Lev Nikitin. Esibizione Sull'Amore e sulla Guerra.
I was born March 13, 1985 in Shymkent, in Kazakhstan, then still a republic of the Soviet Union. I grew up and studied in the countryside. In 1994, after the collapse of the USSR my family moved to Russia, to the village of Kostenki in Voronezh region.
Living in Kazakhstan, at school I experienced bullying by children for my national distinction, for being Russian. Even then I began to question my national identity.
I dreamed of moving to Russia because of bullying. And the dream came true. We relocated to Russia. It turned out to be a Russian village, where a closed monoethnic community of fellow villagers was formed. Since I was a newcomer, I was also bullied at school because of my nationality. Only that time I was bullied because I was
Kazakh.
Already as a child I realized that I had no nationality and no homeland. My family. is international, with an international way of life, traditions and cuisine - Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish, Greek, Chinese. Thus, it helped me realize that my friends can be all the people of the world, and my homeland is the whole planet. At school I was a lonely and bullied child. At the age of 12 I realized my homosexuality, which had an even greater effect on my isolation. I experienced a total feeling of loneliness. At that time I promised myself, by all means, to get out of the village, to expand my world. I started doing my
art practice, I was self-taught.
In 2002, I left the village and went to university to become an art teacher. I also began studying fashion design, sewing clothes and participating in international fashion design contests. At the same time, me and several students united into the independent organization of free artists and created a project called "New Territory". After university I created my own business which went
bankrupt during the economic crisis of 2010s.
I started a new life from scratch when I moved to Moscow to make art. I found a job as a set designer in a theater, rented a studio, and began creating art, taking part in exhibitions and doing solo exhibitions. Thanks to my full-time job at the theater, I was able no longer limit myself in the images, mediums and themes of my art.
Having no sense of any roots or attachment to national origins, to my origins, I began to consider my origins not as a nation or a state, but as the art of the Renaissance. It became my personal homeland. And the use of many symbols in my art was based on my multiethnic family, as the symbolism (religious, cultural, ethnic) in my family was present in all its diversity.
In many stages of my life I had to "rebuild" myself anew.
To get rid of complexes about my body, to accept myself, I began to explore corporeality in various genres and mediums. Being rejected in a religious society because of sexuality, I began to fill this gap with art, intertwining it with religious meanings.
- welcome
- program
- 2023
- Ekaterina Galaktionova. Cadavere Squisito
- Umano/Non Umano. Lev Nikitin
- “SOH Canta!” directed by Irmhild Wicking
- Ksenia Fedorova, Max Rudenko, Dannil Koronkevich.
- The Garden. Anna Tretyakova
- Open studio. Shamil Shaaev, Elena Horgan
- KASKAD. Project as Method
- Voices in Dialogue with the Elements
- Blue Reed Duo
- Sound performance. Gianni Grandi
- ABC — 2022. Andrey Bilzho
- Daniele Petti. Natural pigments. Workshop
- Gianni Denitto. Live saxophone and electronic
- Monica Perosino. La Neve di Mariupol. Book presentation
- East. Photographs by Alessandro Treggiari
- Katya Kabalina. Sensible objects
- Balovin and Beccato. In Kind Exchange
- Zoya Pilipenko. Puzzles. Open studio
- Lev Nikitin. Senso di Fame. Interactive performance
- Witness Trauma. Film screening and meeting with director Taya Zubova
- Transmorphing. Balovin&Beccato
- Religious/Political. Group exhibition of artists in residency
- 2022
- Ceramographics . Dragoljub David Stankovikj
- Conversation on the war in Ukraine and testimonies of resistance
- Kharkiv 2022. Kirill Gonchar. Photo chronicle of destroyed city
- Meeting with eyewitnesses of the war in Ukraine
- Matteo Tambussi. Concert supporting Ukraine
- Pisa: Ukraine and Russia. Art for Freedom.
- Open Studios. Italian, Ukrainian and Russian artists
- Lorenzo Gnata: Sulla Rotta
- Cristina Arnone: Conversations with trees, animals and human hart
- Gianni Pavan: Sounds and Silence of the Nature
- Daniil Shumikhin. Twenty Twenty Two
- Blu Polokkio
- 2021
- 2020
- Tarik Hanif. Florilegium
- Malacosa Teatro. Atypical Sung Variations.
- Jolin Lab. Stellaria
- Alessandro Sciaraffa, Daniele Galliano. «Stars and Flowers»
- Weaverbirds Collective. Aurora
- Vanja Vukovic. Exclusive Clouds
- Open studio with young artists: Laura Tolen, Jacqueline Hoefnagels, Molly Johnson, Nell Mitchell.
- Alexey Mironov. Bon Voyage
- La Pushkin
- 2019
- Anastasia Sukhareva-Morozova. Utitled
- Sergei Prokofiev. Place
- Lev Nikitin. Scotoma
- Matteo Tambussi. Live
- Beppe Giampà. Live
- Adrian Geller. I was pretty lucky
- Valdo Morel. Flash
- 20 Strings. Live
- Da ladno. Russian Folk
- Cynthia Fusillo. I Have All I Need
- Marta Zapparoli: Acoustic Sketch Portraits
- Erik Schou. Non Ci Sono Lucciole Senza Buio
- Ilaria Allegri. Live
- RednakS
- Stefano Fiori & Giuliano De Marco. Live Blues
- Animated movies
- Simon Lambrey. Being humans.
- Maximiliano Siñani. Apaccieta n.2
- Marina Skepner. My Shallow Roots
- 2018
- Sonic Picnic
- Die Dschunkel
- Iris Jans. Veranderen. Verschuiven
- The Trivettes Bluegrass Night
- Einar Breistrand Gerrard and Vovka Kozhekin
- Domestico — Selvatico
- Mitya Kharshak: Scaffolded City
- La Città delle Vedove di ClaudIo Celentano
- Jam with Dingo
- Con/Certo Senza Biglietto
- Harry Jones–Martin. Moving Semiotics — Language in The DigitaL Age
- Natalya Zaloznaya. The Model of a Failed Escape
- Bread and Jam
- Julia Belova: Mellow Yellow Swallows Bellow
- Makepop!
- The Cartoons You’ve Never Seen: Ivan Maximov, Leonid Shmellkhov and the others
- Camminare con Nicol Guerra
- Dragoljub David Stankovikj: Molitva
- Da Ladno!
- Vea
- Fabrizio Urbisaglia & Ivan Canello
- 2017
- Dragoljub David Stankovikj
- ManiaXXX
- The Crickets Under the Water
- The Cartoons You've Never Seen
- Import/Export
- Forno Filosofico
- Gingi Statman: Mattoni Matti
- Introduction to Meditation with Gian Luigi Cargnel
- Kombu Project
- Beppe Giampà
- Jam with Josephina Schiller
- Orphic Wind Van
- Con/Certo Senza Biglietto
- Ciento Lindo Party
- In Kind Exchange
- Olga Niconova
- Russian Authors Animation
- 2023
- stone oven house
- art residency
- neighbourhood
- donation
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