Curated by: Oleg Frolov

The Vadim Sidur Museum and the Moscow Museum of Modern Art proudly announce a
solo exhibition by Victor Zhdanov, I’m Leaving You. Here the artist takes on the role of a visual anthropologis: he addresses the issue of escapism and the possibility of constructing an alternative world.

Victor Zhdanov presents the «lyrical hero," who constructs his artistic practice as a way of escaping from a real world, unjust and cruel, into a fictional world created by the powers of art. The pieces of the project show different techniques of such an escape: automatic writing, explorations of personal folklore (recurring images and plots with personal meaning), and the creation of fictional languages and rituals.

The author is interested in the role of the lone artist, who avoids social trends. Here he finds similarities with the working biography of Vadim Sidur. Sidur’s post-apocalypse is understood in socio-historical terms as the state of the world after technogenic, military and natural disasters. By contrast, Zhdanov offers a personal interpretation of the post-apocalypse as a state of unbearability of everyday anti-human relations.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
Victor Zhdanov (born 1992, in Stary Oskol) is an artist and independent curator who lives and works in Moscow. Graduated from the Belgorod State Institute of Arts and Culture with a degree in graphic design (2015), from the Baza Institute (2019), and from HSE ART AND DESIGN SCHOOL with an MA in Pedagogy (2021). Initiator of the
Microbiennale of Horizontal Initiatives. Author of texts for aroundart, Art Journal, the website syg.ma. His artworks are in the collection of the Winzavod Contemporary Art Center and in private collections.

Solo projects: Into Silent Waves (Alisa gallery, Moscow, 2022), Struggle of Herbivores (Stary Oskol Art Museum, Stary Oskol, 2017).

Selected group exhibitions: Ultima Thule. Alada (SKLAD, Sukhum, 2022), Gudwin (Galerie Iragui, Moscow, 2020), Infographics (Cube. Moscow, Moscow, 2019), The poorest class: animals (Winzavod Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, 2019), Passing action number four (Elektrozavod Gallery, Moscow, 2019), Avoiding what might come out (Cech, Minsk, 2017).

Information partner: