, art-activism, craftivism, self-education, learning and unlearning, gender studies and other artists.

Facebook