Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov / b. 1988, Russia / lives and works in Paris

The 5th Ural Biennial Main Project features the work:
«Exo-Bud» (Installation, 2019)
Courtesy of the artist

Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov studies the relationships between man and nature, science and ritual. The pursuit of immortality originated the practice of ritual mummification, the physical preservation of human bodies. In order to document knowledge about nature, humans invented the technique of taxidermy to preserve animal bodies. Fedotov-Fedorov considers natural history and zoology museums as both temples and cemeteries for nature that foreground a profound paradox: as animals and plants are prepared for their immortal life, they first have to be killed.

Digital methods of data storing generate new rituals and preservation modes: metadata, 3D-scanning and modeling, and virtual reality become a digital version of Noah’s ark. Fedotov-Fedorov’s new work, created specially for this Biennial, poses the question, whether digital images of animals and plants continue nature or manifest its death. The artist looks for connections in the chain nature-human-technology, where each subsequent link emerge from the previous one, gains autonomy, and then subjugates and destroys its antecedent.