</The Illusion of Clarity: Exploring Sight’s Hidden Layers>
author: Maria Arnaut
ODRA Platform has become a media partner of a major exhibition called "Borders of visibility," held at the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art. Below is a review by our correspondent Maria Arnaut.
The exhibition runs under the auspices of the Winzavod.Gravity project, which creates a multifaceted anthology of contemporary art. Each year, a large-scale thematic exhibition is curated by a guest expert. This year’s curator is Sergey Khachaturov.
This year’s theme revolves around vision: how to observe the non-obvious and perceive the invisible. True to its evocative title, the participating artists explore questions of sight and the visible world, employing diverse vantage points and perspectives. The exhibition is divided into five sections with each unveiling aspects of visual experience.
The exhibition runs under the auspices of the Winzavod.Gravity project, which creates a multifaceted anthology of contemporary art. Each year, a large-scale thematic exhibition is curated by a guest expert. This year’s curator is Sergey Khachaturov.
This year’s theme revolves around vision: how to observe the non-obvious and perceive the invisible. True to its evocative title, the participating artists explore questions of sight and the visible world, employing diverse vantage points and perspectives. The exhibition is divided into five sections with each unveiling aspects of visual experience.
3. Afterimages
Inspired by Goethe’s theory of color induction, artists Alexey Vasilyev, Misha Gudvin, Anna Lapshinova, Lena Lisitsa, Anastasia Litvinova, and Gleb Nikto create gestalts that linger in the mind long after the object disappears.
Inspired by Goethe’s theory of color induction, artists Alexey Vasilyev, Misha Gudvin, Anna Lapshinova, Lena Lisitsa, Anastasia Litvinova, and Gleb Nikto create gestalts that linger in the mind long after the object disappears.
This serves as a metaphor for memory — how the brain supplements reality with its own projections.
1. Peripheral Vision
The first section focuses on what lies at the “edges” of our attention. Artists Sayan Baigaliev, Katika, Georgy Litichevsky, Katya Popchenko, Vladimir Potapov, Roman Sakin, Leonid Tskhe, Ivan Chemakin, and Elena Sharganova present objects gathered during “expeditions” to the borderlands of perception. Their works remind us that the world is composed not only of the obvious but also of random fragments that the brain assembles into chaotic networks.
The first section focuses on what lies at the “edges” of our attention. Artists Sayan Baigaliev, Katika, Georgy Litichevsky, Katya Popchenko, Vladimir Potapov, Roman Sakin, Leonid Tskhe, Ivan Chemakin, and Elena Sharganova present objects gathered during “expeditions” to the borderlands of perception. Their works remind us that the world is composed not only of the obvious but also of random fragments that the brain assembles into chaotic networks.
Elena Sharganova
Take me to the river
Photographer : Denis Lapshin
Take me to the river
Photographer : Denis Lapshin
Alexey Vasilyev
Furniture air
Photographer : Denis Lapshin
Furniture air
Photographer : Denis Lapshin
2. Blind Spot and Fixation Point
This section examines the tension between detail and “blindness.” A nod to Malevich’s Black Square — a symbol of both concentration and emptiness — sets the tone. Works by Marina Belova and Alexey Politov, Aleksandr Gordeev, Egor Koshelev, Alexander Lavrov, Dasha Maltseva,
This section examines the tension between detail and “blindness.” A nod to Malevich’s Black Square — a symbol of both concentration and emptiness — sets the tone. Works by Marina Belova and Alexey Politov, Aleksandr Gordeev, Egor Koshelev, Alexander Lavrov, Dasha Maltseva,
Slava Nesterov, Alena Paskhina, Mikhail Rubankov, Aleksey Starkov and Yakov Khorev play with optical illusions, balancing viewers between clarity and oblivion.
Alexander Lavrov
Album
Album
4. Slit and Cut in the Perspective Box
The most unexpected section: new meanings seep through “gaps” in the familiar worldview. Works by Dmitry Bulnygin, Daniil Vasilyev, Ekaterina Gerasimenko, the Yelikuka group, Margarita Zhuravleva, Nikita Spiridonov, Alexey Starkov, Sasha Puchkova and Vladimir Chernyshev resemble collages of fragments — random yet transformative.
The most unexpected section: new meanings seep through “gaps” in the familiar worldview. Works by Dmitry Bulnygin, Daniil Vasilyev, Ekaterina Gerasimenko, the Yelikuka group, Margarita Zhuravleva, Nikita Spiridonov, Alexey Starkov, Sasha Puchkova and Vladimir Chernyshev resemble collages of fragments — random yet transformative.
Anna Lapshinova
Ah, if I had a dream how to free you from the spell
Photographer : Denis Lapshin
Ah, if I had a dream how to free you from the spell
Photographer : Denis Lapshin
5. Amsler Grid
The finale reimagines ophthalmological tests as art. Ivan Belov, Platon Infante, Sergey Lotsmanov, Anton Morokov, Pavel Polshchikov, Ivan Repkin, Anna Taganzeva, and the TOY collective turn diagnostic charts into surreal puzzles, where logic yields to dreamlike abstraction.
The finale reimagines ophthalmological tests as art. Ivan Belov, Platon Infante, Sergey Lotsmanov, Anton Morokov, Pavel Polshchikov, Ivan Repkin, Anna Taganzeva, and the TOY collective turn diagnostic charts into surreal puzzles, where logic yields to dreamlike abstraction.
Ivan Belov
#1FS, #2FS, No name
Photographer : Denis Lapshin
#1FS, #2FS, No name
Photographer : Denis Lapshin
Limits of Visibility is more than an exhibition—it is a research project. It warns that in the age of “screen vision,” people risk losing touch with reality’s multidimensionality. The artists and curator urge us to slow down, examine the cracks in the familiar, and discover new dimensions within them.