ELISAVETA CHILINGAROVA
/EDUCATION/ 2017–2023 I. M. Sechenov First Moscow State Medical University (General Medicine)2023–2027 HSE Art and Design School (Media and Design; Contemporary Art and Design)/GROUP EXHIBITIONS/ 2025 «Zine Culture: Montage, Assembly, Process.» HSE Art Gallery, Moscow, Russia «Body of Vision.» Si19 Gallery, Moscow, Russia2026 «Journeys: Through Time and Space.» Arkhangelskoye Estate Museum, Moscow Region, Russia «They Took Our Jungle Away.» Fabrika Centre for Creative Industries, Moscow, Russia «Russian Square. Palekh.» Linen. Palekh, Ivanovo Region, Russia «Megalithic Complex.» Second-Year Student Exhibition, Gryaz village, Russia
I work with the damage caused by external forces—how it deforms the body and the environment, and what support can be found in response.
I. Inward: Fixation
First, destruction must be observed: how pressure from external sources affects the body and the psyche.
/1/
«Kids in a Cage,» 2024
Installation objects: deformed plastic, printed 3D scans of people.External pressure permeates the body and surfaces within it.
A cage for the head is a cage for the body. Restrictions descend from above: the outside world deforms consciousness, and consciousness in turn deforms the body. In a moment of nakedness, vulnerability, and sincerity, the reliefs of mental cages begin to show through the body. 3D scans of people on deformed plastic sheets: a cast of personal reality showing what pressure has done to the body. The objects present the body as a conductor of sensation, where the inner becomes visible.
Destruction is either masked by gloss or admired as a ruin. In either case, the most critical element vanishes: its cause. I spent six years training as a physician and worked for a year and a half as a nurse in a COVID red zone. Destruction was a relentless presence throughout the entire cycle of human life. In my art, I engage with it metaphorically—through the body, material, and space. This trajectory guides me from the corporeal to a concrete location, where destruction ceases to be abstract once more.
/2/
«Fun Starts», 2025
Delegated performance, video documentation.Inaction can also destroy: a postponed life dissolves silently.
A postponed life. A moment awaited for so long that it never arrived. Tomorrow, everything will definitely happen. Anhedonia as a form of destruction. The vacuum of loneliness and self-expectation deepens the dissociation between inner impulse and action, while every day of delay makes an attempt exponentially less likely. Without an attempt, stagnation becomes suffocating and permanent. The performance captures this state.
/3/
«Oxidation», 2026
Triptych: metal, artificial corrosion, transfer images.Imposed destruction infects, but counterforces can be positioned against it.
A dialogue with metal and the artificial force that degrades it. Rusting symbolizes outside influences and circumstances. To capture the state accompanying unnatural decay—along with two motifs that resist it: the industrial and the organic—the images are stretched lengthwise, mirroring the shape of each metal sheet. Here, the act of fixing destruction transforms into a search for support for the first time.
