Olga Kisseleva’s solo show.

Olga Kisseleva is one of the key figures in international science art, a form of art whose prime medium is scientific know-how and cutting-edge technology. In her work, the artist turns to exact sciences such as the latest developments in biology and physics as well as political and social research. Working in close cooperation with the Sorbonne’s research centers, Kisseleva’s studio laboratory carries out experiments to back up her artistic hypothesis while never failing to reverently adhere to scientific methods used in relevant fields of knowledge.

The project on display at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation is titled SUPERMAN - IGNORAMUS. The phrase was coined by the prominent futurist and philosopher and one of the pioneers of Russian cosmism, Nikolai Fyodorov. This was the title of one of his essays analyzing Friedrich Nietzsche’s ideas. But the present exhibition is not about Nietzsche. Identifying oneself as a superman, reevaluating your own capabilities and significance is something people have been thinking about for centuries but, as of late, the issue has been taking on increasingly bizarre forms and alarming proportions. Humanity today consider themselves to be the omnipotent rulers of the world who are seemingly capable of regulating not only the processes developing within the human civilization (which in fact we still have not learnt to handle) but also those happening in the Earth’s nature and even in space. This is exactly why the present-day man, heavily equipped with all sorts of smartphones, sensors, gauges and gadgets, feels like a kind of superman while still being an ignoramus as compared with the Supreme Intelligence as manifested in the nature, the space and philosophy.

In her work, Olga Kisseleva addresses themes that Fyodorov defined as Copernican architecture, phantom autonomy and ideographic script through experiments with perception of time and space, territorial dynamics, with outlining alternative forms of intellect by way of studying and restoring ancient futurist knowledge. The results of this research are presented at the exhibition in the form of several installations created in situ and materials documenting some of the large-scale projects the artist staged at various cultural and research institutions across the world.