Pure Experience. An exhibition by Dmitry Shabalin and Adil Aubekerov at PA Gallery’s Large Hall

In the Large Hall of the Cube.Moscow art space, PA Gallery presents its exhibition Pure Experience, which brings together two young artists – Dmitry Shabalin and Adil Aubekerov. The exhibition will allow visitors to live through this “pure experience”, following in the footsteps of the artists as they created their works.

The exhibition concept invites the viewer to take part in a certain “pure experience”, undergoing the necessary cleansing of the mind and subsequent suffusion of oneself with emotion. By virtue of the essence of art itself, interaction with it is the most powerful and effective way to accomplish this goal.

The artists’ own “pure experience” is transformed in their work. And this experience that at first belongs solely to them is artistically transformed, becoming accessible to viewers. However, an important part of the profound emotional experience and of making it part of one’s own self is taking the journey down a path that repeats the one taken by the artists.

In the space of his installation, Dmitry Shabalin offers a meditative immersion into oneself in order to clear the mind, as he himself does as part of his process of working with objects that have been taken out of their normal context and are now material for the creation of a new emotional experience. Dmitry’s installation, which he is creating in real time, is an important part of the exhibition. It will take its final form only at the opening. Meanwhile, a willingness and ability to receive an emotional impression takes us back from the cosmic space of Dmitry Shabalin’s installation, literally and figuratively, to Earth, the realm of Adil Aubekerov’s. Like feeling nature with one’s bare feet in a shamanic dance, both the artist and the visitor activate their sensory experience through direct contact with the elements, and are filled with a powerful, vital force. Visitors are invited to be barefoot in the exhibition space, which intensifies the experience and further expands the impressions received from the works: the floors and walls will be covered with moss. Thus, an important part of the exhibition is the journey along a certain path, one that repeats the journey of the artists.

Dmitry Shabalin, artist:

“Liberation, cleansing, and renewal – these are the three stages of the process of my inner transformation that I want to capture in space using objects I find around me. Pure Experience will mark my first such experiment working specifically with space, which requires a rethinking, reliving, and artistic cleansing of my entire past experience. Since 2013 I have been working on my 3D collage technique, sharpening it while creating my masks, and now I feel that I am ready to bring bigger ideas to life.

 Adil Aubekerov, artist:

“I like that people say that they want to scrutinize my pictures, do go deep inside them. This is what I strive for, for people to discover their own emotions through what they see.”

 Alina Koren, curator:

Interaction with works of art is an experience of living through and accommodating one’s emotions. This is universal, for both the creators and for the observers. The main objective of the project is the creation of conditions that facilitate for visitors a profoundly felt experience of their own emotions, a ‘pure experience’ of perceiving art.

Curator: Alina Koren