The Return of Memory

Unofficial histories, suppressed memories and strategies of resistance all converge in this major group exhibition, which seeks to redress the legacy of the Russian Revolution on its centenary by exploring how contemporary artists are responding to the state of the ‘New East’ today. Rather than a nostalgic look at the past, new commissions and existing works re-activate and repurpose key emblems and stories of this past – from the avant-garde and revolution to the collapse of the Communist system and ideology – addressing key questions around the concept of The Return of Memory, curated by Anya Harrison, Sarah Perks and Olya Sova. New commissions included a major multi-disciplinary project on St Petersburg’s Vavilov Research Institute of Plant Industry – one of the world’s largest seed banks – and the future of food security and evolution by Callum Cooper. Ruslan Vashkevich’s video installation Victory Over the Sun, reassesses the politics of the controversial Futuristic opera first organised by Kazimir Malevich and fellow avant-garde artists in 1913. Declan Clarke & Sarah Perks look at exactly who is betrayed by revolution, a legacy to their previous exhibition (What do you do with your revolution once you’ve got it?). The exhibition is accompanied by the publication Subkultura by Artemy Troitsky, co-published by The New Social & HOME, and the exhibition included a special film and performance programme. Artists: The Bureau of Melodramatic Research, Declan Clarke & Sarah Perks, Phil Collins, Callum Cooper, Gluklya, Moon Kyungwon & Jeon Joonho, Irina Korina, Victoria Lomasko, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Yevgen Nikiforov, Marta Popivoda, Aza Shadenova, Ruslan Vashkevich, X-Ray Audio.