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2014 Art season
Historic Grounds

09. Nikolay Polissky

"Les racines de la Loire"

published at 14/02/2017
Les racines de la Loire, installation de Nikolay Polissky pour le Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2014 - © Éric Sander

A painter by training, the Russian artist Nikolay Polissky designs strange constructions out in the landscape. His work involves producing spectacular architectural forms that are always ecological. Fleeting and transitional, his pieces are meant to disappear over time.

The artist produces his projects using natural materials to hand in the environment he is working, features of the landscape which are an integral part of a particular region. His ephemeral works change in step with the seasons, forming wood reserves during public festivals and even sometimes going up in flame. Beyond this fleeting existence, they remain etched in the collective memory, embodying a sort of social utopia. In his monumental sculptures, the artist designs spiritual and ironic symbols of traditional Russia – a “magnificent, static, awkward and monumental country all at the same time.”

"I realised that painting was no longer providing what I was looking for. By drawing and painting this space, I knew that I had to work in a concrete way in this very real place, that this was where my studio, my laboratory was. Contemporary art seems to me to have too little to do with the wondrous show of nature; it is too elitist. It has got bogged down with typically urban questioning.” Nikolay Polissky

What has fascinated Polissky is the shadow cast by the big ancient cedars in the Historic Grounds. Looming plant silhouettes covered in thousands of vine-plants have mysteriously “taken hold” of the site, sparking new legends there.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Nikolay POLISSKY
RUSSIA

Born in Moscow, Russia, in 1957, Nikolay Polissky studied in Leningrad (present-day Saint-Petersburg), at the Higher Industrial Art School of Muhina from which he graduated. He was a member of the art group Mitki, founded in the 1980s, which told the transformations of the Soviet world at the time through provocative and poetic canvases.
Starting out as a painter, Nikolay Polissky soon turned his attentions to the Land Art movement to become its greatest Russian artist today. In 2006 he founded the Arkhstoyanie Festival. He lives and works in Nikola-Lenivets.
Complete Biography

SOLO EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION) 

2016
Tung Ho, Miaoli Factory, Tung Ho Steel Enterprise Corporation, Taiwan
 
2015
SELPO, Zvizzhi, Russia
Polytechnic Gate. Moscow, Russia
 
2014
Chermyanka, Moscow, Russia
Belvédères, Rieux-Fégréac, France
Les racines de la Loire, Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire / Centre of Arts and Nature, Chaumont-sur-Loire, France (permanent installation)
 
2013
Beaubourg, Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
 
2012
Universal Mind, Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
The Lascaux, Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
Firebird in Gorkiy Park, Moscow, Russia
Snowmen in Gorkiy Park, Moscow, Russia
Snowmen Parade, Perm, Russia
 
2011
Perm Gates, Perm, Russia
 
2010
Spoutnik, Dunkerque, France
Hunting Trophies, Hôtel Le Royal Monceau, Paris, France
 
2009
Museum of Contemprorary Art of Luxembourg "MUDAM", Luxembourg
Hyperboloid Cooling Tower ‘Volcano’, village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
Large Hadron Collider, Museum of Contemprorary Art of Luxembourg “MUDAM”, Luxembourg
 
2008
Russian Exhibition Hall, 11th Venice Biennale of Architecture, Italy
Firebird, village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
The Rooks Have Returned, village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
 
2007
Borders of The Empire, village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
 
2006
Fire taming, or Russian, (in collaboration with G.Vinogradov), village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
Park for one day, Voskresensk, Russia
 
2005
Likhoborskie Gate, (architect G.Lihterova), Moscow, Russia
 
2004
Nizhny Novgorod Ice-run, Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
Baykonur, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Russia
Lighthouse on Ugra, village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
Shrovetide at Nikola-Lenivets, (in collaboration with G.Vinogradov), village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
 
2003
Empire column, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow, Russia
Art-Bazaar, "Art Klyazma" Festival, Moscow, Russia
 
2002
Media-Tower (also "Teletower"), village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
Column of vine, Est-Ouest festival, Dié, France
Aqueduct, village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
 
2001
Firewood Tower, village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
 
2000
Tower (also "Hay Tower"), village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
Snowmen, (in collaboration with K. Batynkov & S. Lobanov), village of Nikola-Lenivets, Russia
 
1997
Twenty views of the river Ugra, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
 
1990-1991
Gallery XXI, Madrid, Spain

GROUP EXHIBITIONS (SELECTION)

2013
Russia XXI, Museum Beelden Aan Zee, The Hague, The Netherlands
 
2012
Exhibition of the nominees on Kandinsky Prize 2012, Moscow, Russia
In an Absolute Disorder, Russian Contemporary Art Kandinsky Prize, Barcelona, Spain
 
2011
Dormitory Suburb. School № 109. Open Lesson, Moscow, Russia
Bêtes Off, Conciergerie, Paris, France
Monuments and Animals, Château de Chateadun, Chateaudun, France
Russian Povera, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milano, Italy
Contempororary art in traditional museum, Pro Arte, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
 
2010
Dormitory Suburb: Stop – School, Moscow, Russia
Sretenka Design Week. ArchSretenka, Moscow, Russia
Snowmen  on Universitet, Moscow, Russia
Russian Utopias, Garage Centre for Contemporary Culture, Moscow, Russia
Exhibition of the nominees for 5th Russian Annual "Innovation" Award, NCCA, Moscow, Russia
 
2009
Exhibition of the nominees for 4th Russian Annual "Innovation" Award, NCCA, Moscow, Russia
Russian Povera, within 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Perm Museum of Contemporary Art, Red October gallery, Moscow, Russia
Labour Movement within 3rd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Project_Fabrika Gallery, Moscow, Russia
Exhibition of the nominees for "Kandinsky Prize 2009", Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
 
2008
Borders of The Empire in Perm, installation of wood, "Russian Povera", Perm, Russia
Russian Povera, Perm, Russia
Russian Dreams, Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, USA
 
2007
Diary of an Artist, Marat Guelman Gallery, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
 
2005
Snowmen on Arbat, Moscow, Russia
Slide-labyrinth, 1st Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Art-Klyazma Festival, Moscow, Russia
 
2004
Art-Klyazma Festival, action "Art-Bazaar 2", Moscow, Russia
 
2003
Art Moscow Workshop, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
Neue Ansatze / Zeitgenossische Kunst aus Moskau, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, Düsseldorf, Germany
 
2002
Exhibition of Russian Photography at the Stand of Carre Noir Gallery at Paris Photo, "Paris Photo-2002",
Paris, France
Modern Russian Photography, 2nd International Photography Festival "PRO Zrenie", Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
5th International Month of Photography in Moscow, Photobiennale 2002, Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow, Russia
Art Moscow Workshop, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
De Moscou, Centre for Contemporary Art "Le Quartier", Quimper, France
Art-Manezh 2002, object "Picturesque Tower", Manezh Central Exhibition Hall, Moscow, Russia
 
2001
Art Moscow, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
New exhibits at the Moscow House of Photography, Moscow House of Photography, Moscow, Russia
 
2000
Art Moscow, Central House of Artists, Moscow, Russia
New exhibits at the Moscow House of Photography, Moscow Centre for the Arts, Moscow, Russia
Art Forum, Central Exhibition Hall, Perm, Russia
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Nikolay Polissky
Les racines de la Loire, installation de Nikolay Polissky au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2014 - © Éric Sander
Les racines de la Loire, installation de Nikolay Polissky au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2014 - © Éric Sander
Les racines de la Loire, installation de Nikolay Polissky au Domaine de Chaumont-sur-Loire, 2014 - © Éric Sander
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