The solo exhibition of Kalmyk artist Southside Grooven addresses the themes of identity, cultural belonging, the role of generational memory, and personal experience in shaping an individual’s life. The works presented in the exhibition were created between 2024 and 2025 and are divided into three sections: graphic works, painting, and installation.

The graphic section, located on the first floor, presents the series Homework (Kalmyk: Gerin Daalhvr). Each work in the series bears a title in the Kalmyk language—words and expressions familiar to many who grew up in Kalmykia. The artist does not speak Kalmyk fluently, although he considers it his native language. In a certain sense, the graphic series reflects life in Kalmykia during the 1990s and 2000s, the years of the artist’s childhood. Through these works, the artist explores his complex relationship with the Kalmyk language—a question that remains relevant for many members of his generation.

The paintings on the second floor continue the theme of education and are devoted to the “cult of knowledge” that has become deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the people of Kalmykia since the second half of the twentieth century. The years of the mass deportation of the Kalmyk people to Siberia taught a harsh lesson: members of national minorities came to understand that a good education was an essential condition for building a dignified life in their own country. In contemporary Kalmykia, students regularly leave to pursue their education in other cities and countries. If the arrival of winter in Kalmykia is associated with the Buddhist holiday Zul, and the arrival of spring with Tsagan Sar, then the beginning of autumn is marked by the departure of Kalmyk students to study far from home. This has remained a widespread phenomenon for decades: for people from Kalmykia, obtaining a higher education and subsequently building a career outside the republic has become the new norm. The paintings in this section are an analysis of this phenomenon, as well as the artist’s attempt to rethink his own lived experience. One of the central images in the exhibition narrative is The Last Express (Kalmyk: Sül Express)—the bus on which graduates leave their family home (perhaps forever) in search of better prospects in life. The Eternal Blue Sky (Kalmyk: Möngk Kök Tenggr) changes color at the moment The Last Express departs—a sign of the profound changes awaiting its passengers. This image was inspired by the regular passenger buses operating on the Elista–Moscow route.

The third floor houses the immersive installation Road to One Playlist, allowing the viewer to step aboard The Last Express. Every passenger finds their own way of measuring the time spent on the journey: by the minutes until the next stop, by the tracks played on their phone, or by the television series that the drivers screen for everyone from a pirated DVD or USB flash drive. The principle behind the choice of series remains a secret from the passengers. The only certainty is that the television, running for almost the entire journey, is difficult to ignore. The installation is built around the feeling of dissonance created by watching the television without sound while listening to music through headphones. The playlist assembled for the installation lasts twenty-two hours—the approximate travel time of a passenger bus from Elista to Moscow. The artist left his family home in August 2011, and therefore the playlist consists of music from the “blog era” that was current at that time.