In the exhibition “Metanoia” Alina Fedotova addresses the topic of ecology and morality, using the biblical stories of the Last Supper and the betrayal of Judas as a metaphor for “sin” against nature, which requires “repentance and communion”. As an oceanographer at the Shirshov Institute of Oceanology of Russian Academy of Sciences, Alina Fedotova explores this topic using the example of modern Japan, where the aestheticization of everyday life, strict social norms and high technology are combined with the capture of whales and other large marine mammals for food. At this point an artist sees a clash of aesthetics and ethics, when a developed civilization still has a consumerist attitude towards nature.

The main impetus for the creation of the exhibition was the events of the “Whale Wars” of 2005-2006, when a large whale capture was carried out on the Japanese ship “Nisshin Maru” in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean. The video work “240 Shades of Blue”, as well as the installation from printed graphics “Sea Eaters. 30 pieces of silver” is an image of “sin”, where Japanese girls at the table eat pieces of whales and octopuses against the backdrop of Mount Fuji, a symbol of the perfection of forms in Japanese culture. The large-scale three-part painting “Μετάνοια” is the artist’s call to “metanoia”, which is translated from Greek as “rethinking”, “change of mind”, following “repentance”. Therefore, the table here is clean, only the Chalice of the Eucharist stands on it. This is a spiritual work, and the plot is depicted in a speculative space, heavenly, watery and transcendental at the same time.

“Metanoia” leads to purity of mind and thoughts. The picturesque triptych “Fragilis” becomes a symbol of this purity, expressed in nature itself: the blue and transparent blue waters of Antarctica, the movement of ice shelves and icebergs in the endless ocean. The triptych, like the entire exhibition, is only part of a project created based on the impressions of Alina Fedotova’s long expeditions to Antarctica in 2020-2022. The project reminds of the unity of the ecosystem and calls for cosmopolitanism, awareness of the responsibility of each person for planet Earth.

Address: Moscow, Bobrov lane, 4, building 3 (1st floor)
Opening hours: daily, 11:00 – 20:00.
Free admission.