“Ugrassic Period”, the exhibition of works by artists from Finno-Ugrian region, will run at Erarta from December 4 till 19 January. This is the third and the final stage of our joint project with “Sterkh” Gallery of Contemporary Art in Surgut.

The exhibition appeals to the cultural and artistic aspects of Ugra region, a vast territory stretching from the Baltic Sea through the Volga river and the Urals to the Yenisei, and traditionally inhabited by Finno-Ugric peoples.

The curators of the project aimed to convey self-perception of Finno-Ugric peoples through their contemporary visual, verbal, and musical art. Since the native artists are not necessarily live on their ancestral territories, they were invited, regardless of their residence.

Stylistically, the exhibition is not reduced to ethnofuturism: it includes archaeo- and contemporary art elements. The exhibition features different media: painting, drawing, sculpture, installations, photography and video art. Besides the visual objects, it also presents scrolls of free verses by Finno-Ugric poets, such as Uvan Shestalov (Mansi), Maria Vagatova (Khanty), Galina Butyreva (Komi), Olli Repponen (Finn), Victor Shibanov (Udmurtia), Viktor Petrov and others.

Among the participants there are artists from Ugra region: Gennady Raishev, Vladimir Bugaev, Lydia Antipova, Alexei Bachurin (Khanty-Mansiysk), Aleksandr Sedov (Langepas), Ivan Demyanenko (Nizhnevartovsk), Evgeny Shelepov (Neftejugansk); from Moscow: Vladimir Nasedkin, Svyatoslav Ponomarev; from St. Petersburg: Nikolay Vasiliev, Denis Patrakeev, Yuri Shtapakov, Paul Ignatieff, Denis Prasolov; and representatives from other Russian regions: Zoya Lebedeva (Izhevsk), Aleksandr Trifonov (Petrozavodsk), Rinat Minnebaev (Ufa), Vladimir Migachev (Krasnodar), Mikhail Kazakovtsev (Novosibirsk), Nicholay Rybakov (Krasnoyarsk), and others.

The goal of the exhibition is to study contemporary Finno-Ugrian art, reveal common poetics, common themes, features and intonations. Since the majority of Russians in varying degrees, have Finno-Ugric genes, addressing this topic can be useful for everyone’s self-immersion and self-knowledge.

One part of the project is implemented in a media concert.

The project started in June in Surgut, then was shown at the State Art Museum in Khanty-Mansiysk and now St. Petersburg audience can see it in expanded and updated version.