“Better in Chorus” (social-engaged project, different media, 2014-2019)
In my early twenties I spent almost every weekend in Tula region, in several care homes in Tula, Kaluga and Tver regions. I went there initially to talk to the people from the older generations, who were witnesses and participants of our history that I only know from schoolbooks. But instead of ‘common history’, I learnt many personal stories: of Igor Mikhailovich who read all of Shakespeare’s works; of Granny Sveta who met her love; of Granny Zhenya who decided to become a real painter. It was very interesting for me to paint with the residents. A lot of them like singing, they taught me folk rhymes and I taught them watercolour painting in return. We discussed classical art and questioned contemporary art. We created a series of ‘our answers’ to Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, Pavel Pepperstein. We went to museum exhibitions and organized our own displays in their care homes. One summer I lived in one elderly care home for several weeks. We painted so-called ‘carpets’ on the walls, organized an opening reception in the care home hall, collected each other’s works. I put together a collection of photos and videos made during my trips, together with our drawings and collages. Along the way I forgot where the line is between art and volunteering. Maybe each artist is volunteering at Life Inc. And no one in this organisation wants to be an object of pity, but everyone wants to be loved.
“Ditties”, video, 01:21, 2015
“Family Homes”, a series of analog photos that were made from 2014 to 2019.
“Holidays”, mural painting in Tovarkovo nursing home (2015)
In summer 2015, I went to the Tovarkovo nursing home in Tula region for my vacation. Together with the residents we sought ways of making the main hall of the care home more cozy, and decided to paint a few carpets on the walls. Tapestries like these were hanging on the walls of practically every apartment in my childhood and are still reminiscent of Soviet times. After finishing the wall paintings, we made photos and selfies against the background of the carpets, following the tradition of family and community portraits in Russia. Before I left, we organised an opening in the care home hall with the printed photographs, soundtracked with songs by Russian chansonnier Alexander Vertinsky.
“Our Answers to Moscow Conceptualism” (paper, watercolour, gouache, coloured pencils, felt-tipped pens, appliqued ornament, 2015-2019)
The idea of ‘our answers’ to Muscovite conceptualist painters came to me and the artist and care home resident Igor Andrianov. One day, I brought him a catalogue of Erik Bulatov’s Moscow exhibition. He read it very thoroughly and said that the combination of text and image turns the painting into a poster about the Soviet times. However, in his opinion, texts could have been different. This is how he started writing his versions of texts for Bulatov’s paintings with red paint, texts that reflected his views of the Soviet and Perestroika-era reality and his own life. We continued this series with Granny Roza, Granny Vera and Granny Katya. Several years later, when Ilya Kabakov’s exhibition came to the Tretyakov gallery, we created ‘Our answer to Kabakov’ together with the Moscow Konkovo nursing home residents. The latest ‘answers’ are dedicated to Pavel Pepperstein’s exhibition in the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, where we went on several guided tours. In ‘our answer to Pepperstein’, we used images from his works and tried to answer the question, ‘what will happen to Russia in a hundred years?’.
"Our Answers to Erik Bulatov", 2014-2015
"Our Answers to Ilya Kabakov", collage, 2019
"Our Answers to Pavel Pepperstein", collage, 2019
“Better in chorus”, Peresvetov pereulok gallery, Moscow, Russia, 2019
The exhibition featured new and existing artworks by Katya Muromtseva. It traced the “chronicle of friendship” between herself and the care homes’ residents in Tula Oblast, located 193 kilometers south of Moscow. This complex project is the final result of her creative engagement with residents and is comprised of collages, videos, paintings and photos. “Holidays” (2015) is a mural painting created together with the care home’s volunteers in response to building’s bleak environment to make the common space feel like home. They painted the wall rug showing a herd of deers in the forest, the iconic image of the Soviet tapestry. The imitational drawing conveys an historical simulacrum that is communicated through the language of postmodernist appropriation. Another key work is “Our answers to Moscow Conceptualism” (2015-2019), a series of visual and textual responses to Moscow Conceptualist artists, such as Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov and Pavel Pepperstein, made by the artist and residents. Resonating with these famous artists’ reflections on the Soviet past and Perestroika, participants debate and argue their counterpoints in a literally and figuratively colorful manner. In her work, the artist inventively explores the ways of establishing links and closing the gap between youth and the elderly by running collaborative art activities together. Curiosity-driven intention — frequent visits to the care home — turned to permanent practice that aims to reformulate intergenerational relationships. Setting out to create artworks that engage our capacity for openness and emphasizing proximity, they are drawn on dialogue — accurate and careful listening of other’s narratives —creating an emotional response to recent past and imbuing future insights.
