The claiming of collective experiences across space and time unites communities under trans-national norms of social resistance and transformation. This is the background of Is it better to be separate?, comprising drawing, photography, objects, and installation that seek to create a new matrix for understanding identity and the nation.

Is it better to be separate?, inspired by Benedict Anderson’s classic study of nationalism, seeks to reflect on the claiming of collective experiences of social and community resistance. A new lens for understanding identity is designed whose contours extend beyond territorial borders, linear time frames, religious or tribal loyalties, and ethnic markers. The exhibition highlights collective experiences of resistance that transcend space and time as a source of identity for different communities across the globe.

That is the re-imagined national unity brought to light in the works by the artists who traverse the territorial and historical context in which the exhibition is situated by drawing from trans-state experiences of bottom-up social transformation.


Curated by Anastasiia Spasova
Artists: Slava Nesterov, Pavel Polshchikov, Alina Izmaylova, Vera Plekhova, Fyodor Telkov, Vladimir Chernyshev, Boris Makarov, Sonya Bondareva Text by Makar Iakovlev