Artists

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		KOVYLINA Elena

Biographical information: 1971 - born in Moscow

1988-1991 Art School
1993-1995 Art Academy Moscow
1996-1998 Art and Media School Zurich, CH
1998-1999 Center of Contemporary Art Moscow
2001-2003 UdK Berlin, Classe of Prof. Rebecca Horn, Diploma

granted
2002 Academy Schloss Solitude, Stutgart, DE
2004 Kuenstler Haus Boswil, CH
2004 Kuenstler Haus Schoeppingen, DE
2005 MAK Schindler House Art and Architecture Residence Program, LA, USA
2006 Kuenstler Haus Schlieren, Zurich, CH
2007 Centre International des Recollets in Paris
2007 Russian stats award Innovation
2007 Cite International des arts, Paris

Lives and works in Moscow, Berlin and Paris

Personal Website:http://www.kovylina.com

LJ: http://elena-kovylina.livejournal.com
Collections where works are held
Participation in exhibitions and auctions: EXHIBITIONS:
a) Action * (e) Solo show * (f) Film * (g) Group exhibition* (i) Installation * (p) Performance * (pr) Project

2009
15.04.2009 (v) International Festival of Contemporary Art City of Women in Ljubljana
26.03.2009 (v) History of Russian Video Art. Volume 2 - Moscow museum of modern art - MMOMA, Moscow
16.03.2009 (v+p+prints)9th Sharjah Biennial - Sharjah International Art Biennial, Sharjah
16.01.2009 (v) 21 RUSSIA. Group exhibition of the contemporary Russian artists - PinchukArtCentre, Kiev
31.01.2009 (p+v) MAN SON 1969. Vom Schrecken der Situation - Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

2008
13.12.2008 (v) re.act.feminism - performance art of the 1960`s & 70`s today, Akademie der Kuenste, Berlin
20.11.2008 (pr) Dayng swans, Halsinki Academy of art Gallery, Festival Lens Politica, Helsinki
22.10.2008 (v) Show off! Analix Firever Gallery, Paris
04.2008 (f+v) Rabouan Moussion Gallery, ArtParis fair, Grand Palais, Paris
25.01.2008 (e) Equality, Contemporary City foundation, Moscow

2007
14.12.2007 (g)+(p) Solo24Ore, MUSEION, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Bolzano/Bozen, Italy
22.11.2007 (p) Egalite, Espace Electra, Paris
31.05.2007 (p) Kovylina Action Gallery, Art Arthina fair, Athens
30.05.2007 (v) Love after the cold war, LOOP fair, Play Gallery, Barcelona
26.04.2007 (v) In the Presence of the Body, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY, USA
03.03.2007 (pr) Love after the cold war, Black Quadrate, Central House of Artist, 2nd Moscow Biennale, Moscow
02.03. 2007 (v)+(gr) Sots Art. Political Art in Russia and China, State Tretjakov Gallery, 2nd Moscow Biennale, Moscow
27.02.2007 (v) By Interaction, Lenin Museum, 2nd Moscow Biennale, Moscow

2006
02.12.2006 (pr) Love after the cold war, American Cultural Center, Moscow
22.09. – 23.10.2006 (i) Something about Power, South Karelia Art Museum, Lappenranta, Finland
08.06.2006 (p) +(g) Biennale of Sydney 2006, Sydney, Australia
30.05.2006 (p) Wild Gift festival, Limehouse Town Hall, London
23.03.2006 (v)+(p) "Russia redux #2", Sidney Mishkin Gallery, Baruch College, City University of New York
11.03.2006 (pr)+(v) Love after the cold war, MAK Schindler House for Art and Architecture, LA
08.03.2006 (f) Ecole Nationale des Beaux Arts de Lyon, France
02.03. 2006 (f) Something about Power, Russian Video Art Piano Nobile, Geneva
20.01.2006 (v)+(g)"The Medal", "Transit Art Spase",Stavanger, Norway

2005
10.12.2005 (v)+(g) "Boxing" ,"We are the artist" K-3 Ptoject space, ZH, CH
01.12.2005 (p) Waltz at Miami, Gallery Schroeder Romeo, NY/ NADA Art Fair, Miami Beach
24.09.2005 (p)+(e) Boxing, XL-Projects, Moscow
16.09.2005 (v)+(g) Russia Redux, Gallery Schroeder Romero, NY
16.06.2005 (g)+(f)+(p) 2nd Praguebiennale, Prague
21.05.2005 (g)+(pr)+(p) Red Shelter, The politics of Care, Whitney Museum, NY
26.03.2005 (a)+(e) Live concert, XL-projects, Moscow
31.01.2005 (g)+(p) Legal Prostitution in Russia, Museum of Modern Art, 1st Moscow Biennale, Moscow
29.01.2005 (g)+(v) The Medal, No comment, 1st Moscow Biennale, Moscow

2004
20.11.2004(g)+(v) Waltz, The seven sins, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana
07.09.2004 (g)+(p) Palace, Orient inn, Palazzo Pfafava, Venice
25.07.2004 (g)+(v) Waltz, Sommerfrische, Kunstlervideos mit Esprit, Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg
01.07.-15.07.2004 (a) Redefining Action, Summer Scene, International Performing Art Festival, Salzburg
29.01.2004 (v) Personal presentation at the National Tretjakov Gallery, Moscow

2003
21.11.2003 (e) Attacking Poetry, Paula Boettcher Gallery, Berlin
30.09.-04.10.2003 Performance, Theater of the homeless youth, Berliner Festspiele, Berlin
4.08.2003 (p) Judith, Kulturtreppe Schoenebuehl, Switzerland
3.07.2003 (p) The Medal, Auswaertiges Amt, Berlin
24. 06. 2003 (pr) Domophone, 1st Praguebiennale, Prague
21. 06.2003 (p) Looking for an ideal, Class of the prof. Rebecca Horn, UdK, Berlin
21.05.2003 (p) Do it yourself, Contemporary Art Museum, Belgrade
31. 04.2003 (v) Shooting Gallery, Schloss Solitude project space, Stutgart
7.02.2003 (g) + (pr) Gosstop, Class Rebecca Horn, Stiftung Starke, Berlin

2002
19.12. 2002 (p) Walse”, Foundation Cartier, Paris
14.11.2002 (e)+(p) “Committee Red Shelter”, Schloss Solitude, Stuttgart
15. 09. 2002 (p) “Pincode”, “100 percents of vision”, Regina Gallery
15.09. 2002 (p) “Walse“, Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Berlin
6.07.2002. (e) + (p) , “Red Shelter”, Museum of the Revolution History, St. Petersburg
2. 07. 2002 (p) "Do it yourself", K-4 Gallery, Ljubljana, SLO
28. 06.2002 (p) "Character", "Ostensive", Culture Institute, Berlin
23.06.2002. (p) "Shooting gallery”, “Deconstruction”, Cetinie Biennale, Montenegro
18.06.2002 (g) + (p) "Shooting gallery”, "Davaj! Russian Art now", MAK, Vienna
14. 06. 2002 (p) "Target", Class of the prof. Rebecca Horn, UdK, Berlin
11.05.2002 (p) "A sight from outside", Marina Sandmann Gallery, Berlin
.22.01.2002 (pr) "Gosstop", "Female sight", National Tretjakow Gallery, Moscow
9. 01. 2002 (g) "Davaj! Russian Art now", Postfuhramt, Berlin

2001
15.12.2001 (p) "Parfume of the Ideology", Marina Sandmann Gallery, Berlin
8.12.2001 (p) "Shooting gallery" Club of the Polish losers, Berlin
30.10.2001- (p) "On the other side of the principle of enjoyment", Gorky Park Cafe, Berlin
3.10.2001 (p) “Walse“, Robert Rauschenberg, Volker und Freunde, Berlin
31.08.-15.09.01 (pr) “Killer agency”, seminar at the Goethe Institute, Linz / Karlsruhe / Cologne / Berlin / Sant-Augustin
24.08.01 (p) “Elections of the President of the Universe”, Performance Festival, Schloss Broellin, Germany
22.07.01 (p) “Extreme right–left”, UdK Berlin, Class of the prof. Rebecca Horn
22.06.01 (p) “Walse”, Class of the prof. Rebecca Horn, UdK Berlin
30.05.-2.06.01 (p) "I shot in Guelman", within the Andy Warhol week, Hotel Marriott, Moscow
28.04.2001 (a) "New Eschatology“, „Dolly in the country of miracles", Kabakov studio, Moscow
15.04.2001 (p) "An instinct of parents", Regina Gallery, Moscow
23.02.2001. (e) "Heroines from the East", Guelman Gallery, Moskau

2000
17.10. 2000 (p) "Rescue my soul", "Sea" International Forum of Modern Art "Sea", Sotchi. 4.09.-11.09.00 (p) "Participle" and "Kidnapping (abduction) of Europe", "Paradis Zero", Central Cathedral, Uppsala, Sweden
27.08.00 (p) "News", International Performance Festival, Bolshoi Manege, St. Petersburg

1999
12.11.99 (p) "The Babylon Tower", Theater Campanor, Sontjago-de-Kampastella
15.10.99 (p) "Medusas", Feminist summer school, Crimea, Foros
15.07. 99 (i) „Visiting a fairy tale", ACT-99, Center of the Modern Art, Moscow
07.07.99 (i) "To the future", ACT-99, Kunsthalle Steyer, Austria
24.05.99 (p) Green Apples, Erewan, Armenia
15.04.99 (i) "Love is a male discourse", Festival of the Modern Art, Minsk, Belarus
04.03.99 (i) "To the future"; "The last generation", Spider and Mouse Gallery, Moscow
Autobiographical notes
What the critics say: Elena Kovylina, who through her performances implies eroticism, acting out the different roles that contemporary Russian women expect to take in society. The artist literally uses her naked body as performance medium. In her show Boxing (2005) Kovylina appropriates the image of a macho woman bychallenging a male volunteer from the audience to spar with her in the boxing ring.The artist intends to let herself be defeated by a man. Through the act of a fair fight Kovylina challenges the contemporary status of Russian men who lost their previous superiority and are now having to compete against the strengthening position of women.
In the performance Waltz at Miami (2005) the artist references the rise and fall of Russia as a superpower by dancing out a waltz while drinking vodka. Again, she invites volunteers to dance with her.The artist drinks shot after shot, and when intoxicated, she plays out her role unrestrained. Interestingly, in her approach Kovylina heavily references works by Western performance artists of the 1980’s, such as Carolee Schleeman, Yoko Ono, and Marina Abramovic. The difference however, lies in the fact that the artist revives the rhetoric of feminism, while appropriating it within a Russian historical context. Since there was no previous feminist tradition in Russia, the maturity of Western women’s studies could not be simply transplanted into new ground. The concepts of male and female equality needs to be reworked through the public consciousness and art practice alike.The originality of Kovylina’s performances lies in the legitimacy of her commentary on the contest of sexuality and gender roles that Russia is undergoing.
In the project Pick up a Girl that was recently presented at the Sydney Biennale (2006), Kovylina addresses prostitution, which has become a somewhat desirable profession in the post-Soviet era, in which money is the prime objective, and the easier it is to get it, the better.The audience was invited to participate in the action by picking up cutouts of a woman’s figure from the naked breast of the artist. By the exploitation of her voluptuous feminine body, Kovylina plays out the act of sexual allurement and even solicits as an escort on her Web page.The oscillation between being strong one minute and then submissive the next mirrors the ambivalence of the personal position of the artist, who is also lured into the glamour of high lifestyle. In fact, by and large Russian society is now become entangled in the insatiable consumption and magic power of consumerism which is achieved through affluence.
YULIA TIKHONOVA "RED LIGHT ON THE RED SQUARE" – WHITEWALL review – 21.03.2007
Bibliography

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