As part of the winter issue of the |catalog| contemporary art fair, Flor et Lavr Gallery presents the stand titled You Are Safe Here. It explores the nature of vulnerability, memory, and time as reflected in the work of four artists: Polina Rukavickina, Anna Kondratyeva, Alisa Smorodina, and Lidia Russkova-Hasaya.

The You Are Safe Here project invites the viewers to a safe place where they will be immersed in artistic practices like in their own memories. The gallery assembles works exploring the issue of collective memory, while the viewers are welcomed to find reflections of their own recollections.

In her Luty series, Polina Rukavickina reflects on the experience of the transition between youth and adulthood through peering into the mundane reality. Intertwined, the entropy of everyday life and of the outside world form a complex poetic narrative about attempts to cope with the role of an adult and, more generally, about the search for and construction of one’s home. Lidia Russkova-Hasaya turns to another aspect of mundane life: her SKY series is a meditation on the theme of the urban sky, where photographs turn into safe windows for self-reflection, reminiscent of the quiet closeness of nature.

The practice of Alisa Smorodina and Anna Kondratyeva is associated with meditation on the themes of time and memory. Alisa transfers images from childhood archives onto copper, while Anna explores visual artifacts of TV shows from the 2000s using iron printing. These works are complemented by Anna Kondratyeva’s Stealing Beauty. Anna’s paintings on reflective fabric and Alisa’s sculptures that explore the theme of corporality and growing up complement each other.

The You Are Safe Here stand acts a space where art becomes a mirror, helping the viewer to look into their own memories, reconsider them, and find a response in art.

The project is curated by Petr Ivanov.