Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art presented an exhibition of artworks by the winners of the My Page amateur and beginning artists competition
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More than 100 works by talents from all across the country
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Cross-stitch, ceramics, and other media rarely seen at contemporary art museums
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Absolute freedom of self-expression
My Page exhibition showcases the works by the finalists of the VK Talents competition for amateur and beginning artists. This is the second time that Erarta is hosting such a competition highlights show, and we hope that this exhibition, giving the most determined creatives a chance to display their art in a museum space, will become an annual occurrence.
This year’s contest theme pays tribute to a special occasion – the 15th anniversary of the VK social networking service. The uppermost button on the VK menu, My Page serves as a kind of a calling card, a point of departure for each new user creating his or her profile as an extension of their own personality, as a certain image of themselves. From the very beginning, VK profile pages reflected the users’ aesthetic preferences and were assembled according to the principles of beauty, starting from the selection of an appropriate userpic all the way to publishing a user playlist or some drawings created with the help of a no-frills graphic editor. Encouraging the artists to reflect on their personal experiences of social media presence, we, just like in the previous year, received an enthusiastic feedback. Many participants made use of every tool available, embellishing their contest entries with audio tracks or short essays designed to go with the imagery. This set the scene for the unique artist/viewer interaction format that is usually only possible in a virtual environment.
For each of us, My Page on VK is a cosy gallery of familiar avatars of closest friends, birthday notifications, and carefully selected, strictly flattering photographs of memorable events. But suppose that one day your profile page is visited by a good hundred of people, followed by several thousand on the next! Today, competition finalists will have to demonstrate their ‘profiles’ offline – right in the middle of the museum space. We hope that this experience, undoubtedly thrilling for the young and non-professional artists, will inspire them towards new experiments and endeavours.
