Introducing the State Tretyakov Gallery
Situated in Moscow, Russia, it's the largest museum of Russian art. To get an idea of its significance to the country, think Prado or Tate Britain. For their latest exhibition on Russian fairy tales that combines total experience design and artworks that span three centuries and includes contemporary installations and video art, the Gallery asked us, Avocado Toast, to "enliven" three paintings.
Baba Yaga, Victor Vasnetsov, 1917
Viktor Vasnetsov Museum
Sadko, Ilya Repin, 1876
The State Russian Museum
Viktor Vasnetsov Museum
Of course, we said "NO".
Putting our name next to the famous Russian artists would mean instant carpet bombing from the professional community, both at the Tretyakov team and us: we're a multimedia storytelling company, not an artistic collective. However, we work a lot with multimedia artists, and are proficient in new media arts.
So we took on a curatorial role
Basing on our research, together with the Gallery we coined 3 principles for such a work:
Research: Before making the painting alive, we researched its history; the painter's style, strokes and circumstances; and the folklore behind the painting's subject.
Conceptualisation: After the research, we asked ourselves: what are the most important things to highlight in this painting?
Artist-led: The final question was: who's the best Russian artist to make this concept come alive? Because we believe only artists should have been working on this to bring their unique vision and talent to the Gallery space.
And so, this is where our adventures took us...
Baba Yaga is a forest witch that has many roles in Russian folklore, from a magic helper to a villainous antagonist. We already had two protagonists' stories in place, so here we decided to focus on the environment, the enchanted forest itself being one of the silent yet omnipotent characters of the folklore.
While working on Baba Yaga by Victor Vasnetsov multimedia artist Vadim Epstein collaborated with artificial intelligence to solve the mystery of the Russian magic forest. Pre-trained on the heritage of the great Russian fairy tale explorer, Vasnetsov, custom neuron networks introspected the forest on the painting in search for the mysterious and presented the result as a mesmerizing flow of colors, shades and movements.
While working on Baba Yaga by Victor Vasnetsov multimedia artist Vadim Epstein collaborated with artificial intelligence to solve the mystery of the Russian magic forest. Pre-trained on the heritage of the great Russian fairy tale explorer, Vasnetsov, custom neuron networks introspected the forest on the painting in search for the mysterious and presented the result as a mesmerizing flow of colors, shades and movements.
The folklore story of a Russian hero-knight Dobrynya's struggle with a fire-breathing dragon climaxes with their last fight, the final battle between good and evil, so to say.
We talked about how contemporary this subject is with an animation artist Alexey Zakharov who specialises in animation of paintings. And Alexey found a perfect connection with the modernity in the Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with Zmey Gorynych by Victor Vasnetsov. Zakharov presented this fight as a videogame battle with the final level boss that opens up the road to triumph and fame.
We talked about how contemporary this subject is with an animation artist Alexey Zakharov who specialises in animation of paintings. And Alexey found a perfect connection with the modernity in the Fight of Dobrynya Nikitich with Zmey Gorynych by Victor Vasnetsov. Zakharov presented this fight as a videogame battle with the final level boss that opens up the road to triumph and fame.
The tale of Sadko, a Russian merchant and gusli (a kind of a zither) player, is full of adventures that bring him to the underwater world and back.
Environmental simulation guru and CG artist Andrey Flat studied underwater worlds of Ilya Repin's Sadko. Bringing alive the lights and shades of the painting he created a storytelling device, a school of fish, as he searched for the mystery of Sadko's story culmination — the moment when he finds his future wife Chernavka among nine hundred brides in the underwater kingdom presented to him by the sea king.
Environmental simulation guru and CG artist Andrey Flat studied underwater worlds of Ilya Repin's Sadko. Bringing alive the lights and shades of the painting he created a storytelling device, a school of fish, as he searched for the mystery of Sadko's story culmination — the moment when he finds his future wife Chernavka among nine hundred brides in the underwater kingdom presented to him by the sea king.
Exhibition Organizer
The State Tretyakov Gallery
Curators
Tatiana Getman
Ivan Antonov
Igor Volkov
Co-curator (exhibition area architecture & design)
Alexey Tregubov
Author of Interactive Objects
Maria Tregubova
Academic Adviser
Nikita Petrov
Curators of New Media Art
Avocado Toast
Curator
Victor Lander
Producer, Co-curator
Olga Nikolaeva
Animation of Paintings
Andrey Flat
Vadim Epstein
Alexey Zakharov
PR Support
Sergey Baryshnikov
Photography
The State Tretyakov Gallery
Curators
Tatiana Getman
Ivan Antonov
Igor Volkov
Co-curator (exhibition area architecture & design)
Alexey Tregubov
Author of Interactive Objects
Maria Tregubova
Academic Adviser
Nikita Petrov
Curators of New Media Art
Avocado Toast
Curator
Victor Lander
Producer, Co-curator
Olga Nikolaeva
Animation of Paintings
Andrey Flat
Vadim Epstein
Alexey Zakharov
PR Support
Sergey Baryshnikov
Photography
Andrey Buzin
Special Thanks
Avocado Toast team express their gratefulness to the State Tretyakov Gallery and personally to the exhibition chief curator Tatiana Getman for openness, trust and continuous support throughout the project.
Special Thanks
Avocado Toast team express their gratefulness to the State Tretyakov Gallery and personally to the exhibition chief curator Tatiana Getman for openness, trust and continuous support throughout the project.
