Curated by Mikhail Gulin (Minsk, Belarus)
The project "Palace COMPLEX" - started at the International Museum Day in the Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble. 23 contemporary artists from Belarus and the nearest countries presented sculpture, installation, video, photography and painting. They explored the questions of history of the Gomel Palace and Park and showed the variability of its interpretation.
Gomel Palace and Park Ensemble, as well as other historical places, can be treated as materialization of human’s memory. It saves the past and has a unique aura. The feeling of this aura gets even more complex comparing with the times of being the base of Soviet aristocratic culture. That’s due to the change of palace’s status (it turned into museum), its destructions and reconstructions, and, the key, the change of the historical context.
The "Palace COMPLEX" is an attempt to explore these questions and gently change the palace as well as the park with the help of contemporary art.
There can be various types of artistic expansion at the palace. For example, the works by Anna Sokolowa, Igor Savchenko, Sergei Zhdanovich actively transform the space. The works by Alexander Nekrashevich and Sergey Shabohin are mostly the imitations of possible exhibit items. Photo project of group "Revizia", objects and installations by Nikolaj Botvinnik, Oleg Jushko, Tatiana Radivilko, Artem Rybczynski, Sergei Popov, Antonina Slobodchikova, Mikhail Gulin, Tamara Sokolova, Anna Sokolova, Alex Lunev, Sergei Kiruschenko, Sergey Kozhemyakin, Konstantin Selikhanov, Alexey Ivanov, the land-art by Andrey Busel, painting by Alexander Nekrashevich and Tatiana Kondratenko are related to the themes of simulation and reality, time and memory, death and dead forms.
As it was emphasized by the curator of the project Mikhail Gulin, the exhibition is rather than for the experienced audience. There is a series of lectures to explain contemporary art without boring and mind-bending terms. On the contrary - to explain, intrigue and impress people. Exactly such projects help the art not to be just for “initiated”, to get closer to audience and demand feedback.