SomoS is pleased to announce Back in Five, a solo exhibition by Hamburg-based Russian artist Anastasia Antipova, opening on February 10 from 6 – 9 pm. In this presentation, Antipova navigates her identity as a migrant artist, engaging with themes of connection and communication through an immersive large-scale installation of paintings, objects, sound design and video. This personal exploration acts as a contemplative space to reflect on on the dynamics of human relationships.

In Back in Five, the artist transforms the gallery into an evocative stage where the narrative unfolds in an imaginary laboratory, momentarily vacated by Antipova’s heroine, a researcher who investigates bridging the distance between people. Spread through this lab, her utopian prototypes investigate the potential of transcending physical and emotional distances through non-linguistic forms of communication. A goal close to to the artist’s heart, who views her difficulty with language as seminal to her artistic journey.

The exhibition’s tactile environment crafts a cocoon of introspection, marked by large-scale fabric paintings on draped curtains, reminiscent of the use of drapery in art and architecture through the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The spatial arrangement of the cloth leaves part of the painting hidden, promising discoveries beyond the immediate visual encounter.

A vast canvas centerpiece flows across a wall, adorned with notations, scribbles, graffiti, and depictions of hurt bunnies, foreboding cross-species silhouettes, and human figures on the move.

In another notable piece, Antipova’s interpretation of a bridge, two sculptural wooden pieces hung on opposite walls with draping fabric that hold paintings of two faces on them, one masculine looking and the other feminine. The piece shows a moment of miscommunication within a relationship, the space between the two ends of the ‘bridge,’ and the hardness of the wood juxtaposing with soft white fabric, which creates a dialogue between the resilience and tenderness within a relationship.

Antipova’s multidisciplinary approach, combining painting, video, metalwork, and audiovisual elements, wraps the viewer in a womb-like milieu, at once comforting and challenging. Her graphic black-on-white paintings, punctuated by pinks and reds, viscerally engage with her lived experiences of dislocation and identity reconstruction amidst the socio-political turbulence of her Russian heritage and German residence.

Through her paintings, Antipova delves into themes of womanhood, relationships, safety, and migration. Empowered with a uniquely female perspective and aesthetic, her installation uses female tropes only to disrupt them eventually. Back in Five offers a poignant reflection on the essence of home and belonging, framed by Antipova’s nomadic existence and the contemporary global context, making this exhibition not merely a personal statement but a resonant societal commentary.

About Anastasia Antipova

Anastasia Antipova, born in Tomsk, Russia, in 1997, is a multi-disciplinary artist whose journey began in tattooing before expanding into contemporary arts. A graduate of Philosophy and Contemporary Arts, Antipova’s narrative installations have been exhibited in Russia and Armenia and have seen her participate in residencies across Russia, Korea, and Germany. Now based in Hamburg to further her studies and a participant in the SomoS residency program in Berlin, her work continues to evolve, engaging audiences with its interdisciplinary narratives.

Details

Duration: February 13, 2024 – February 17, 2024, Tue – Sa, 2 – 7 pm
Opening reception: February 10, 6 – 9 pm Free entry

Location: SomoS – Kottbusser Damm 95, 1.0G, 10967, Berlin
Public Transport: U8 – Schönleinstraße