Agency of the wall

Some walls — the walls of cultural institutions — have special powers. These walls accept and reject, show their agency. Young artists dream of participating and being represented at Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art  and the walls of the Big Wine Staroge in this case legitimize their practice and label the artist’s work as objects of contemporary art. We ask ourselves, “Do walls mark art as art?” 

For the first time, “Agency of the Wall” was shown at the opening of the “Time of Things” (Winzvod.Open 2021) exhibition directly within the walls of the Big Wine Starage  The artists moved, holding a banner with a print of the Wall in their hands, and blocking one or the other object with the Wall, demonstrating the power of the wall of a cultural institution. Graffiti appeared on the Wall — it was made unnoticed by the artists. 

For the second time the Wall appeared at the outdoor Art Festival “Fields”. This time, the agency of the Wall was tested in the territory of trees and field grasses. “It was interesting for us to move the Wall out of the Winzavod to a completely different space — to the forest, to the field, in order to check how its agency will change under the new conditions. Will the Wall retain its power outside the cultural institution?” Here the Wall entered into capitalist relations with a group of Festival participants — it placed an advertisement for the artists' project on the Wall. The ad placement fee was taken in homemade pancakes.