anna andrzhievskaya 2020

QUANTUM CRITIC

Quantum Critic is an international project and exhibition of contemporary art, which was held simultaneously in Russia, Finland and Metaverse.

Quantum Critic was born at Myymälä2 contemporary art gallery in Helsinki in 2019. The concept was created by the curatorial team of the gallery.

Exhibitions in 2020 and 2021 were included in the Art Weekend program of the Curatorial Forum organized by The North-Western branch of The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (The National Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA) in St. Petersburg.

The first exhibition brings the audience to the phenomena of quantum simultaneity and criticality which connected artworks and people through superpositions.
The second exhibition takes its cue from what are described in physics as “virtual particles”. Their existence or appearance is a matter of probability, perhaps they exist in nothingness and continuously emerge from nothing into something, changing state form antiparticles to particles and back again instantly.
The third exhibition asks the audience to consider ‘uncertainty relations’, which is known in quantum mechanics as the uncertainty principle, meaning that ‘one cannot assign exact simultaneous values to the position and momentum of a physical system.’ (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/qt-uncertainty/).

bw poster 2021

Exhibition Venues of Quantum Critic 2020, 2021 & 2023:

Myymälä2 gallery in Design District, Helsinki, Finland
Myymälä2 pop up gallery in the old Bock house on the Senate Square, Helsinki, Finland
Catherine’s Assembly on the Griboyedov Canal, St. Petersburg, Russia
Masters art school on Italianskaya street, St. Petersburg, Russia
Metaverse space on Spatial.io platform

Over 3 years, more than 55 artists from Finland, Russia, Ukraine and the countries of the Baltic region took part in the exhibitions.  Among them are Collective Intelligence (international group), Alvar Gullichsen (FI), Anastasia Artemeva (FI / RU), Anna Andrzhievskaya (RU), Anna Prilutskaya (RU), Antti Tolvi (FI), Aoi Yoshizawa (FI), Asya Marakulina (RU), Varvara & Mar (EE & ES), Zhenya Machneva (RU), Ivan Tuzov (RU), Ilya Orlov (RU / FI), Katya Skylar (FI / RU), Kirsi Porrassalmi (FI), Laura Kuusk (EE  ), Lebohang Tlali (FI), Margus Kontus (EE), Masha Godovannaya (RU), Nastya Eliseeva (RU / DE), Nicolina Stilianou (FI / CY), Oliver Whitehead (FI/UK), Sergio Zavattieri (IT),  Tanya Akhmetgalieva (RU), Hanna Marno (FI), Eva Paukstytė (LT), Jyrki Riekki (FI), Jussi Meuronen (FI), Katia Ablamskaya (RU / RS), Helena Aleksandrova (RU / FI), Igor Baranov (RU / RS), Daria Boudanova (RU / GE), Benji Boyadgian (PS / FI), Dash Che (RU / FI / US), Ira Derviz (RU / RS), Farbod Fakharzadeh (IR / FI), Maria Fox Larsson (RU / FI), Daria Goncharova (RU / RS), Kateryna Harahulia (UA / FI), Spartak Khachanov (UA / FI), Anita Kremm (EE), Tonya (Ton) Melnyk (UA / FI), Alla Mezentseva (RU), Eglė Pilkauskaitė (LT), Valery Pirogov (UA / FI), Slava Ptrk (RU / ME), Alexey Ryabov (RU / KZ), Aurora Del Rio (IT / LV / FI), Sasha Rotts (RU / FI)
Maryna Semenkova (UA / DE), Nikita Shokhov (RU / US), Regina-Mareta Soonsein (EE), Lada Uchaeva (RU / ME), Margarita Zhuravleva (RU)

Exhibition is curated by Natasha Alekseeva (RU / FI), Ramiro Camelo (CO / FI), Timo Tuhkanen (FI), Asia Koltunova (RU / TH)

Quantum Critic is an extremely important cultural initiative that provides a platform for the exchange of curatorial and artistic experiences and gives an excellent opportunity for international artists to work together.

For the third and final exhibition in 2023 the curatorial team launched two open calls. One was for Russian artists who live outside the Russian Federation. Out of more than 100 applications the jury selected 11 artists who live in different countries of Europe and the United States. The second open call was for Ukrainian performance artists and filmmakers.

The jury:
Timo Tukhkanen, Ramiro Camelo, Egle Oddo, Natasha Alekseeva, Asia Koltunova, Mikhail Levin, Veera Kuusisto

Quantum Critic 2023 Metaverse

Myymälä2, an artist-run gallery, in collaboration with Aacoop collective launched Quantum Critic 2023, a groundbreaking contemporary art metaverse exhibition hosted on Spatial.io. This innovative concept shifts the focus from artists adapting to physical venues to tailoring the metaverse for the artworks, aiming to discover the best way to present art in virtual reality and creating an art-specific space.

In Quantum Critic 2023, traditional notions of space and scale are challenged in a world of digital polygons. Questions arise about the meaning of a “white cube” and the new unit of measurement. The architecture of this metaverse boldly interacts with the hosted artworks, pushing the medium’s boundaries.

The journey through Quantum Critic 2023 begins in a familiar gallery setting, but then leads viewers through precarious bridges, vertigo-inducing spaces, a digital forest, and even a hell. Myymälä2 and Aacoop explore the possibilities of virtual art spaces, blurring the lines between physical and digital, transforming the essence of an art gallery, and challenging the art world to rethink contemporary art presentation and experience.

Architecture by: Aacoop collective (TH)

Quantum Critic 2023 catalogue

Quantum Critic 2020 & 2021 partners were:

Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland
The North-Western branch of The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts (The National Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA) St Petersburg, Russia
3rd Curatorial Forum, St Petersburg, Russia
Masters school, St Petersburg, Russia
St Petersburg State Budgetary Institution of Culture “Petersburg-Concert”, St Petersburg, Russia
Finland-Russia Society, Helsinki, Finland
Finnish Institute in St Petersburg, Russia
Consulate General of Finland, St Petersburg, Russia
Lithuanian Culture Institute, Vilnius, Lithuania
Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art, Tallinn, Estonia
Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme, The Nordic Culture Point, Helsinki, Finland

For three years in a row, the project has received a special grant for “International cooperation and intercultural dialogue” as part of the program “Cooperation with Russia in the field of art and culture” of the Ministry of Education and Culture of Finland.

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Quantum Critic 2023 in Metaverse – check the exhibition

More information about Quantum Critic 2020, Quantum Critic 2021 & Quantum Critic 2023