The Fourth Height + URS BIGLER. THE CROWN

POBEDA Gallery is proud to present a new project by The Fourth Height art group – The Crown. The group consists of three Russian artists: Dina Kim, Katya Kameneva and Gala Smirnskaya. Since the nineties it is reckoned as a part of Moscow conceptualist circle.

Artists define their own style as “multicultural trash-dreaming” as their work reflect mass cul ture through irony and fantasy. Raising post-War and feminist issues through the aesthetics of fashion and the iconography of sex and femininity, The Fourth Height addresses the Soviet past and Capitalist present. Violence and aggression may mislead a viewer into a shallow reading, but the subjects raised go deeply into Russia’s history and folklore.

The artists live and work in different countries and execute work quite rarely due to the research-based nature of their projects. Their best- known series’ The Deed, The Taste of Victory and Gene Pool – are already in the Tretyakov Gallery, Russian Museum, Moscow Museum of Modern Art and many private collections abroad.

Their newest project was made in collaboration with Swiss photographer Urs Big ler and is the photographer’s first working experience with an art group from Russia.

SOMEWHERE IN RUSSIA EUROPE MEETS ASIA
Their current project The Crown is a mythical novel of love and heroism between three main characters Russia, Eu rope and Asia-Panda. The battle between Good and Evil based on Asian and Europe folklore takes place in the middle of Russia. In Russian traditional culture, the rebellion of the “Three Knights” (Tri Bogatirya) is a prime epic story often associated with the Rus sian mentality. The artists bring a critical and playful aesthetic approach to provide a new interpretation for the nature of heroism. Here they once again re-examine impulsive heroic gestures often associated with femininity.

So here they are: the Three Knights, also known as Russia, Europe and Asia, the three-headed dragon – the new superheroes of the planet.

The Fourth Height
The Fourth Height was founded in 1992 by Dina Kim, Gala Smirnskaya and Katia Kameneva

Dina Kim was born in 1970 in Moscow. Graduated from the MHU (the Moscow Art College in memory of 1905) in 1989. From 1994 Dina Kim took part in business projects to raise awareness of underground culture and marginalized minorities in Russia such as cult youth magazine Ptuch, urban festival Snickers Urbania and independent film production Uniforce. Currently lives and works in Moscow.

Gala Smirnskaya was born in 1968 in Ryazan. Graduated the Textile Academy in 1992. Smirnskay is the leading Moscow stylist who collaborates with various Fashion Magazines and Commercials. Currently lives and works in Moscow.

Katia Kameneva was born in 1971 in Moscow.Graduated from the MHU (the Moscow Art College in memory of 1905) in 1990. From 1992 Kameneva also studied in the Ecole National Superieure de Beaux Arts de Paris (ENSBA). She exhibits widely since that time in Russia and France. Her texts may be found in Mesto pechaty (Moscow).

Urs Bigler was born in Switzerland in 1981 in a family of a photographer. He studied photography in Bern and Lausanne and then worked as photographer. By now he has a photo studio in Luzern and works for advertising agencies having clients in Switzerland and Europe.