9-24 October 2019, Kazan, Russia

The best works of artists-outsiders of the Volga Federal District of Russia will be presented at the unusual Art-exhibition “New  Dimensions”, which will be held from October 9 to 24, 2019 as part of the V Festival of rehabilitation programs for people with mental disabilities “The Different Ones?” at the venues of the Kazan Fair Exhibition Center and in the Residence of Creative Industries “Headquarters”.

The exposition will be represented by paintings collected as a result of the large-scale project “Art Expedition”, which from February to August this year was carried out by the NGO “Outsiderville” with the support of the Union for Mental Health of Russia. For seven months, the expedition team visited 14 regions of the Volga Federal District in order to study inclusive and art-therapeutic practices, creative resources of people with mental disabilities in institutions of a psychiatric profile, social type, in public organizations and cultural institutions, including independent representatives of outsider art, artists- self-taught, naive and amateur authors.

Outsider art is an art direction whose representatives, as a rule, do not have an academic education and create works of art without focusing on the viewer or art template, work authentically, exclusively for themselves, being on the border of various social groups, systems and cultures, experiencing the influence of conflicting norms and values. They create original works free of aesthetic, ethical and socio-political stereotypes, and find an emotional response from visitors of international exhibitions and the most demanding collectors.

Art-exhibition “New  Dimensions” will be presented by art-works of 20 authors. Wayward presentation, graphic expression, sometimes paradoxical, absurd or almost childish spontaneity captivate us not so much with riddles, perhaps of a psychiatric and life experience, as with the artistic merits and indisputable originality of the statement. Any exhibition project is the result of the efforts of not only artists, but also a team of people of helping professions. We are only at the beginning of the path to the study, awareness, and self-determination of an outsider art in Russia, in the search for new approaches in using the “medical” potentials of art.