‘We Organise Ourselves through Chaos’: HSE Art and Design School Opens Major Exhibition

© Evgenia Savkina

The has opened its major exhibition ‘The Great Disorder’ at two venues—the Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art and at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation. The main theme of the project was reflections on chaos as an integral part of life in the modern world.

The HSE Art and Design School has held a major exhibition every year since 2021. Previously, the exhibition featured works exclusively by students, graduates, and university faculty, but this time the organisers launched an open call for anyone wishing to participate, and the curators received more than 700 applications. The competition considered the works of all creators, regardless of their experience or place of residence. As a result, the project has become international in scope, and the participants include both famous artists and aspiring creators. ‘Our major idea was to look at the field of contemporary art without worrying about the artist's age, status, or where they come from. We have invited everyone we considered interesting—their CVs didn't matter at all this time,’ shared the curators. In total, more than 120 participants were selected to present the results of their work at the major exhibition, including two artists from China.

Masha Danzis, Alexandra Kuznetsova

© Evgenia Savkina

Alexandra Kuznetsova, curator of the exhibition, head of the Contemporary Art track, and Academic Supervisor of the Design programme at the HSE Art and Design School, said that a major, topical, and interesting theme is traditionally chosen for the major exhibition, ‘so that all artists, designers, and ceramicists can explore it,’ she stressed.

In the phenomenon of the Great Disorder, the curators see not only chaos, but also the opportunity for rethinking. ‘Wide-scale changes taking place in the universe bring new experiences, and our world is changing. We are in the process of a new assembling, in the process of global disorder,’ explains Masha Danzis, curator of the exhibition and the Video Art track at the HSE Art and Design School. ‘We don't consider disorder in a negative way: we try to find positive points and assert that we organise ourselves through chaos.’

During the open call stage, the key semantic blocks of the project were identified. These were then organised into themed halls at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation. The exhibition includes nine subsections, each of which reveals a different aspect of the theme of ‘The Great Disorder.’ The space at the Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art acts as a kind of prologue to the major exhibition.

‘We are looking at works that tell us how we are coping with the unstable global situation in the world today,’ explain the curators, noting that ‘many young artists presented biographical works that tell us about their inner and psychological state.’

Daria Lapshinova, second-year student of the HSE Master's programme in Contemporary Art Practice, is one of the exhibition participants. In her work Asters, Gymnastics, Magic, the artist reflects on the assumption that ‘attempts to rationalise our complex and diverse lives often lead only to more chaos.’ As part of the exhibition, the student presented four collage schemes that mix various images and text fragments, demonstrating the impossibility of structuring the world. The idea of the work came to her unexpectedly when she found three printed publications at the entrance to her building: one about growing flowers, another about gymnastics, and the third about magic. The scientific presentation of the topics seemed strange and inappropriate to the artist, who decided to implement a project that clearly shows the absurdity of this approach.

Zarmina Kuropatova, third-year student of the Design and Contemporary Art programme at the HSE Art and Design School, presented Dead End—an installation that creates an optical distortion. The anamorphosis in the work demonstrates that order is able to coexist with chaos and manifest itself only for a moment—and from a certain point of view.

Anastasia Yanson, fourth-year student of the Bachelor’s in Illustration and Comics at the HSE Art and Design School, presented the installation House of Chaos at the exhibition. The interactive exhibit is located in a darkened room and takes the form of a house made of plywood with a light bulb inside. The house is mobile and starts to sway when pushed. ‘I give the viewer an opportunity to unleash chaos at their own pace,’ explained Anastasia. Cold light and the absence of two walls destroy the idea of a house as a safe place, and a rounded foundation makes the structure unstable. ‘I don't want to say that chaos is something bad; it's a natural process. For me, a state of chaos is a sign of something alive,’ she shared. This is the student’s first experience of participating in an exhibition, as well as one of her first works created during the transition from illustration to modern subject art.

The exhibition serves as a platform for dialogue between artists of different schools and generations. It is a unique space that reveals the chaos around us from a new perspective. The exhibition will be of interest to anyone who loves contemporary art and is ready to reflect on the world from different angles, discovering new feelings and meanings.

Visitors can contemplate the installations of ‘The Great Disorder’ at the HSE ART GALLERY at the Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art until January 13, and at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation until February 1.

Text by Alexandra Snegireva