Caution, Artist!

2012, Malevich's Brigade

2012 | Spatial transformation / Performance

Exhibition: Caution, Artist!
*Parallel Programme, II Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art
Venue: PoLe Gallery, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Dates: 11 September – 8 October 2012
Group: Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade

The Exhibition

Caution, Artist! brought together artists who had once worked in industrial production, many of them holding actual production jobs before or alongside their artistic practice.

The exhibition explored the blurred boundary between artistic and industrial labour. Paintings were accompanied by information about the artists’ former occupations, while original industrial safety signs and other traces of factory culture formed part of the exhibition environment.

Within this context, the Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade transformed the gallery itself.

The Transformation

The Brigade developed the spatial intervention and carried out its installation as a performance.

The existing paintings and watercolours remained in the gallery, but the language of the industrial workplace was introduced into the room.

“Entrance–Exit” signs appeared on the ceiling. Arrows marked the floor. Safety regulations covered the walls.

The exhibition space began to resemble a place of production: a space organised by movement, instructions, functions and rules.

The intervention did not replace the exhibition. It altered the conditions in which it was seen.

A gallery that had been familiar as an exhibition space became something else without ceasing to be a gallery.

The Brigade

The transformation was one part of the wider exhibition, which also included paintings, documentary materials and a collection of authentic industrial safety signs from the 1970s–1980s.

The title Caution, Artist! therefore worked in several directions: as a warning, as a reminder of the artist’s vulnerability, and as a playful transfer of industrial safety culture into the field of art.

The Brigade responded to this context not by illustrating it, but by allowing the language of production to enter the exhibition space itself.

Documentation

Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade

Original project documentation →

Catalogue: 2nd Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art: The Eye Never Sees Itself, 2012, p. 252-254.
Catalogue →

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Wedding of the Tower and the Metro

2006, Happening, R²

2006

Format: public performance, happening, video documentation (44 minutes)

Location: Russia, Yekaterinburg city center and metro stations

Partners: State Center for Contemporary Art (GCCSA), ParaRam gallery

About the Project

Wedding of the Tower and the Metro is a multi-day public performance reimagining key landmarks of Yekaterinburg through the lens of local Ural traditions. The project creates a new living mythology for the city by symbolically uniting two urban giants — the Tower (he), an unfinished TV tower and prominent telecommunications structure, and the Metro (she), the city’s underground transit system.

The project unfolds as a ritual action reflecting deep archetypes and urban legends, expressing both the hopes and fears of the city’s residents. Through ceremonial acts and symbolic gestures, the performance seeks to harmonize unseen forces within the city and prevent potential catastrophe.

Background: The Question of the Tower and the Metro

Concerns about a possible earthquake in the Ural region have been growing.
For over 250 years, towers and underground spaces have been seen as the city’s main mythical and generative symbols.
Today, the unfinished TV tower is the city’s apex tower symbol, while the metro is its main subterranean presence.
These two giants effectively “meet” near the Circus area in the city center.

The Myth

The Tower and the Metro represent vast, intangible City Giants—beings with immense, mysterious bodies resting beneath the urban layers. Though currently still, their forces pull toward each other. Should they awaken suddenly or clash, disaster such as an earthquake could follow.

The myth is not just a story but includes ritual actions designed to control these forces and protect the city.

The Ritual — The Wedding

The Giants’ longing for union has reached a peak — the time has come to hold their Wedding.

If this ritual is not performed, the Giants may pass each other by, and the symbolic “Child” — the city’s future potential — will never be born. Alternatively, a chaotic union could bring disaster.

Additional Context

This myth draws from ancient, pre-Ellin traditions and familiar motifs of Titans and Titanesses. The Tower and Metro stand as symbolic Titans within the city landscape.

The myth partly explains the origins and roles of these urban forms and partly prescribes complex ritual actions that help channel and contain hidden powers, ensuring the city’s well-being.

The Performance

On August 25–26, 2006, Yekaterinburg witnessed a collective celebration of the Wedding of the Tower and the Metro.

This ritual involved local artists, residents, and guests, bringing the myth to life through a series of staged actions:

Public announcement of the upcoming Wedding (2006, August 18).

The solemn Wedding ceremony — a modern ritual binding the Giants (2006, August 25).

A communal feast — an ancient ritual that unites participants and seals the ceremony’s success (2006 August 25).

The Fertilization rite — participants crafted miniature Tower figures symbolizing the Tower’s “seed” (2006 August 26).

And discreetly placed them throughout metro stations and trains (2006 August 26).

Outcome

The action transcended artistic mystification, becoming a real and effective ritual. Just days after the event, news came that the long-frozen metro construction would resume.

Exhibitions and Screenings

September 2006 — International Festival Stop! Who’s Coming?, Moscow, special project of the Yekaterinburg branch of the State Center for Contemporary Art (GCCSA) StolpoTvorenie.

November 2006 — Video screening at the ParaRam art salon, Yekaterinburg.

2007 — As part of the StolpoTvorenie special project (Yekaterinburg GCCSA), nominated for the Innovation All-Russian competition award in the category Regional Contemporary Art Project.

2023 — Documentation of the project participated in the archival exhibition “Art without a ticket: the history of public art in Yekaterinburg” at the Ural Branch of the A.S. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.

Harmonization of Space

Malevich's Brigade

2004 | Performance

Event: Founding of Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade
Venue: Kolyada Theatre, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Date: 5 November 2004
Group: Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade

The Action

The artists were invited to transform the space of a boiler room at Kolyada Theatre. The work had to be done quickly and economically, while a play was being performed in the same space — without disturbing the actors or the audience.

The solution was Harmonization of Space.

“White over dark — the physical space disappears; the inside turns outside.”

White water-based emulsion paint was poured into plates and applied to the dark surfaces of the room. Each artist brought their own tool.

To protect their clothes, the artists wore black polyethylene garbage bags.

At the time, they did not know that the bags would become the Brigade’s working uniform and one of its most recognisable signs.

The Beginning of the Brigade

The action took place on 5 November 2004, now considered the founding date of Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade.

After the action, the first snow of that winter began to fall. The artists jokingly recalled a phrase from a book they had recently read — about a “Brigade of painters named after Kazimir Malevich”.

The phrase stayed.

The temporary group became a name, and the name became a collective.

Elena Gladysheva, Alexandra Krivolutskaya, Viktor Oborotistov, Marina Razheva, Vladimir Romanov

Photo: Tatyana Sekacheva

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