Contemporary artists presented their views on the current development of the Russian language.

The works displayed in the exhibition view text as ephemeral matter, a poetic statement, a space of life, and an instrument of communication. The exhibitors chose various artistic genres and practices: video art, performance art, artist’s books, visual poetry, graphics, and objects.

Russian State Art Library (RSAL) Director Ada Kolganov opened the exposition noting the interest of artists working in the field of contemporary visual art in the development of the Russian language.

Project curator, RSAL specialist, Alexandra Orlova, spoke about the main concept of the exhibition—text as a conditional space of the existence of a modern person who communicates with the help of text more than ever, solving their problems in social networks, in messengers, and using SMS messages. Alexandra Orlova led a tour of the exposition.

She introduced Viktor Lukin and Mikhail Pogarsky’s project ‘Russian Primer’, which brought together 32 artists, each of whom presented their own vision of a letter of the alphabet (Alexey Veselovsky, Valery Korchagin, Igor Makarevich, Kira Matissen, Peter Perevezentsev, Leonid Tishkov, and others); drew attention to the kitsch works of Alina Glazun; and discussed the concept of a video performance by the Kaliningrad group Tender Women. Some of the works were presented by the artists participating in the exhibition.