~ embassy of microterritories, March 2022 – ongoing
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After Uzbekistan and Russia the embassy of microterritories moved to Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. It arrived at The Observatory: Art and Life in Critical Zone at Södertälje Konsthall on September 23, 2023 resulting more than eighteen months of its migration. Being part of the Observatory it changed the place in February 2024 to Kin Museum of Contemporary Art, Sweden and currently stays there.
... is a series of meetings / micro-exhibitions where artists Natalia Peredvigina and Kirill Agafonov present their works and personal microterritories that previously made up Microterritory Gorod Ustinov. As well they present artefacts of other authors and microterritories, offering the public discussion and joint artistic practice.
“ In the face of a crisis at the level of international diplomacy we work at the level of interpersonal microdiplomacy. We open an embassy of our own and close microterritories interacting with new microterritories of people and places we meet. During a meeting / micro-exhibition we propose to share: what does support your life and constitute the symbolic land on which you base permanently or at the moment?
On March 10, 2022, we packed up and flew to Uzbekistan, fearing that Russia's borders would be closed and the government would announce a general mobilization under the Martial law. We understood that our future was under threat and the results of 14 years of life could be crossed out. The «diplomat» briefcase, produced in Ukraine in 1980, not only contained part of our artefacts, but also became a tool and a way to establish personal contact in a new environment. It also became an opportunity to represent what is important to us personally. We often took it with us to talk not mainly about politics and the national identity imposed on us, but more about what forms our and other personal lands, not allowing them to get out from under feet.
photo by Raya Doroshina
Two months later, in May, we arrived in Russia and continued to practice the embassy. We met with friends and colleagues and gradually expanded the circle of acquaintances and confidential communication. It has become important to engage in cultural practice without untimely visability. Now we are again outside of Russia and, as independent artists but together, we present the embassy of microterritories, thereby stitching the world. ”
After Uzbekistan and Russia the embassy of microterritories moved to Switzerland, Germany and Sweden. It arrived at The Observatory: Art and Life in Critical Zone at Södertälje Konsthall on September 23, 2023 resulting more than eighteen months of its migration. Being part of the Observatory it changed the place in February 2024 to Kin Museum of Contemporary Art, Sweden and currently stays there.