olga grotova

AS PART OF THE LOUIS ROEDERER DISCOVERY AWARD

PRESENTED BY
PUSHKIN HOUSE, LONDON, ENGLAND

OLGA GROTOVA

OUR GRANDMOTHERS' GARDENS

4 JULY - 28 AUGUST 2022

10.00 AM - 07.30 PM

ACCESSIBLE

TICKETING

For the exhibition Our Grandmothers' Gardens, Olga Grotova tells the story of her ancestors and country using three media: a film, historical magazines, and two works on paper. The film recounts the artist’s return to the Ural Mountains with her mother. They go out to find a parcel of land that belonged to her great-grandmother in the Soviet era, then to her grandmother, ending up in collective ownership. The artist’s viewpoint on this space of true self-determination is a tribute to the agency of these women. In the archive, we see Soviet propaganda campaigns boasting of women farmers. Finally, completing the set, are two works on paper made by superimposing images and materials, notably that of earth taken from the gardens themselves.

EXHIBITION CURATOR: TAOUS DAHMANI.

WITH SUPPORT FROM THE GARAGE MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART, MOSCOW.

OLGA GROTOVA

Born 1986 in Chelyabinsk, Russia.
Lives and works in London, England.

Olga Grotova is a Russian-British interdisciplinary artist. Her practice uncovers women’s histories that have been erased from the established narratives. Grotova goes on the journeys to collect first-hand information from communities and families in order not to rely on male and power-centric “official” records. The artist begins the works in the darkroom and employs intricate camera-less processes to hand the agency over to plants, soils and objects closely intertwined with the lives of women. Grotovajuxtaposes problematic propaganda photographs from Soviet Russia with her images of the debris and the cast-offs that are akin to the female voices discarded within the patriarchal structures.