On 11-24 May our joint exhibition Shores took place. There were three of us: Irina Shanko, Alexey Vorobyov, and me.  

When an exhibition curator works with submitted material, creating a single concept for an exhibition with three painters participating becomes a challenging, but yet an interesting task. Thus, we have decided to choose a solution that, despite being evident, is at the same time the most legitimate – to find an image present in paintings by each of the three.

This image is represented by depictions of rivers or shorelines that, while having individual meaning for each of the artists, bind the paintings together in a single exhibition space.

Nevertheless, let us recall a well-known interpretation of Heraclitus’ idea voiced back in the day by Merab Mamardashvili: “So saying that things originate from the past or belong to the past is the same as saying that the world can be given to us twice. Heraclitus’ idea that no man ever steps in the same river twice means that the world is only given to us once and does not exist in aging; the man’s place in this world is rather historical than natural.”

This, however, by no means obligates the visitor to perceive the exhibited works from the same standpoint. It is true that oftentimes the most important lies on the surface.

Nikita Nesterov,
Exhibition Curator