Roots contemporary

contemporary

Alexey Iorsh

Conscience Bienveillante 15 Juillet – 12 Septembre 2010 à Bruxelles
Chacun de nous abrite un enfant au plus profond de soi: c’est la l’essence-même de notre
humanité. Chez le tyran, chez le dictateur, cet enfant veille sur leurs actes meurtriers. Sans
le vouloir, innocemment, l’enfant observe le monde a travers les yeux de l’adulte qui l’abrite.
Il le fait de l’intérieur, avec intérêt et surprise (curiosité ?). Cet enfant souffre de l’injustice du
Monde, de ses pertes, de sa cruauté, de sa dureté, des souffrances endurées. Quoi que
fasse l’adulte, quel qu’il soit, son enfant intérieur souffre et observe le monde extérieur avec
douceur, tout en interrogations muettes.
Vue de l’extérieur, l’Urss apparaissait comme l’Empire du Mal. Mais il existe un autre point
de vue, celui de l’intérieur. De ce point de vue, la plupart des enfants soviétiques croyaient
réellement que tout allait bien dans leur pays, qu’ils habitaient un monde bon et ensoleillé,
protégé des aspérités de l’existence, car quelqu’un de bon et fort veillait sur eux.
Ils étaient convaincus que les règles imposées étaient toutes celles qu’on leur avait
annoncées, et que la recette de leur Bonheur futur était a portée de main. Cette perception
du monde, cette particularité de l’enfance commune à tant d’adultes explique la frustration
ressentie par nombre de citoyens ex-soviétiques lorsqu’ils se sont retrouvés dans la vérité
crue de l’économie de marché. Ils ne comprenaient simplement pas ce qui n’allait pas. On
enseignait aux Jeunes Pionniers, par exemple, qu’il fallait être honnête, juste, bon et droit.
Qu’y a-t-il de mal à cela ? Avec l’avènement du capitalisme dans sa phase initiale et
sauvage, ces qualités se sont avérées inutiles. Elles étaient même parfois un handicap.
Ceci n’est pas exclusivement un problème propre à l’Union Soviétique. Hommes et femmes
de n’importe quelle culture ou de n’importe quel héritage culturel peuvent être troublés par le
conflit posé lorsque les principes moraux appris à l’école ou dans une institution religieuse
se heurtent aux réalités d’un monde dur en transition entre deux systèmes et deux éthiques.
L’Union Soviétique n’est qu’un exemple parmi d’autres dans l’Histoire de l’Humanité.
“L’Empire du Mal”, l’URSS, était une sorte d’éternel jardin d’enfants pour tous ceux qui s’y
trouvaient enfermés. Fallait-il recourir a la force pour éliminer ce type de frustration ? Fallait-
il écrire de nouvelles lois et règlements exhortant tous ceux qui ne correspondaient pas aux
normes à arrêter leurs enfantillages et grandir rapidement ? Fallait-il tout simplement tuer cet
enfant intérieur pour sa naïveté têtue ?
Il ne le fallait pas. Nous avons le devoir d’aider cet enfant a grandir, a acquérir de la
sagesse, tout en préservant d’autres aspects de sa personnalité. Ce n’est pas imposer les
lois et les règles qu’il faut mais aller vers le Concept Bouddhiste de Conscience
Bienveillante. Il faut avant tout aider nos enfants intérieurs à grandir. Lorsque nous aurons
enfin compris que nous sommes tous enfants et parents les uns des autres, nous verrons
que ce n’est qu’en conservant ces enfants intérieurs que nous préservons notre capacite a
survivre et a avoir une belle vie.
Dans ses peintures, l’artiste russe, ou plutôt l’artiste né en Union Soviétique, Alexei Iorch,
tente de capter l’enfant intérieur tapi dans ses personnages.
Il observe sans indignation morale, avec compassion

Chai Yiming

Chai Yiming is like a sorcerer: only when God wakes up in him and gives him the urge to
work, does he set to work. He is only a vector, allowing a higher existence to control him.
The multiple worlds which are apparent in Yiming’s works amaze the viewer. In these worlds,
reality becomes a fantasy, nothing has anything to do with the profane world and everything
evolves in a somnambulistic state. The artist himself then becomes a “waking sleepwalker”,
walking in all directions. Or to put it differently, Yiming is a “sleeping” artist: in this sleeping
state, he is permanently creating. Whenever he leaves daily life behind and enters the
unfettered world of his art, a myriad of images pours out of his chaotic consciousness onto
the paper, like snowflakes falling onto the ground. He then drifts among these aimless
images, and this for him is a happy and light-hearted moment.
Yiming Chai
1965 Born in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, P.R.China
1987 Graduate from Design Department of Shanghai Commercial Academy, now lives in
Shanghai
Exhibitions:
1991 Double Exhibition, West Shanghai workman’s culture Centre
1996 Double Exhibition, Shanghai huashan academy
1999 “zoo Bar” Exhibition
2000 “park 97” Exhibition
2000 “inertia & falsity” Exhibition
2001 “Chaiyimin’ works” Exhibition
2001 “abnormity£≠works on the paper”, Shanghai
2001 “THE ROOM WITH A VIEW GALLERY” Exhibition, Shanghai
2001 “THE INK” WALSH Gallery, Chicago, USA
2002 “BIZART” exhibition, Shanghai
2002 “Rotate360-chinese plan art exhibition”, Paragold international art centre
2003 “Asien-Pazifik WochenGroup Exhibition¨Aedes Gallery Berlin
2004 Group Exhibition, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, USA
2005 “Progress” Eastlink Gallery, Shanghai
2006 “Position & Regression” Exhibition, Shanghai
2006 “Urban Backyard” Exhibition, Shanghai
2006 “Exhibition for three” Omaha, USA
2007 “Chaiyimin’ works” Exhibition, Old Bailey Gallery, Hong Kong
2008 “Spring equinox” Solo Exhibition, Aroundspace, Shanghai
2009 “Merging Emerging-Art, Utopia and Virtual Reality” MOCA, Shanghai
2009 Group exhibition, Roots contemporary, Moscow
2009 Group exhibition, paper works, Shanghai

Maral Bolouri

From Iran to Kenya, it is the subjugation of women in countless settings that has compelled
Bolouri to make provocative art, expressing her aversion to gender discrimination. She
observes the effects that various religious texts have had on the role and treatment of
women and uses her art to communicate the unreasonable demands made of women and
the inequality of opportunity and freedom between the sexes.
Sometimes subtle, other times overt, Bolouri’s suggestive illustrations expose the
impertinence of some religious teachings and practices that first objectify women and then,
rather ironically, place them at the bottom of the food chain. For those blind to the more
inconspicuous disparities that exist in a sexist society, she exposes the nuances of the
gender struggle, hoping to instigate questions about our irrational gender socialisation
process and the collective constructs we thoughtlessly endure.
Using elements of Persian miniature painting including Persian motifs, features from Persian
architecture and illustrations drawn within rectangular stalls, her ink-work, photocopy
transfers and drawings are triggered by both current affairs and observations of the history of
mankind. Looking at the effects of tradition and law in multiple societies, Bolouri takes a bold
step exposing the powers that proliferate the injustices of our world.
Growing up with a large collection of art books at home, Bolouri’s parents fostered her
interest in the arts and in her last year of high school, she began private art classes under
the mentorship of award-winning graphic designer and Illustrator Hafez Miraftabi, who she
says “opened her eyes to a world of drawing, poetry, art history and drama.” In 2001, she
attended pre-university at the Soureh University of Fine Art. Later she graduated from the Art
University of Tehran in 2008, followed by a Master’s program in Malaysia at the Limkokwing
University of Creative Technology, where she pursued a research-based course in
International Contemporary Art and Design Practice.
And so, from the tense milieu in Tehran, where Bolouri was born and raised, to the mad-cap
city of Nairobi, where she currently shares a studio with her husband, artist Andrew Mwini, at
Kuona Trust Arts Centre, Bolouri explores the gender stereotypes imposed on women.
ZIHAN KASSAM
Art Correspondent (Africanah.org)

Yang Hui-Bahai

Yang Hui known as Bahai, graduated from the National Academy of Decorative Arts in
Beijing. He participates at the New Wave of Chinese Art in the 80´in Shanghai. He was
Professor of Art at the University of Light Industry in Shanghai, Fine Arts Department from
1986 to 1990.
He is recognised as one of the major abstract Chinese Painters. His name is reported in the
“History of Chinese Contemporary art 1985-1986”(1991) and in “The History of abstract
Shanghai Art”(2006).The Shanghai born artist immigrates to France after Tiananmen. He is
Chinese by birth, French by nationality and Shanghainese in his heart.
Bahai works since 20 years between France and China. He has participated to numerous
exhibitions, solo or group in Galleries and Museum all over China, Taiwan, France and
Russia. In Shanghai, Bahai is also known as the testimony photographer of the 1990. In
2007, his solo exhibition: “The old folk in the teahouses” at the Duolun Museum Of
Contemporary Art, brings him back on the front of the art scene. Curated by Jiang Wei, the
exhibition creates a link between Chinese abstract painting and the reality of Chinese life.
Born in 1962, lives and works in Shanghai.

Andrey Volkov

“If you ask me what art is I can’t tell you. If you don’t ask me, I know immediately” Malevitch
One of the most difficult questions for me is one about the style. It turns me back to borders
and limitations, while my understanding of the sense of creation is a search of freedom.
Nevertheless, any continuous process implies a certain method and language. It was not a
«choice of a style», but looking for personal, inherent media.
My first visual memories are of the paintings by my father, uncle and grandfather that hung
around my cradle together with early European works from the family collection. Abstract
and representative, classic and modern – an integral environment of art. It was not a
permanent exhibition – paintings were rehung (one of my favourite childhood games) – for
exhibitions, or, more often, home-shows because were living in a time of and bureaucratic
control. Looking at father´s work in the studio, family atmosphere, and a feeling of pure
happiness during a first experience of mixing colours, without «artistic tasks» – thus painting
became my mother tongue – despite being declared dead, as I was told later.
Of course, later a painter has to go through years of study and experimenting as a
professional to feel the temptations of «pure classic» and «hip contemporary». You must
experience many things before discovering and gaining confidence in your own style.
My paintings use colour as a language or a «metaphor», in a way that is closer to poetry
than philosophy. but without words or music without sound. that is in a way closer to poetry
than philosophy. It is a sort of a poetry beyond words, or music without sound. Minimising
representational side of a picture, I´m trying to reach maximum phonation of each colour. I
discovered the expressive power of red in 2000 while working on& «The Red Mirror» and
have been under its spell ever since. Reds seems to have inexhaustible possibilities – both
warm and cold, expressive and silent. – you just must compare the reds in Russian icons, in
trecento paintings or in Malevich and Rothko to understand the power of this colour. When
using oil paint, red can be both translucent and opaque, a thick paste or a delicate lacquer.
It´s possible to express almost everything with red and it´s just beautiful.

Dasha Krotova

Dasha Krotova focuses on the insignificant things of life, on that which has been lost. For
her, the very material with which she works ceramics is precious through its peculiar,
extreme fragility. Unlike bronze, marble, and all that which is used to impart longevity to an
object, ceramics break easily. Ceramics have a strange type of eternity -that of remains, of
the fragment, which the archaeologist will one day find during an excavation.
The fragile and the ephemeral, the insignificant, the every-day suddenly become eloquent as
the years and centuries go by. They do not so much speak of the tastes and aesthetics of
the time, but rather of mankind itself. Ceramics are a testimony, a sign, burnt clay, malleable
material, a metaphor for human flesh itself, which bears marks of time and change.
Daria (Dasha) Krotova was born in Moscow.
She has studied in Russia, USA and France, and holds degrees in History of Art and
Psychology. She has translated articles and books in philosophy, poetry, esthetics,
psychology. Dasha has practiced ceramics since 1997 in France and Moscow, where she
now lives and works as an artist.
EDUCATION: Various art studios (France, Russia),
1997-2008, Professional training in ceramics, drawing and painting University of Aix-
Marseilles, 1993-1998, Advanced degree (DEA) in History of Art, Russian Avant Garde
University of North Carolina,
1991-1993, Master’s in psychology (minor in Art) Moscow State University,
1989-1991, Bachelor of Science, Psychology of development
PERSONNAL AND GROUP EXHIBITS:
2009
Gallery Ravenscourt, Installation, Art-Moscow
Central House of Artists, Group exhibition “Fast Art 3”, Art-Moscow
Krokin Gallery, Group exhibition “tractorist”, Moscow
3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Moscow
Triumph gallery, Group exhibition “Simple things”, Moscow
2008
Red October, Group exhibition “Invasion-Evasion”, Baibakov art project , Red October
Factory, Moscow
Winzavod, Group exhibition “Fast Art 2” – Archeology of culture, Moscow
2007
Central House of Artists, Group exhibit “Joyful morgue” – Introspection Art-Moscow
2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Mosco

Efimov Vladislav

Both as a conceptualist artist and a photographer, Vladislav Efimov has always been
concerned with objects. This has been the case ever since his first solo exhibition of a set of
images of objects, in the “Shkola” gallery in 1991.
Later he turned to real objects, rather than their images. He then evolved from a “chamber”
photographer into a video and media artist, working with the computer adept Aristakh
Chernyshevsky (Moscow) and Sergei Denisov (St. Petersburg). He also established himself
as a noteworthy professional photographer of architecture for various journals.
Meanwhile, his beloved objects underwent extraordinary transformations in various
interactive installations: they grew feathers, appeared in a fiery halo, made table formations
or lined up in ranks, formed absurd organisms and mechanisms. They did “genetic
gymnastics”, or self-destructed after being photographed and lay down in small box-coffins.
Efimov has always lived and worked in small premises, surrounded by a multitude of
objects, from old useless things to modern gadgets and professional equipment. However, in
his living space, there is none of that romantic chaos associated with creative natures. All
the small objects are neatly tidied away, awaiting that magic moment when they will be made
to come alive. The artist’s source of inspiration, though, does not come so much from fairy-
tales, as from alchemy and the mythology of classical science. His chosen objects are either
old-fashioned or extremely simple.
As photographer, Efimov has produced a meticulous inventory of the Constructivist
architecture of Petersburg (then Leningrad) and Moscow. His work is represented as a
series of photos and luminous boxes. His “New Leningrad” exhibition will be presented in
Brussels on 30th March 2011 in Roots Contemporary. In 2009, Efimov won the Innovatsia
prize for the best Russian artist, with a project on radio and free speech. He has had
exhibitions in Russia, France, Sweden, and Germany. He is official photographer for the
NCCA Moscow Modern Art Centre.

Irina Zatulovskaya

Née en 1954 à Moscou, où elle vit et travaille.
Diplômée de Moscow Polygraphic Institute en 1976 et fait partie du Moscow
Union of Artists 3 ans plus tard.
1977 : peint dans le style classique d’Ecole de Moscou
1981 : son « Portrait de Mikhail Rudakov et son épouse » a été retiré de l’Exposition
des Portraits de la Maison centrale des Artistes à Moscou pour « Représentation
inexacte de l’homme soviétique »
1987 : expose pour la première fois des oeuvres sur bois et commence des
travaux sur des tôles et morceaux de métaux
1988 : premier voyage à l’étranger pour une exposition de groupe
Expositions solo (sélection)
2008 Twenty years after, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
(Finlande) Carnet de voyage, Galerie Alain Le
Gaillard, Paris
2007 Uomi e Bestii, Nina Lumer Galleria, Milan
Two Sarafans, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
2006 Iron, Wäinö Aaltonen Museum, Turku (Finlande)
Russian Christmas, Wäino Aaltonen Museum, Tufku (Finlande)
2005 Paintings on Metal, Matthew Bown Gallery, Londres
Irina Zatulovskaya, Fondazione Orestiadi, Gibellina (Italie)
2004 Cloistral Cabbage, Pokrova Monastero, Jovas, (Finlande)
2003 Trials, Musée Russe, Saint-Petersbourg
2002 The Lost Neglinka, Ulitsa O.G.I Project Gallery, Moscou
2001 Egg, Londres
New Sculptures, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
2000 Irina Zatulovskaya, Mitki-VKuTEMAS Gallery, St-Petersbourg
1997 The Chapel and Beyond, Galerie Anhava, Helsinki
1996 Russian Retablos, Galleri Lars Bohman, Stockholm (Suède)
1992 Irina Zatulovskaya, Galleri Lars Bohman – Stockholm Art Fair
1991 Irina Zatulovskaya, Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki Zatulovskayan,
1990 Neglinka is out of the tube, Centre d’Art Contemporain, Moscou
1989 Festivals, Raab Gallery (of Berlin), Londres
Expositions de groupe (sélection)
2009 Lena Cronqvist, Outi Heiskanen and Irina Zatulovskaya : Kolme
sisarta – TR1 Exhibition Centre, Tampere (Finlande)
2008 A(rt)R(ussia)T(oday)-index, National Museum of Arts, Riga
(Lettonie)
2005 Three Sisters : Lena Cronquvist, Outi Heiskanen, Irina
Zatulovskaya, Waldemarsudde, Stockholm
2004 Paradise – Moscow International Forum of Art Initiatives
THE CLOSE CIRCLE – M’Ars Gallery, Moscou
2003 The State Prize Exhibition, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscou
2001 Moscow Intenrational Forum of Art Initatiatives,
Central Exhibtion Hall Maly Manezh
2000 Art of the 20th Century, Tretyakov Gallery, Moscou
1998 Euro’Art, Barcelone
1996 New Angels, Volterra (Italie)
1991 Edinburgh Festival, Gallery 369 (Ecosse)
1990 Contemporary Russian Art, Rome
1989 Chicago Art Fair, Raab Gallery
Stockholm Art Fair, Galerie Forsblom
Transformation. The Legacy of Authority, Candem Arts Centre, Londres
1988 Contemporary Art from Moscow – Galerie Forsblom, Helsinki
1987 A Private View, Gallery 369, Edinbourgh
Collections des musées (sélection)
Galerie Tretyakov, Moscou
Le Musée Russe, Saint-Petersbourg
Musée National des Beaux-Arts Pouchkine, Moscou
Musée d’Art Moderne de Moscou
Helsinki City Art Museum
Musée d’Art moderne Kiasma, Helsinki
Musée Pori Art (Finlande)
SM’s – Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch (Pays-Bas)
Musée Warsaw (Pologne)
M’Ars – Musée d’Art Contemporain, Moscou
MART – Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain de Trente, Rovereto (Italie)
Bibliographie
– Chekhov, Rotshchild’s Vilolin (in Japanese), Japanese edition by Publisher
Michitani, Co. Ltd, Tokyo, 2005
– Chekhov, The Student (in Japanese), 2005
– Rikard Ekholm. Upprepningens tyranni. Bergman och Cronqvist – tva sidor av
samma mynt ? mars 10, 2005
– The New Testament story for Children and Grown-ups, Orthodox Sisterhood in
the Name of Martyr Elizabeth, 2004
– Rikard Ekholm. Upprepningens tyranni. Bergman och Cronqvist – tva sidor av
samma mynt ? mars 10, 2005
– Nederland : Heimwee naar eindeloze steppen. Brabants Dagblad – Mark van
der Voort, RUS Media, 24.12.2003
– Irina Zatulovskaya. Trials, State Russian Museum, 2003
– Graphics of the XX century. New Arrivals. Exhibittion catalogue, State
Tretyakov Gallery. Moscow, 2003
– <<Искусство женского рода». Exhibition catalogue, State Tretyakov Gallery.
Moscow, 2002
– The Chapel and Beyond. Exhibition catalogue, Anhava Gallery. Helsinki, 1998
– Irina Zatulovskaya. From the Life. Open Society Institute, Soros Foundation.
Moscow 1998
– Vladimir Yakovlev (1934-1998). Exhibition in Three Parts : Life of the Artist in
drawings and dialogues from Irina Zatulovskaya Sketchbook. Exhibion booklet,
Gallery O.G.I. Moscow, 1998
– М.Михайлова. <<15th century art solves 2000 year old problems». Moscow
Tribune, 23.05.1998
– I. Zatulovkaya, S. Gorshkov. About Men and Women. St-Petersburg. 1996
– Russian Retablos. Exhibition catalogue. Galerie Lars Bohman. Stockholm, 1996
– Bogdan Mamonov. Irka’s House. Hnowledge ) Power magazine n°6, 1996
– I. Rozivskaya ; Conversation with the Priest about Irina Zatulovskaya art.
Knowledge –Power magazine n°6
– Khudozhestvennyj Zhumal (Art Magazine) n°9, 1996
– Ekaterina Dyogot. House for the Artist, Visitors, Art anf Life. Kommersant-
Daily, 18.11.1995
– The Elements. Exhibition catalogue. Galerie Lars Bohman. Stockholm, 1994
– Maria Lind. Forortstagen ramar, Paletten 213 magazine, N2, 1993
– Moskovia Bank collection. Contemporary Figurative Art. Exhibition catalogue.
Moscow, 1992
– Transformation. The Legacy of Authority. Exhibition catalogue. Camden Arts
Centre, London, 1989-1990
– Meeting of the world, Me Naiset, N25, 1990, Finland
– Gertrud Sandquist. Konsten ar en bon Irina Zatulovskaya, Hufvudstadsbladet,
26 june, 1990
– Labyrinth : New Art from Moscow. Exhibition catalogue, Hamburg, 1989
– Tatyana Levina. Irina Zatulovskaya. Exhibition catalogue, Raab Gallery,
London, 1989
– Moscow Private View. Exhibition catalogue, 369 Gallery, Edinburgh – London,
1987
– Young Soviet Artists. Exhibition catalogue, Denmark,

James Muriuki

James Muriuki – In Transition – June 2011 in the frame of 8th Tarifa African Film Festival
This exhibition presents James’s work in progress. It is his engagement with a city and by
extension a country in transition. A transition that has been expected for long.
Recent strides in business opportunities with the east, consumer spending, inflows of
currency from the Diaspora and other factors fuelling it. Many streets and neighbourhoods in
Nairobi are being transformed every day by its shifting architecture. In the last few years
road infrastructure set the pace for expansion and land prices skyrocketed as developers
and speculators go for every available square foot.
There are many that are left out relegated to spectators. They hear and read about
development statistics, and work on the very spaces that generate the statistics. Many of
those left searching for hope, console themselves as having found it in the Pentecostal
phenomena, which is not left behind in the rush for growth and expansion.
The church leaders ‘quest to conquer new grounds in the sprawling peri-urban and rural
landscapes. They wear smart and flamboyant attire oozing confidence in the name of Jesus
and rebuke the spirit of hopelessness and despair from their followers, who are only required
to make a generous contribution to the work of God.
The new youngsters have their space too. It is a generation that is highly connected to the
rest of the world as it has grown knowing the mobile phone and the internet. Alternative attire
and apparels have been coming from China and style found common ground in the public
transport. The ever vibrant Matatu (aka ma-three or matt) has had its internal
metamorphosis each stage claimed by its generation. It has become an icon, at least to
many in Nairobi, of an urban culture and identity