The company restore: together with the Ruarts contemporary art gallery present an exhibition by winners of the restore: digital art contest ‘Colour vs. Black and White’. Restore: digital art is a key project supporting young artists and the development of digital art in Russia. For 8 years the restore: brand has been the organiser of this competition for creative people and a guide to the infinite digital universe.
‘Colour vs. Black and White’, the theme of the 2024 exhibition, addresses the eternal cultural confrontation that extends beyond the visual arts and permeates the entire history of mankind. In this dialogue, opposites collide not only with colours, but also philosophical categories: day and night, transience and eternity, emotions and rationality. This game of contrasts is reflected in the works of the participants, each of them expressing their understanding of the eternal question by digital means. As the curator of the exhibition Katya Bochavar notes, "the struggle between colour and its absence is not just a visual conflict, but a symbolic language generally understandable in a variety of cultures".
The jury for the competition included leading experts in the field of digital art: curator and digital artist Aristarkh Chernyshev, curator of the House of Culture HES-2 Sergei Sdobnov, digital artist and teacher Antonio Geusa, graphic designer and creator of the Scholotch project Boris Shilin, composer and sound artist Oleg Makarov, digital artist and designer Kirill Mintsev, visual artist Nadezhda Kharaz, graphic designer and creative director of Yandex Pay Kirill Ermoshin and creative director of Yandex Plus and Yango Play Julia Rubleva.
The first places in the nominations were taken by:
Anton Batishev in the nomination Computer Graphics with the work ‘Fly’.
Irina Zadorozhnaya in the new nomination Artist’s Digital Film with the film ‘My Limbo Land. Breakfast. Episode III’.
Gleb Melenberg in the nomination Digital Photography with the work ‘Core’.
Dmitry Shestakov in the nomination Video Art with the work ‘Void’.
Evgenia Shabunina in the nomination Neural Network Art with the work ‘Cast’.
Two simultaneous winners in the Electronic Sound nomination - Alexander Kardakov with the work ‘RGB\BW’, and Dmitry Abbasov with the work ‘Light and Shadow’.
Natalya Menyakina in Balance Search, a special nomination from Yandex Pay, with the work ‘Borders’.
The exhibition will present 21 works by laureates in nominations that reveal the diversity of digital art. Particular attention is paid to video works, which emphasises their growing importance in contemporary art and the role of technology in creating new art forms.
