Platforma Project room presented the exhibition of Swiss artists "Measurements of Time"

The capital often pleases the eye of art connoisseurs with experimental or multimedia exhibitions, and August of this summer was no exception, because the exhibition space “Platforma project room” opened a display of works by Swiss artists Peter Erschmann and Saskia Edens “Measurements of Time".

The Platforma project room is an experimental exhibition space that began operating in the capital in November 2018. The founder of the project is an art critic — Aigul Ibraeva. To understand what a Platforma project room is, let's turn to her words:

This is a place for creative projects: experiments, research, exhibitions of contemporary art. The "platform" is a platform for the exchange of ideas within the framework of the intersection of various disciplines, shows different points of view of the creativity of authors and the community.

At the start of the project, the Platform held screenings of short films, workshops with young talents in painting and cinema. Then the activity changed and became more focused on organizing exhibitions. To date, the Platforma project room holds many unique projects, one of which was a collaboration with a tandem of artists from Switzerland, which resulted in the exhibition “Measurements of Time". 

The exhibition “Dimensions of Time” presents 6 multimedia works on the themes of the temporality of being, the philosophy of thinking about cycles, impermanence, variability, alienation of people from each other. This exhibition is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Switzerland and Kazakhstan and was held with the support of the Swiss Embassy.

Saskia Edens creates lunar calendars, is interested in the cyclicity and influence of the Moon on life, and Peter Erschmann creates pendulums with animated elements and rotates objects, like planets in the space of weightlessness. 

Peter extracts scenes, objects, and people from thousands of photographs he has taken, and then collects them into visual sequences, placing them in a kind of timeless space. In both practices, one can find circular fundamental movements and the related concept of cyclicity, infinity, connection with the cosmos, history and time. 

Artists live in different cities. Saskia lives in Basel, and Peter lives in Bern. However, it so happened that the topics they explore: history, philosophy, time continuums combine into a bright and deep tandem.  

Peter, for example, catches objects that interest him in real life, people, faces. They can be simple workers and he pulls them out of photos and inserts them into a virtual space and gives them a new life, that is, they move and live in it. That is, this time stream that they save in the virtual world, it can also become an additional reality. What does this period of time mean when they fly and crawl. They are like us when we go about our daily business, our whole life also consists of such segments. Saskia Edens also has a theme that all our bodily and spiritual life are connected with the cosmos. Our memory of what we think about the past is separated from reality. She also deeply explores the feminist theme," shared Aigul Ibraeva, curator of the project and founder of the Platforma project room.

One of the most profound works that immediately greets visitors at the exhibition is the video installation “Invisible” Peter Erschmann. The artist has recently been exploring the theme of loneliness of people. Why people have become more closed off from each other. They automatically do their business and try to save their space so that they don't see each other. Each of them is covered with a veil and lives his own life. The automatism of people's actions is also connected with space and the cosmos. This refers us to Bergson's philosophy that time does not go straight, it goes inside us and constantly rotates in the flow. His characters constantly return to the same state. 

It was a challenge for me to put it all together. I am always inspired by the city, the circumstances and conditions in which people live. For example, in this work I was thinking about how people are changing now. That people are now busy with cell phones and other devices and we do not notice what is happening now," explained Peter Erschmann.

Saskia Edens' work “Mare Mitochondrium” with flour is also located nearby. Here everything goes in a circle and in milk. Milk refers to the topic of the meaning of a woman. The course of our cycle is also a connection with the cosmos. Saskia Edens compares the connection of mother and daughter with the connection of the moon with the earth. In her second video installation “Sowing Strategies”, which was created four years ago, she touches on one of the global problems of humanity — urban desertification. 

Saskia explores the deserted city of Svalbard. There was a mine and grain storage. She explores the topic of changing the time of these cities. Makes a series of performances that are dedicated to the abandoned life, — explained the curator of the project and the founder of the Platforma project room Aigul Ibraeva.

In the center of the dark space exposition, Peter's extremely bright three-dimensional composition “Compass" is presented. In it, the visitor can see a set of road signs and other warning signs that practically predetermine our life and build the path along which a person walks. 

These multimedia works of the Swiss tandem can be seen on the Platforma Project Room. The experimental exhibition “Measurements of Time” will last until August 20. 

Address — Nur-Sultan, Dostyk str. 18, Business center "Moscow", 3rd floor, 309 hall

Dates and time of visit: August 5 — August 20 from 13.00 to 20.00 h.

Admission is free

Gallery contacts — 8 (702)- 254 — 66-25

The author of the material: Zarina Kusanova.