Nickel Art Gallery presents In Becoming, a group exhibition highlighting the works of four contemporary Russian artists. In Becoming questions the contours of identity and the intricacies of these pivotal moments of existence, where being oscillates between what it was and what will become. The exhibition thus explores the concept of passage and the liminal zones of being: these spaces, moments or states of transition which are located between two distinct realities and which are often marked by ambiguity and uncertainty. The in-between, the central theme of this exhibition, finds a particular echo in the lives of the artists presented. Ivan Plusch, Irina Drozd, Olga Tobreluts and Dmitrii Shorin, all originally from Russia, chose to settle in Europe for over a decade. This experience of movement and transition between two worlds is at the heart of their artistic approach. Their art does not simply reflect the fusion of two cultures, but it testifies to a personal quest, to a continuous inner dialogue between their past in Russia and their present life in Europe. Their works speak of this duality, this tension between roots and new realities. Olga Tobreluts expresses this deep interrelationship thus: "I have always considered myself a person of the world... I believe that the artist is a magician, that he can foresee the future and experiences it in his paintings in a way premonitory. »
The artists explore these intermediate terrains, navigating between reality and imagination, childhood and adolescence, interior and exterior, without ever fully anchoring themselves in one or the other. These liminal zones, where usual norms are suspended and a new status emerges, are at the heart of their reflections. What are these ghosts that haunt these spaces of transition? What is this mysterious force that causes darkness and light to arise simultaneously? Through the universe of each artist, the En Becoming exhibition leads the viewer to feel the tensions between concepts often presented as contradictory. This introspection, nourished by a questioning about the nature of transformation, takes us on a journey through interstitial spaces, inviting reflection on what binds us, separates us, transforms us and defines us.
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