Such a Place, such a Time

From January 14, 2023 to February 12, 2023

Galerie de l'Est (Compiègne, France)

The City of Compiègne and the Galerie de l'Est present the exhibition of the visual artists Evgeniya Buravleva and Egor Plotnikov, Such a place, such a time, which will take place simultaneously in the two exhibition spaces: the Espace Saint-Pierre des Minimes and the Galerie de l'Est. The artists express themselves through various media (painting, drawing, sculpture, installation, video) with the theme of landscape as a space existing in time. The subject of the painting or sculpture standing in front of the canvas is assimilated to the spectator who penetrates through the panorama of the exhibition into the landscape of his own memory which restores the experience of his life. Landscape in real time The work of art is often an indication of a world in motion. Sometimes a sign, sometimes a feature, it appears to us as an absolute image of the sands of time. This paradox inhabits all fields of art, but the register of landscape is the one that most deeply embraces this problem. Evgeniya Buravleva and Egor Plotnikov thus take an inductive approach in which the viewer conceives his own perception. The artists create a deceptively frontal relationship into which we willingly immerse ourselves. In this way, they appropriate an almost model-like practice in order to formalise our relationship with Nature: a relationship that is above all intellectual, in which the landscape and its representations are iterations of withdrawal and contemplation. This exhibition is understood as a panorama inhabited by memories. Each work is the delicate imprint of floating spaces, analogous to a feeling of quietude. The fusion of pastel and deeper tones leads the viewer to perceive these proposals as sanctuaries in which to find peace. Yet the landscape retains an ounce of mystery. Deep, the image can be labyrinthine. The viewer can choose to lose himself in it in order to wander through his most unsuspecting thoughts. Constructing a landscape implies a sense of emptiness that is absorbing, purifying and marking out a certain wandering, a flight to infinitely sensory confines. It reveals an impression of disturbing torpor. Close to ruin, the landscape finds its extension in a vocabulary with a timeless air. Evgeniya Buravleva and Egor Plotnikov disturb the scales of time by crossing several temporalities. Past, present and future cohabit with the foliage, the light and the characters. These familiar forms embody an essential to which humans cling. Like real landmarks in the tumult of a life, these elements are recognised by all. They are integrated into an iconography that is both modern and contemporary, thus celebrating a landscape that is close to the person who walks through it. Evgeniya Buravleva and Egor Plotnikov make the landscape concrete through the effect of a crystallised presence, tamed by the space of the work. The latter makes a trace and attests to our passage on the Earth. The landscape is tamed to the point of being mirrored, a reflection of the other and a refuge for the I. Is it really condemned to a disillusioned subjectivity? If there is any emotion, this one reads like an open book, a biography of a world on the borders of reality and its own fiction. Maxime Kapral Kastel Espace Saint-Pierre des Minimes Galerie de l'Est Promenade des Minimes - 60200 Compiègne 03 44 40 84 83 - 06 17 89 25 45 Open from Tuesday to Sunday from 2pm to 6pm Free entrance