TOWARDS THE DAWN

Photo: Zarya CCA
Text: Elena Belova

The Zarya (dawn) Center for Contemporary Art was opened in 2013 in an old Soviet garment factory. The Synergy group of companies and its director, Primoryan Aleksandr Mechetin, decided to create The Zarya Factory, the first Far Eastern loft and art cluster in the city. And this urban space appeared at the entrance to Vladivostok, which surprises visitors with its architecture and design, exhibitions, film screenings, lectures and unusual free atmosphere.

The Zarya CCA is worth visiting, even if you are not a fan of modern art: there is a beautiful reading room with the latest new books, fast wi-fi and a small coffee shop. You can work, relax, read and talk to creative people.

The center’s large exhibitions are something about which Zarya is especially proud. The first was the “Reconstruction of Noise,” an exhibition of sounds, recreated according to theater actor, inventor and designer Vladimir Popov’s, scenario and performed by Petr Aidu’s Musical Laboratory.

Three months in CCA’s hall in commemoration of the anniversary of the Great Victory did not abate the echoes of tank battles, the roar of bombers, and the rumbling of train echelons. Visitors could also hear fascinating natural noises, including a sea breeze, monsoon rains, the sound of the surf and characteristic of local winters, gusty winds, recreated especially for Vladivostok.

Then there was the Homo Ludens exhibition (the playing man) with eight generations of electronic gaming: from collector consoles of the 1970s and 1980s (Odyssey Magnavox, Pong Atari, Channel F Fairchild and the Soviet game “Nu, Pogodi!”) to the Sony PlayStation 4.

It is also worth noting the first solo exhibition of the artist Pavel Pukhov, who worked under the pseudonym Pasha 183. Pasha 183’s exhibition “Our task is a feat” turned Zarya’s halls into actual streets, with graffiti, drawings, and paintings of street artists who died tragically.

Also, specifically for CCA, Moscow artist Georgi Ostretsov made a series of works about the utopian “New Government” and has created a fantastic Vladivostok “Prezidentmobil” from a Toyota Carina, leaving only the frame and the engine.

One of the latest exhibitions sparked a hot discussion. The exhibition of women artists, “Her,” which opened on March 8, a bright and controversial study of the image of women and their relationship with the world excited all of Vladivostok.

In 2014, the center started to work on the Zarya Art Residence, where every month painters, sculptors, and photographers come from around the world. Their task is to create their own project in Vladivostok, conduct lectures and workshops, and communicate with citizens.

Now every citizen of the city has the opportunity to become acquainted with bright people from different spheres of contemporary art.