«Tower building» 2013 oil on canvas collage Владимир Опара "Одинокий человек в котловане". 2016 Maria 2013. Object. computer parts. mixed media Депортация. 2010-2016. видео. найденные объекты.

CURATOR VITALY PATSUKOV
COMPUTER GRAPHICS MAYA OPARA

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents the exhibition project by Vladimir Opara «I exist in a constantly changing landscape». For the first time, the exhibition will join the artist’s projects that were previously shown in Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia, and Russia. The show includes video installations and series of multi-media works: emphatic powerful paintings with collage elements from the early 1990s, important large-scale multi-media installations such as «Avatars` Songs», «Deportation», «Skyline», objects and assemblages from the 2000s.

Encompassing artworks that are inspired by different events in the artist’s life the exhibition presents a continuous, partially auto-biographical, story. The exhibition design allows viewers to immerse themselves in a unique space which brings together various techniques and art forms such as painting, video, installation, text, and computer generated imagery. Offering a multifaceted perspective on eternal and current problems of humanity, referring to humanitarian and civilizational themes, the artist portrays a continuously changing natural, cultural and historical landscape of human life.

The exhibition in MMOMA is built around «Black Book. The Ark of Vladimir Opara», which was created especially for the occasion. The book as well as the exhibition has a multilayered structure and serves as a metaphor for the ark, which contains all that deserves to be salvaged and preserved, represents the history of humanity and invokes core human values.

In his complex works the artist makes use of documentary photographs from the 1930s, a video recorded by a camera placed on the dashboard of a moving car, video fragments produced in Germany, the Czech Republic, France, Latvia, Poland, the Netherlands, and Russia, data from various social media resources to convey his firsthand experience, create stories about continuous change, the creation and deconstruction of the human environment.

The exhibition «I exist in a constantly changing landscape» continues the series of Vladimir Opara’s art projects: «Iron Road» (1991, Moscow), «Claustrophobia» (1993-94, Moscow), "Bible Story: Boats and Trains«(2009, Riga, Latvia ), «Deportation» (2010, Dresden, Germany), «E-crucifix» (2012, Moscow), and the exhibition «Motion Landscape», which was presented in the autumn of 2016 in Pulchri Studio (Den Haag, the Netherlands).

The exhibition will be accompanied by lectures and exhibition tours conducted by the artist. Along with paintings, multimedia installations, texts and other exhibits they will offer another way of approaching Vladimir Opara’s work. The upcoming meetings will allow the viewer to get acquainted with the artist’s perception of the world. Lectures and screenings will shed light on the development of art practices in Russia from the early 1990s to the present day. Exhibition tours with the artist will take place every Thursday from 19:30 to 21:00. Additionally, as part of the MMOMA lecture program Vladimir Opara will conduct lectures every Wednesday from 19:30 to 21:00 and Sunday from 15:00 to 17:00 in the lecture hall of MMOMA (Tverskoy Boulevard 9).

Vladimir Opara (b. 1952) is a member of the Moscow Union of Artists, and the Association of Dutch artists PULCHRI STUDIO. Vladimir Opara participated in more than 120 group exhibitions in Russia, the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, Finland, and Norway and held 30 solo exhibitions in the USA, the Netherlands, Latvia, and Russia. His works are included in museum collections in Russia and abroad such as the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the National Center for Contemporary Arts, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the State Russian Museum, the Latvian National Museum of Art, Riga, amongst others.

Vitaly Patsukov is an art historian, curator, and contemporary art theorist. Vitaly Patsukov is the Head of the Department of Experimental Programs in the National Centre for Contemporary Arts. The scope of his research interests included visual arts and relationship between visual arts and other art forms.

Official websites of the project: www.opara.pro, www.opara.ru
Paint for the MMOMA exhibition is provided by Manders.