Ola Vasiljeva

Qualcuno si è seduto sulla mia sedia

January 30, 2017 - April 5, 2018

On Tuesday, January 30, 2018 at 18:00 pm, Quartz Studio is delighted to present Qualcuno si è seduto sulla mia sedia, the first solo show in Italy by Ola Vasiljeva (Latvia, 1981). Borrowing from moments of history, literature and counter-cultural movements, Ola Vasiljeva creates imaginary environments in which sculpture, drawing, video and found objects commingle. Vasiljeva is concerned with an experience that is mediated through devices that double as thresholds or membranes, instruments such as – the cinema screen, the curtain, the back stage dressing room, or the stage or pedestal, stage instructions, props, costumes, and tools suspended between use and ritual, mimicry and fiction. As if theatre sets at intermission, my environments are often littered with telling clues of unseen performances, obscure and often absurd activities. For the show at Quartz Studio, the artist extends the imaginary territory of the next door tailor’s shop. The props and furnishings in the installation evince an alive disorderliness, as though they stood surrogates for the characters to whom their existence seemingly testifies. Activated by the interest in the foreboding and in the covert, the installation blurs the line between reality, imagination and simulation. Qualcuno si è seduto sulla mia sedia presents new sculptural and drawing works, made by the artist during her stay in Turin. Ola Vasiljieva’s is one of the three exhibitions in program for 2018 at Quartz Studio organized thanks to the support of Fondazione Sardi per l’Arte. Founded in 2014 by Pinuccia Sardi Cagnucci and her passion for art, the Foundation’s objectives comprise the promotion of important characters of the artistic panorama of the 1900s, amongst which Carol Rama, and the retrieval of documents and artistic archives regarding these artists or people connected to them. Moreover, the Foundation fosters young and upcoming artists, critics, curators and non-profit actors. Since 2017, the art historian Lisa Parola, is the curator of a two year cultural and educational program for Fondazione Sardi.