There is no lyrical hero in the installation “The Space of Struggle”, there is only an observing artist recording the extremes of social and political struggle — enthusiasm and powerlessness. In his work Vladimir Seleznev touches upon the important issues of the globalized modern society and at the same time he finds a bright and elegant artistic presentation for it: the spectators enter the room which is completely covered in protest texts, the light suddenly goes out, and over the lines of the protest songs there appears a luminous summary —“everything is in vain” — like a seal on the documents. It is difficult to recall a more vivid metaphor of the Russian protest movement in 2011-2012. The artist observes the world, but his personal choice is not expressed in his work. The choice is left to the viewer.

“The space of struggle, the house of pain, slogans and mottos of the protest movement... The first wave of visual stimuli that the spectator encounters are the numerous quotes from protest songs calling for social and political action, protest and insurrection — are later rejected as useless. The question asked by the work concerns the function of words; it seems that the artist is actually creating a trap: the words are present here only as a reminder that the world is driven by the real actions.”

The project is the nominee of the National ‘Innovation’ Award in the nomination “The work of visual art”.