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Memories of Sarmatian Sea
— artistic research of the memory in its global geological way and in personal sense through the connections with the coquina rocks

The Sarmatian Sea existed 10-14 million years ago. It covered the area from present-day Vienna to the foothills of the Tien Shan, including the modern Black, Azov, Aral, and Caspian Seas. Crimea and the Caucasus were its islands.

Among the reminders of the ancient Sar- matian Sea are coquina rocks that were formed by mineral, organic and sand particles. Constantly changing in response to wind and waves, coquina sometimes has unusual and bizarre shapes. Thus, they are living documents that preserve memories of the Earth and, unlike books on human history, continue to change and record the events. These documents capture the forms of the ancient organism’s bodies, but transfigure them at the same time.

The process of simultaneous capturing and transfiguring is close to the human memory way of work. Often the remembrance of the event is far from its original. Time and other external factors transform people’s memories just like wind and water does with animal’s bodies.

Coquina rocks are widespread in my native town Stavropol. They are also common in southern regions of Europe In Soviet times these stones became the most prevalent material for the modernist’s architecture. The house, where I grew up, and enormous amount of other structures and constructions in Stavropol w

ere built from the coquina rocks. Fountains, fences, bridges are from this material as well. In some landscapes around the town the layer of soil is extremely thin, so the coquina rocks, that hide underneath, show up.

The coquina rocks are always around.

Entwinement of the Earth history: the movement of the mountains and waters, appearance and dissapearance of the living species; with the personal memories, connected with the childhood in the small southern town, is represented in “Memories of Sarmatian Sea”.

Here geological history and personal memories are connected and paralleled.



















Exhibitions:

2024, June 18 — July 21 “Subsurface Rock”, group exhibition, curated by Natasha Gorbunova, K320, Moscow

2024 “Win-Win”, modern art fair, Winzavod, Moscow

2023 “Samizdal”. group exhibition, curated by Mikhail Kurganov, Gogol’s Library, Saint Petersburg

2022, Oasis, group exhibition, Sevkabel Port, Saint Petersburg

2021 “Nature in the City. Non-Human Heterotopias”, group exhibition, curated by Daria Boldyreva, Kunsthalle, Saint Petersburg

2021 “Memories of Sarmatian Sea”, personal exhibition, Stavropol region