Projects
THE NEW SUBJECT
The New Subject is a series of four interconnected exhibitions and accompanying public events about the evolving challenges of the body in connection to global biopolitics and technological developments, focusing on the legal, somatic and cognitive dimensions. The exhibitions investigate how new medical technologies and biological enhancements impact our bodies and mind and the ways in which governments use policies to control and instrumentalize them. The project also explores how posthuman and post-anthropomorphic discourse is shaping our understanding of the body and its possibilities to navigate the world and the self more consciously. |
Get Real! Online discussions series
"Get Real!" is a series of online discussions about housing policy and new forms of (co)existence with participation of Russian and international artists, curators, sociologists, architects, anthropologists, historians, local storytellers and natives of city areas. The project strives to test and demonstrate the possibilitis of contemporary art and curatorial practices to infiltrate into such social structures and institutions as housing, territorial legislation, urban infrastructures and citizens' associations. |
Critical Mass. Season 5
In 2019 - 2020 TOK’s most continuous and long-term project ‘Critical Mass’ swings in its 5th season. Entitled ‘Get Real!’, it is devoted to the emerging and complex issues of housing, real estate, contemporary and historical housing conditions in post-socialist and neoliberal contexts. Throughout the two years we will explore the issues of housing construction, distribution and ownership that concern residents and authorities of all the world's major megacities. Rising real estate prices, gentrification, growing population, large-scale hosing projects on sites of demolished architectural monuments and in city outskirts are radically changing urban landscapes and power relations in the cities. Many people are forced to move out from the city center due to business developments and renovation projects. |
Fast Forward to the Future: Empowerment of Young People Through Arts
'Fast Forward to the Future: Empowerment of Young People Through Arts' initiated by TOK and Grafikens Hus (Södertälje, Sweden) is a polyphonic platform where young people can express their opinions about the themes that they find important and engage into a public discussion with people of different ages and background. Invited artists, performers, journalists and educators help them use for that various artistic formats for that - from large-scale posters, zines and videos to sound installations, performances and public actions that will take place in St Petersburg and Södertälje in 2019 and 2020. The results of the project will be reflected in a bilingual publication that can be used by artists and educators in youth-targeted artistic and social practices. |
The Russian Bar: Why Relocate? New approaches to neighborliness and interchange. Part 2
The Creative Association of Curators TOK continues its project "The Russian Bar: Why Relocate? New approaches to neighborliness and interchange" with a series of events, exhibitions, lectures and performances. From August 27 to September 9, newly commissioned projects which aim to analyze changing conditions of global migration in recent years and the outflow of artists, academics, journalists, activists from Russia in particular, of both Russian and Finnish artists will be presented in different locations in Helsinki. |
The Russian Bar: Why Relocate? New approaches to neighborliness and interchange
'The Russian Bar: Why Relocate? New approaches to neighborliness and interchange' is a research-based art project aimed at analyzing the ‘new wave’ of emigration of Russians to Finland. It will be presented as a series of performances, talks, artistic interventions and small-scale exhibitions in different venues in Helsinki in June and August-September 2018. In their existing and commissioned works Finnish and Russian participants will address current and historical cases of exile and displacement, roots of nationalism and social acceptance, communication and exchange, disappointment and civil powerlessness, social and cultural clashes and reciprocity. |
States of Control
The project ‘States of Control’ brings together artists, researchers and curators from a vast geographical background: Georgia, Israel, Lebanon, Russia, Sudan, Ukraine, Poland, and the USA. They refer both to recent and historical phenomena spanning a wide spectrum from opposition of the USSR and the US during the Cold War and controversial position of Finland during that time to espionage tactics in Egypt and Israel in the 1960, and the recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine. In their projects artists use diverse methods to address the multiple ways in which facts (or fiction?) are conveyed by media, mass culture and education to shape the realities we exist in. Focusing on different historical periods and current events the project participants create their own tactics of speaking about the past and the present to force a ‘memoryless’ society out of its comfort information zone. |
Critical Mass. Season 4
The fourth season of the project ‘Critical Mass’ lasts for two years and focuses on an analysis of the history of youth movements in the 20th century and the contemporary context of youth initiatives and organizations. It showcases collaborative initiatives with teenagers and young people and facilitate their active engagement into contemporary creative processes, especially those taking place in the urban environment and public space. The main objective of the fourth season of ‘Critical Mass’ is the integration of new artistic, educational and social practices into government organizations working with young people and involved in youth oriented policy making. |
Critical Mass 2015. Season 3
Third season of the project 'Critical Mass' is focused on the issues of preserving cultural heritage and analysis of history and cultural collective memory. The main goal of the project this time is to form sustainable scenarios of revitalizing historical buildings and areas using creative and social practices. The venues of the project is a historically significant spot in St Petersburg - the Gromov's Dacha and Lopukhinskiy garden. |