At Voskhod Gallery Anna Andrzhievskaia presented her first exhibition in Switzerland, titled Fundbüro Geist.

Fundbüro Geist reflects Anna’s journey as a nomad and a forced traveler. Like
many Russian artists, she made the decision to leave her home country in 2022, ultimately settling in Barcelona to start a new chapter. Over the past two years, she has navigated feelings of displacement, the loss of a sense of home, and the challenge of redefining herself. This exhibition invites the spectator to step into her “lost and found” office and engage with these deeply personal themes.

According to Andrzhiyevskaya's concept, a capsule discovered in 2022 by parageologists in a tectonic fault in the Ural Mountains is unpacked within the gallery space. Inside, unidentified objects were found, evidencing the existence of an unknown civilization from a parallel reality that experienced a catastrophe. The project invites viewers to independently reconstruct the chain of events and ш the cause of the disaster.
 пеку
"The visual language of Anna Andrzhiyevskaya depicts a post-apocalyptic, fantastical-hallucinogenic world where the impossible is possible, and the incongruous is compatible. Journeying between worlds and genres, she works with painting, graphics, objects, installations, happenings, and performances in both real and virtual spaces. The project 'Surprise Container' is a puzzle-riddle with a lost key. The staging of a scientific discovery turns the exhibition into a full-fledged science fiction experience, transforming the sterile 'white cube' of the gallery into a laboratory open to viewer interpretations," explains independent curator and researcher Marina Pugina.

The culmination of the project is a large-scale five-channel video installation titled "Dance Floor," depicting strange and broken beings from another world attending a dance party. The atmosphere of tense merriment resembles either a feast during a plague or a pandemic party, where everyone can join the dance on the bones of a bygone era.

In this project, the artist seamlessly integrates her ongoing exploration of identity and belonging with a poignant reflection on the universal experience of migration. Building upon her previous work, which often delves into themes of displacement and cultural adaptation, the exhibition space transforms into a multifaceted playground. Here, the familiar motifs of her practice intertwine with the narrative of the migrant’s journey, offering viewers a nuanced understanding of the complexities inherent in the quest for home and belonging. Anna Andrzhievskaya’s visual language paints a post-apocalyptic fantasy-hallucinogenic world where the impossible is possible and the incongruous is harmoniously compatible. Wandering between worlds and genres, the artist works with painting, graphics, objects, installations, happenings and performances in both real and virtual space. Her favorite characters often move from one work to another, turning Anna’s exhibition projects into an endless series, the episodes of which can be watched in any order.

It is part of a large-scale series of artist’s exhibitions dedicated to the themes of migration, shelter and mimicry. The title of the project refers to the Spanish phraseological phrase ‘estar como un flan’, which means to feel excitement. 
In her latest projects, the artist literally ‘jumps’ into various public spaces that are not usually intended to display of the works of art (cafes, beauty salons, shops, hotels, etc.). The whole series is united by the concept of a parallel reality that materialises in our world through special portals. The artist creates images of non-human agents who mimic everyday objects, but they do not always do it successfully, so the project has both tragic and comic effects.
The chosen exhibition venues are ‘non-places’ — spaces of temporary residence that appear to be alien to everyone. As a result, the central theme of the project is the opposition between ‘friend/foe’ and the phenomenon of the Other, who tries to adapt in the new community.

How beautiful this world of herbs and flowers is, how treacherous and proud the trees are. The animals and the decayed corpses of our brothers feed the brown body. The roots are the blood vessels,
and the dried herbs are the nails and hair. The leaf veins are like subtle veins on the delicate neck. Flowers shamelessly bared buds for mutual caresses. Little animals lurked in the fox's hole, the entrances to the ventricles here and there. Time is no longer counted as a long human life, an hour or a minute.
The viscous air is motionless. Mushroom holders are a true standard of family ties, brothers and sisters huddle sideways.

Link to project

The Fencing System exhibition is a complex statement about the boundaries of freedom, and also works with a specific object of symbolic memory - the former camp "Perm-36" (a correctional labor colony of strict and special regimes, which has been serving for a long time to keep political prisoners). The artist pursues tasks in two directions: to present the specifics of this place, to tell about the preserved material culture of Perm-36, and also to tell about the camp as a universal model of the “system of restriction of freedom”. The artist explores how the mechanisms of power create a whole multiplicity, numerological infinity of fencing systems, and at the same time their "empty" culture.

The watchful eye of power becomes institutionalized. It effectively cuts into the social space, creating more and more isolation systems (camp facilities are forms, individual castings, but also controls). Studying various camp sites, the artist reveals that the structural one-dimensionality of bodies, people and things, their corresponding serial numbers, was one of the most important principles of the fencing system.

Link to project

Inventory – innermost part of the game, hidden from outsiders. Creatures break up into objects.
They leave not only fangs, tongues, mandibles, tails but also relics that have properties – two per cent
to speed of movement or three to evasion. So the inventory becomes a warehouse of memories, where everything is mixed up. The ripe banana and Increases The insight Left Glove of Dawn, the orange flower and The Fizzy Mace of Fading Stars, cold glass and snakes, pretending Botforts of Scarlet Down.
The flowers grow in meadows, fruit on trees, treasures finds in dungeons. But sometimes objects
are not hidden in the darkness of caves, it is on the surface. Valley, where black fire, black lake, black sunflower seeds are fenced with preemptive ribbon. Shimmering in the distance Knuckles Silver Flame equal to Chicken’s Foot of Rising Fortune – the reason to cross the area, put in the inventory desired artifacts. Rewarding is often risky. Lost in the clouds Pink Marshmallow Grotto, abode of the Wild Lion, Lord of Greed which guard the relics and scaffolds of those who tried to find them. Creatures and objects
– part of the ecosystems of worlds. Continuous conversion of one to another. Creatures ' claws leave marks on their armor, and claws sold to a junk dealer allow them to be repaired. A long journey cannot
be continuous, fatigue is worse than snake venom. And sometimes, peace can be found not only
in the tavern. So, in one of the worlds it can be found not in the belly of a whale, but in its mouth.
The summer scene of the whale's mouth, where the red velvet of the larynx became the backdrop
for the performance. While the action continues, the characters are calm, because laughter is a rare guest in these lands. But then everyone leaves the stage. Only giant snake who swallowed kentosaurus is static and lurking behind the sea giant. Some worlds are immutable and unchangeable, while others are subject
to distortion. So from the rift of reality, stalks sprout, flames burst out, cotton wool lazily oozes. Cataloging images is not a way to organize them or add them to the logo codifier. The folios that contain them have long since left the quiet vaults of the bookshelves. Symbols of one world can be found in another.
And then the eye for a moment begins to perceive what is happening an old game, where among
the many signs you need to find pairs. This is how contemplation becomes action. But when the corneal net catches everything, the calmed surface turns back to inventory. When you unravel the tangle
of snakes, it becomes clear that the snake is a guiding thread that will not be cut by a fan of knives.
A map of worlds, a Chain of worlds, is a snake that bites its tail. Infinity. The adventure will never end.

This is a reflection on the meanings and their possibilities. Variations, metamorphoses and alchemical transformations are nothing but the author’s desire for self-reflection, resistance to everything: material, school, any ideologies. Such a denial leads to a return to a painstaking, time-consuming, handicraft beginning. Here, a thoroughly built fantasy world of the artist, deprived of the right to make mistakes, reveals its illusory nature. Stylistic recognition, repeatability of motifs is adjacent to defenseless
and childish language of utterance, which is especially inconsistent in which additional meanings.
Unknown creatures, either cherubs and thrones, and all the heavenly forces, or outlandish animals,
or winged clouds are special messages. These iconic characters are often transmitted in a language
that cannot be decrypted. The code is hidden, hidden in the author’s personal archive, it is his main defense, invisible armor.

Link to publication