In 2011, Sergey Balovin, a Russian artist who settled in Shanghai, announced a new experiment called In KInd Exchange. The experiment demonstrated that the achievement of material wealth is possible without commodity-money relations. And the importance of material goods is exaggerated due to their unobvious availability.
In 2015, on a trip to Italy, Sergey Balovin met his future wife and colleague Claudia Beccato. Claudia agreed to share a life without money. From that moment on, the In Kind Exchange was taken over by the creative duo Balovin & Beccato. After several months of traveling, it was decided to designate the conditional pinnacle of the experiment: the house, as one of the key elements in the category of material wealth. The pinnacle was reached soon.
In 2017, Balovin & Beccato offered a family from the mountain village of Rora to lend them their old farm in exchange for its restoration. The family accepted the offer, and the experiment began with zero budget. The house was restored, filled with furniture and household utensils with no money. Artists and friends who responded to the call to participate in the renovation became the first residents of the Stone Oven House. Collective cooperation formed a commune. In KInd Exchange remained among the topical practices of Balovin & Beccato, but the experiment with a radical rejection of money was completed. Management of the art residence has become a priority area of their activity.
In 2018, restoration began on the neighboring historic estate of Vernarea, which had great potential for a developing project. Since 2020, the residence has been completely moved there.
The house, built from the stones of a destroyed 11th century church and belonged to the Pavarin family. In 1943-1945, the family of an Italian Jew from Turin, Roberto Terracini, escaped here. The owners rented them a room, risking their own lives. Roberto Terracini was a well-known sculptor in Turin and in wartime hid under a pseudonym. He signed his drawings created during his stay in Vernare as Ferraguci. Digital copies of his works, provided by the artist's family, are included in the exposition of the Stone Oven House, along with other artifacts that tell about the unique history of this place.
- welcome
- program
- 2023
- 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
- contacts
- FAQ
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By painting portraits in exchange for any gifts from the list of useful things without regard to their value, the artist excluded the possibility of applying market labels to his work. The project succeeded and allowed the author to completely abandon the use of money. Everything he needed, from food and clothing, to visas, insurance and airline tickets, appeared as gifts in return for portraits.
In 2013, Sergey Balovin went on a trip around the world without a wallet. In seventeen months, the artist managed to circumnavigate the globe and visited 36 countries without money. After the world tour was done he continued the practice of traveling without money and visited more than a dozen new countries.