RU
SYNTAX
GALLERY
RU
ART FAIR
Syntax Gallery
in Cosmoscow
2020
24-27 September 2020
ABOUT
The concept of this year's display is Cultural Baggage and Unanswered Questions. The booth will feature works by Valery Chtak, Kirill Kto and the EliKuka duo – young artists of the same generation who gained prominence in the 2000s. Despite the overall dissimilarity and even polarity of their creative approaches, the artists are united by a tendency to use ironic allegory to examine current social and cultural processes.

Based on Syntax Gallery's previous experience of participating in the fair, the programme is centred around the interaction between the language and the image. To continue the tradition this year the booth's concept is defined by a triad of artists, for whom the language becomes a means of interaction with the outside world. Thus, the EliKuka duo's work can be metaphorically presented as a proto-language (a historically reconstructed language that existed before the appearance of modern language families). Kirill Kto'a oeuvre is marked by an extreme, uncomfortable frankness about what is happening to the language at the moment. Valery Chtak's statements transcend the limits of the language and embark on multilingual 'subtraction'.

B9
10–13 September, 2020
Gostiny Dvor, Moscow

ARTISTS
Valery Chtak
Valery Chtak (b. 1981) has developed his significant black and white painting style, an artistic language that he continues to explore to this day in the late 90s. Around the same time Chtak and friends attended an informal contemporary art school founded by Avdey Ter-Oganyan. Between 2000 and 2005 Chtak was part of the Radek Community – an artist association committed to staging cutting-edge performances.
Elikuka
The Elikuka group was founded in 2007 by Oleg Eliseev (b. 1985) and Evgeny Kukoverov (b. 1984). In their works the artists break the traditional rules of exhibiting the artworks, they explore different forms of folly and insolence in the art world. Elikuka became known for their kinetic and interactive installations: World Order Simulators, Propaganda of Photography, Rough Route. The group worked in collaboration with artists: Georgy Litichevsky, Valery Chtak, the Gelatin group (Austria) and many others. Artists live and work in Moscow.
Kirill
Lebedev (KTO)
Kirill Kto is a cult figure in Moscow's street art subculture, and has contributed to it not only through his diverse artistic practice, but also as one of the few theorists and curators of street art. Lebedev was involved in street art as part of the Zachem? collective (2002-2009) and No Future Forever collective (2005-2009). He co-organised Pasha 183's posthumous solo show Our Work is a Feat! at Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2014); initiated and oversaw the first street art prize in Russia, Street Contribution (2013); and co-curated the Wall project at Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art (2010–2013). Lives and works in Moscow.
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