Maria Agureeva. Citius, Altius, Fortius! Commodification: Exhibition would be shown at FABRIKA. Curator Alexander Evangely
The project «Citius, Altius, Fortius! Commodification» had started for Maria Agureeva from the conversation occasionally overheard in a women’s changing room of fitness club. Girls talked about why they are engaged in fitness and how men take their exercises. This episode pushed an artist to research of how athletic body becomes the object of the commodity relations in conditions of young Russian capitalism.
USSR is known for “there is no sex”. But there were sports! Soviet sports show had a certain hidden erotic potential within and it intrigued millions of spectators. Maria addresses to circumstances of the recent past while developing the project:«Girls simulate playing sports, when the look of the spectator simulates interest to art, though it is generally absorbed by studying of bodies of naked models. The situation as a whole reminds the viewer of the Soviet morals, switching erotic imagination of the crowd on shows of sports gymnastics or classical ballet». Alexander Evangeli
In the new project Maria Agureeva explores the transformation of Soviet sports into commodity or a market bonus. Exposition «Citius, Altius, Fortius! Commodification» includes images of attractive girls with sports attributes, Soviet ready-mades and audio installation. Pictures are produced in multistage technique, which is common for all Maria’s projects. From the distance one can’t tell that all models are naked. They pose in the sportswear drawn on their bodies and carry out simple physical exercises, but at the same time they seduce. They had been photographed in such look and the facsimile is transferred on tiles, reminding of pools and shower booths of the fitness centers.
Saint-Petersburg, Moscow, Helsinki, London – the geography of personal and collective exhibitions of Maria Agureeva is quite extensive for a young artist. Maria can belong to young ones due to her age, and because of her rather recent engagement in professional art. Her first exhibition took place in 2009. For a short period of time Agureeva managed to reach significant aims for the artist: her works are recognizable, she has found and keeps developing her own technique, she has collectors and spectators.
September 20 – October 30, 2012, Perevedenovskiy pereulok 18, Moscow
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