TECHNE. Prologue exhibition at the National Center for Contemporary Arts

Goal

To work as the general contractor and to implement the ROSIZO team’s curatorial project that brought together the artists who work with new media.

The TECHNE.Prologue exhibition, launched in December 2017 by the National Museum and Exhibition Center ROSIZO, marked the first event in the series of show, educational and performance projects devoted to innovative and technological practices in art and to the contemporary artists’ interaction with the new media. This year’s key theme is the generative (procedural) art, created by computers or other autonomous and robotic systems with the help of algorithms. Natalia Fuchs curated the TECHNE exhibition platform along with her co-curator Antonio Geusa, and Dmitry Znamensky served as the project’s producer.

In addition to the early works of art that influenced and shaped this movement, the National Center for Contemporary Art venue presented contemporary objets d’art and video installations from the prominent Russian and international creators. The list of featured artists includes the founder of video art Nam June Paik, the Japanese media art master Ryoichi Kurokawa, conceptual artist Dmitry Prigov, media artist Dmitry Morozov (::vtol::), known for his robotic and sound installations, the pioneer of Soviet media art and creator of the legendary Prometheus Institute Bulat Galeyev, Blue Soup art group, Canadian creator of generative video Jeremy Bailey, the classical master of the Russian avant garde art Francisco Infante-Arana, and others. Some of the works were showcased in Russia for the very first time.

PITCH Bureau took part in the project as its general contractor. We had to design, build and assemble the venue, prepare and produce all of the printed materials, and oversee the exhibition’s engineering support and light design. In addition to this, we assembled and set up all of the kinetic and multimedia installations and objects that were displayed at the exhibit.

The correct placement of the exhibit items demanded that we take into account the special nature of the show whose basis was formed by the video installations. We had to rethink the relatively small space of the Center’s exhibit hall in such a way as to make sure that the audiovisual art works didn’t crowd each other out. During design stage, when we worked together with the architects from Workshop B, we developed the structural elements in the form of partition walls, organized as a labirinth, where the walls were merged at an angle with screens, while the upper part of the room was hidden with stretch ceilings. This allowed us to organize the room’s light- and soundproofing and to provide easy access to each of the works. Additionally, we had to make provisions for a special space that would host lectures, seminars and workshops. There was also a workshop for Dmitry Morozov, where he spent a month creating one of his works under the watchful gaze of the exhibit visitors.

The exhibition’s special nature also demanded the selection of optimal video projecting and sound equipment that would convey all of the content’s nuances, while operating smoothly throughout the exhibition. The works of Ryoichi Kurokawa, for example, were displayed with the help of 4K video projectors and sound equipment that allowed the visitors to hear the noises of different frequences, just like the artist imagined it would happen. The lecture hall was equipped with a motorized projection screen with projection equipment, while the walls were installed with built-in screen panels that could also show the works of video art.