Curatorial statement:

What art is considered Tatar, Udmurt, Bashkir, Russian, or Chuvash? Where do the associations come from?

Is it possible for art that has already earned the title of national art to disappear as new art forms emerge? When are traditions assumed to be preserved?

Who can create national art? What kind of things can an artist speak about through their culture? Is a culture that is not one's own alien or just different?

We do not know the answers to these questions, but we need your opinion. The project Svoyo i Drugoe (Russian: своё и другое – our and other) includes works by artists from Kazan, Izhevsk, Moscow, Cheboksary, and Ufa.

The artist's role is to explore, research, and ask questions. The role of the viewer is to find their own answer. The only thing we know for sure is that art is one of the few instruments available to bring changes at the moment. With this project, we want to start a conversation about the importance of finding new answers, which we lack today.