Yefimov Vladislav Eduardovich

Collection of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, Moscow; Contemporary Art Collection of the State Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve, Moscow; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; Incombank, Moscow; Museum of Contemporary Art, Mexico City, Mexico; Private collections in Russia, USA, and Germany.

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2008 "Criti-Pop". Electroboutique, Vladislav Yefimov, Aristarkh Chernyshev, Alexei Shulgin, MMOMA, Moscow
2007 For Radio. Electroboutique ViewStation. ARTStrelka, Moscow
2006 Preparations and Aids (with S. Denisov). Arsenal. NCCA, Nizhny Novgorod
2005 Entertaining Physics (with S. Denisov). As part of the 5th festival "Contemporary Art in a Traditional Museum", Blockade Museum, St. Petersburg
CoMutation (with A. Chernyshev). Parallel program of the 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, XL Gallery, Moscow
2004 Echo of the Airwaves (with A. Chernyshev). As part of the 4th festival "Contemporary Art in a Traditional Museum", Central Communications Museum named after A.S. Popov, St. Petersburg
Preparations and Aids (with S. Denisov). Mansarda NCCA, Moscow
Bubbles (with A. Chernyshev). XL Gallery, Moscow
Video works screening (with A. Chernyshev). Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA), London, UK
2002 I'll be back (with A. Chernyshev). XL Gallery, Moscow
Nirvana (with A. Chernyshev). Gallery "Ulitsa O.G.I.", Moscow
Project for a monument to Arnold Schwarzenegger as Terminator T-800. Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria
Untitled. Photo exhibition. Gallery "Ulitsa O.G.I.", Moscow
2001 In Lenin's Places. As part of the Yuri Avvakumov project "24". Moscow House of Photography, Moscow
Genetic Gymnastics 2 (with A. Chernyshev). As part of the 2nd festival "Contemporary Art in a Traditional Museum". Apartment Museum of Academician I. Pavlov, St. Petersburg
2000 Genetic Gymnastics (with A. Chernyshev). Club "Dom", Moscow
1999 Music from Retorts. Visual musical performance (with A. Chernyshev and A. Borisov). As part of the "Ichthyology" music festival, Club "Dom", Moscow
Resurrected Objects (with N. Kotel). Gallery "Rotonda", Moscow
Music from Retorts. Visual musical performance (with A. Chernyshev and "F.R.U.I.T.S." group). As part of the annual digital music festival "Electric Future", Central House of Artists, Moscow
1998 Shining Prosthetics (with A. Chernyshev). TV Gallery, Moscow
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2006 Let There Be Video! Russian Video Art 1996-2006. Within the framework of ART Moscow 2006. Central House of Artists, Moscow
Innovation. Final exhibition of works submitted for the 2005 Contemporary Visual Art Prize, NCCA, Moscow
2005 Art Basel Miami Beach. XL Gallery. Collins Park at the Beach, Miami Beach, Florida, USA
Observatori-05. Mitos - Idolos - Hibridos. La Sala Naranja Gallery Project, Valencia. Museo Principe Felipe, Valencia, Spain
Artists of the Beginning of the Century. Video art. WAM Gallery, Moscow
Portrait of a Face. Marat Gelman Gallery. Center for Contemporary Arts M'ARS, Moscow
Water Pieces 05. Noass Gallery, Riga, Latvia
A second side. International Biennale of Contemporary Art IBCA 2005. National Prague Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic
P.S. Beyond the Red Horizon. NCCA, Moscow
Graz - Moscow. NCCA, Moscow
2004 Seven Sins. Moderna Galerija Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Art is Illusion. RuArts Gallery, Moscow
Art Moscow 2004. XL Gallery. Central House of Artists, Moscow
Faster than History. Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki, Finland
2003 XL Style. XL Gallery, Moscow
Last Hero. Estonian Art Museum in cooperation with NCCA, Moscow. Exhibition hall at the Rotermann Salt Storage, Tallinn, Estonia
AiR_port takeOFF 1. Forum Stadtpark, Graz, Austria
Typewriter. Exhibition from the "Little Things" series. PRO ARTE Institute Exhibition Hall, St. Petersburg
2002 Transformations. Mansarda NCCA, Moscow
Photobiennale`02. Manezh, Moscow
Snegurochka / Sniezynka. New Art from Russia. National Gallery of Contemporary Art "Zahenta", Warsaw, Poland
2001 Hotel "Moscow". Hotel "Moscow", Moscow
Exhibition of Contemporary Russian Art. Schloss Graffenegg, Vienna, Austria
Milano Europe - 2000. La Triennale di Milano, Milan, Italy
Art Moscow Workshop. Central House of Artists, Moscow
Art Moscow 2001. Central House of Artists, Moscow
8th Cairo Biennale. NCCA. Palace of Arts, Cairo, Egypt
Borders. Travelling exhibition of contemporary art. NCCA. Art Museum, Kurgan/Regional Museum of Fine Arts, Kemerovo/Volgograd Museum and Exhibition Center, Volgograd/Ulyanovsk Museum of Contemporary Fine Arts named after A.A. Plastov, Ulyanovsk
Iskusstvo 2000. Kunstverein Rosenheim, Rosenheim, Germany
2000 Art Against Geography. State Russian Museum, Marble Palace, St. Petersburg
Borders. Travelling exhibition of contemporary art. NCCA, Picture Gallery, Novosibirsk
6 Russo. Contemporanea arti e culture, Milan, Italy
Series. Exhibition of contemporary art. NCCA, Manezh, Moscow
Dynamic Pairs. Exhibition project for the 10th anniversary of the Marat Gelman Gallery. Manezh, Moscow/Architects' House, Nizhny Novgorod
Interpersonal Art. Zverev Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Curatorial projects:
2004 War Game. Collective project of students of the ProArte Institute (with A. Chernyshev). As part of the 4th festival "Contemporary Art in a Traditional Museum", Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineers and Signal Corps, St. Petersburg
Festivals and Awards:
2005 Observatori-05. Mitos - Idolos - Hibridos. La Sala Naranja Gallery Project, Valencia. Museo Principe Felipe, Valencia, Spain
2004 Extra Short Film Festival (ESF - 2004). Grand Prix in the "Animation" category (with A. Chernyshev), Novosibirsk
2003 Electric Visions. The first festival of Russian and Scandinavian video art. Russia-Finland-Scandinavia
Empty. 2nd Street Festival of Video Art. Kadasheskaya Embankment, Moscow
2002 Kansk - 2002. The first International Kansk Video Festival. Shortlist. "Voskhod" cinema, Kansk, Russia
2001 Extra Short Film Festival (ESF - 2001). Grand Prix in the "Video" category (with A. Chernyshev), Novosibirsk
Kino. Video. Tele. Film festival. Graz, Austria

"In order to remain a normal person in modern society, you urgently need to go insane. Only then can you keep up with the times. You need to use all the inventions that humanity has created, even if you don’t need them at all. They invented the radio – use it! They invented television – use it! They invented the internet – use it immediately! The human genome was decoded – change yourself!!! Those who cannot go insane must be sent for treatment in a madhouse.
Rewrite this letter a hundred times, and you will find happiness."
Vladislav Yefimov and Aristarkh Chernyshev

"For as long as I’ve known Yefimov, he has always lived and created in small spaces, surrounded by numerous objects: from old useless trinkets to trendy gadgets and professional equipment, not to mention the ever-present books (later 'offloaded' into a single e-book), disks, and photos. The format of the interior space not only rigidly determined the size of each member of the numerous population of objects. I suspect its pressure became the main force that created the magical portal through which Yefimov’s objects poured into the void of virtual dimensions, where they acquired voices, the ability to move, and other, paranormal qualities for real things. At the same time, Yefimov was never interested in the ordinary, well-known life of things. In his living spaces, no one will find the romantic chaos typical of creative individuals. All the little stuff is neatly stored, awaiting something akin to what happens to objects in H.C. Andersen’s tales when humans are absent.

However, Yefimov draws his knowledge about the secret of things not so much from fairy tales, but from the history of alchemy and the mythology of classical science, applying them to the objects in his immediate surroundings. Still, not to all of them. His chosen ones lack the characteristic design of modernity: they are either old-fashioned or extremely simple, as if long exposure freed them from the mark of the present moment. And when the photographer places any of them in the center of the frame, one can see not only the magical origins of things, but also all conceivable transmutations, all endings and beginnings.

Vladimir Levashov
Review of the exhibition "Where Things Are" 2008

"Vladislav Yefimov and Aristarkh Chernyshev are pioneers of Russian multimedia art. And in our time, this is the most interesting, freshest part of our art. The artists met in 1995 in Germany and have been working together ever since. They are interested in parascientific folklore—that is, what we usually regard as science. They laugh at scientific-technical pop culture and at us."
Vladimir Salnikov, from the book "The Natural Taste of Chewing Gum"

What does even the briefest retrospective look at Vladislav Yefimov’s work give us? Probably a sense of stasis and physical density, the materiality emanating from the enigmatic objects he creates. Photography serves as a kind of farewell border, a sheet of plexiglass used to cover some fragile or precious (in every sense of the word) object. Photography immortalizes and mummifies. But how can you consign something that is already located in eternity? What are all these unprecedented creatures, fragments, devices, the organic caught in its intricately-built fusion with the inorganic, if not moments of stopped, interrupted life?

But other combinations, other connections emerge. Once constructed, the object ends up in the photographic field and thus experiences its second death (the first being its creation, its shaping, its placement in a simple shaded backdrop, so that nothing distracts from it—a kind of mourning ritual; a washing, the removal of clinging dust, so that the unveiling essence may transition wrapped in its shroud). Surviving this double dying, the object nevertheless demonstrates the pseudo-life of its newly grouped parts. These parts fatally never build up into a whole, and in their united yet separate existence—within the boundaries of the photographic sheet—they show us sudden full-fledged fluffiness, a weaving of tiny bones forgetting their frame, or a swarming of shell-like forms chaotically crowding geometric shapes. In the parts, their own inner logic is revealed—a scheme of irreducibility, but also a kind of law governing their posthumous world order.

Yefimov’s photographic technique aims to present the non-existent object with documentary accuracy. You could, of course, say that this is a variety of bestiary, that allegorical traces are here, but that probably doesn’t help much in coming to terms with what you see. The photographs are truly speechless—though maybe they fuel the imagination. They are so devoid of narrativity that you’re left only to discuss the method, which stubbornly returns the focus to the objects themselves.

What does it mean to document fiction? Doesn’t it mean to collide two huge impulses at once—one associated with the utopia of reality, which photography supposedly brings us closer to, and the other with the conditionality of art? This collision produces sparks (which you see marked on Yefimov’s photos), as each approach is problematized and shifts toward an extreme. As a result, all narrativity collapses, including that bound to the very idea of genre.

And once again, we find ourselves in the uneasy world of objects captured on film. It’s as if they exist by themselves, but only photography lets us see them. The picture, making what’s portrayed more real than it actually is—but does it even exist? Apparently, the object is embodied only when it meets the camera and film; before that, it lacks the necessary purity—its true perception can be muddied by hollows, bumps, random shadows, but in the photograph all this disappears. Or, on the contrary, protrudes so that avoidance becomes impossible, even fiery sparks trace some regular pattern. You could say the object first appears alongside the negative.

Vladislav Yefimov also works with video imagery (the most striking example is his recent exhibition at "TV Gallery"). Yet even a crumpled piece of paper shivering on monitors betrays more a sense of stopped time and fixation, a passion for stillness, than a movement mastered through the dynamic texture of video images. Such video remains an under-object, unstable and uncertain, and will stay in this transition state until it acquires its photographic shell.

Photography becomes a refuge and salvation—not only for inherently partial objects, but also for our capacity to imagine, whose limits it keenly explores. It provides substitutes for things, but thanks to them we gain points of orientation in the world of objects. The object-laden images of Vladislav Yefimov prove more real than "reality" itself—and perhaps that’s why they so fascinate us.

It’s not enough to combine the incompatible, to expose or conceal the resulting seams—there’s some unformalizable excess, emerging at the conjunction of the fragmented object, its delayed recognition, and the camera’s lens.
E. Petrovskaia