Born 1965 in Penza, USSR
Lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Education
1986
Industrial Architecture at Moscow Institute of Architecture, Moscow, Russia
Solo Exhibitions
2023
Batteries not included, LOOM gallery, Milan, Italy
2022
Light Weight”, DUM project space, Ljubljana
2021
There is no magic. There is always a story”, (with Nika Radić), WHW, Galerija Nova, Zagreb
2020
Dark Times”, DUM project space, Ljubljana
2019
Collisions and Missing Parts” (with Attila Csörgő), Hollybush Gardens, London
2018
A Little Big Bang, Loom Gallery, Milan
Collisions and Missing Parts (with Attila Csörgő) Associazione Barriera, Turin A Little Big Bang, DUM project space, Ljubljana
2017
Light Solidarity, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany
Vadim Fishkin, One night stand gallery, Musiz Foundation, Sofia, Varna, Bulgaria
2016
Light Chaser, DUM Project Space, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The time when we wanted to be astronauts, Loom Gallery, Milan, Italy
Scientific Bricolage, KRANK Art Gallery, Istanbul, Turkey
2015
L’avantgoût Mécatronique (with Paul Roset), Saint-Ex – Culture numérique Reims, France
Vadim Fishkin: No Magic, MSUM, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2014
Vadim Fishkin, Vartai Gallery, Vilnius, Lithuania
2013
The things I want to express are so beautiful and pure, Peter Kilchmann, Zurich, Switzerland
Light Matters 4, Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2012
Light Matters 3, Project Space Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Light Matters 2, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany
2011
Light Matters, KiBela, Maribor, Slovenia
2009
Tour en l’air, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany
Vadim Fishkin, Amaneï, Salina Island, Italy
Vadim Fishkin, Rosenheim Kunstverein, Germany
The Cave of the Day Before, Impronte Contemporary Art, Milan, Italy
2008
Sorry – Out of Order, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany
2007
Moving stars, Georg Kargl box, Wien, Austria
2005
Twins paradox, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Another Speedy day, La Biennale di Venezia, Slovenian Pavilion, Venice, Italy
Vadim Fiškin, Galerie Eugen Lendl, Graz, Austria
2004
Count down, count up, Gallery Konstepidemin, Göteborg, Sweden
2002
Dictionary of imaginary places, Galerija Škuc (with Guia Rigvava), Ljubljana, Slovenia
2000
Ognegraf, Museum of Modern art, Zagreb, in of Vlasta Delimar and Vlade Martek SnowShow, TV
Gallery (with Mary Lucier), Moscow, Russia
1998
Dedicated, Galerija Š.O.U. Kapelica, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Galerie Knoll, Wien, Austria
1997
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, Massachusetts
1995
La Biennale di Venezia, Russian Pavilion (with E. Asse, D, Gutov), Venice, Italy
One-Man Show, Mala galerija/Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
1994
Orbit S, XL Galerija, Moscow, Russia
Exchanged Heads, Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia
1993
Darkness Orbit, Galeria Škola, Moscow, Russia
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022
“Growing Out? Growing Up? Contemporary Art Collecting in the Baltics”, Zuzeum Art Centre, Riga “Emergency Exit”, MSUM / Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana
2021
“The Wonderfulness Of Memory”, Cukrarna, Ljubljana “Expo Enclosed”, TESEUM , Tongeren “EKO 8”, International ART Triennial, UGM museum, Maribor
2020
“PARANOIA-TV”, steirischer herbst, Graz “Collection of Contemporary Art: Marino Cettina”, Museum of Contemporary Art of Istria, Umag “Supernature”, Saint-Ex, digital culture, Reims “Light After Darkness”, MAM Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Salzburg “Viral Self-Portraits”, MSUM / Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana
2019
The Great Globe, AQB Art Quarter, Budapest
2018
“Intelligent observer”, pixxelpoint, Nova Gorica “No Looking Back, Okay?”, UGM Maribor Art Gallery, Maribor “Black Mirror”, MAM Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Vienna “Middle Gate II, The story of Dymphna”, Saint Dymphna Church, Geel “The Marvellous Cacophony”, Oktober Salon, Belgrade Biennial, Belgrade “Places: One After Another”, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow “Black Mirror”, MAM Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Salzburg “Fairytales? Sounds good!”, Lewben Art Foundation, Art Vilnius 2018, Vilnius “Pluses and Minuses”, On Bialystok Power Station, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok “Vadim Fishkin / Yerbossyn Meldibekov. The Relationship of Coinciding”, Aspan Gallery, Almaty
PROS AND CONS. About the power plant, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland
Middle Gate II, The story of Dymphna, Saint Dymphna Church, Geel,Belgium.
Places: One After Another, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow, Russia
BLACK MIRROR, MAM Mario Mauroner Contemporary Art, Salzburg, Austria
Fairytales? Sounds good!, Lewben Art Foundation, ArtVilnius 2018
Pluses and Minuses. On Bialystok Power Station, Arsenal Gallery, Bialystok, Poland
Vadim Fishkin / Yerbossyn Meldibekov. The Relationship of Coinciding, Aspan Gallery, Almaty ,Kazakhstan.
2017
Issues of uncertainty, Molnár Ani Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
VIVA ARTE VIVA, 57th Venice Biennale, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Symptoms of Society, Zhejiang Art Museum, Zhejiang, China
Symptoms of Society, Guangdong Museum of Art, Guangdong, China
Tech x space, Galerija ŠKUC, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Loom Gallery Biennale, Loom Gallery, Milan, Italy
Working Drawings and Other Visible Things…(After Bochner), Conceptual Art Center Bukovje,
Landskrona, Sweden
2016
Three rooms (and a corridor), Galerija ŠKUC, Ljubljana, Slovenia
THE CENTRES OF PRINTMAKING: AT THE INTERSECTION OF KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING AND
COOPERATION, MGLC, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Cold Front from the Balkans, Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey
Rotterdam Cultural Histories #9, MANIFESTA 1 REVISITED, Witte de With, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Beyond the Globe | 8th Triennial of Contemporary Art – U3, Moderna Galerija/Museum of
Contemporary Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2015
Now, At The Latest, Kunsthalle Krems, Krems an der Donau, Austria
Demonstrating Minds, KIASMA, Helsinki, Finland
Performing the Museum, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art Koroška (KGLU), Gradec, Slovenia
Lexus Hybrid Art 2015, Rossiya Theatre, Moscow, Russia
Übermorgenkünstler, Gesellschaft der Freunde Junger Kunst at Altes Dampfbad BadenBaden, Germany
Working Drawings and Other Visible Things on Paper Not Necessarily Meant To Be Viewed as Art
(After Bochner), CAC Bukovje/Landskrona for Kilometre of Sculpture, Võru, Estonia
Art Festival Watou, Watou, Belgium
Minimal Forms of Reality, Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery, Kraków, Poland
Mainzer Ansichten 111 Künstler /innen in einem Büro, Kunsthalle Mainz, Mainz, Germany
Grammar of Freedom / Five Lessons: Works from the Arteast 2000+ Collection,
Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
Substantial influence, Bayer Kulturhaus, Leverkusen, Germany
2014
Coffee & Ink, Galeria Casas Riegner, Bogota, Colombia
Beyond Zero, Calvert 22 Gallery, London, UK
Disconsent, Art Today Association, Center for Contemporary Art–The Ancient Bath, Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Manifesta 10. The European Biennial of Contemporary Art,
The State Hermitage Museum in St.Petersburg, Russia
Atlas of Modernity. The 20th and 21st Century Art Collection, ms2 √ Muzeum Sztuki Lodz, Poland
September Show, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany
2013
Sculpture Today, Center for Contemporary Art, Celje, Slovenia
Summertime Readings. Selected works from Cesis Art Festival exhibition, CAC Conteporary Art
Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania
NO Questions, Ausstellungsraum Klingental, Basel, Switzerland
Planet Mensch, Eres Stiftung, München, Germany
Summertime Readings, Cesis art festival, Cesis, Latvia
Amuse me, Mestna Galerija Ljubljana, Slovenia
Materiality in the portal, Association for Culture and Education KIBLA, Maribor, Slovenia
Almost Spring / 100 Years Of Slovene Art, Maribor, Slovenia
Rules of Attraction, insitu, Berlin, Germany
2012
It doesn’t always have to be beautiful, unless it’s beautiful, Art Gallery of Kosovo, Pristina, Kosovo
Von Sinnen. Wahrnehmung in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, Kunsthalle zu Kiel, Germany
9th Shanghai Biennale, China OFFEN auf AEG, Nürnberg, Germany
OFFEN Auf AEG, Nürnberg, Germany
2011
The Present and Presence, Museum of Contemporary Art Metelkova, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Eyes Looping for a Head to Inhabit, Muzeum Sztuki w Lodzi, Poland
Möglichkeitsraster / possibility grid, ESC im LABOR, Graz, Austria
Laboratory of the Future, Centre for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle, Warsaw, Poland
Remember, Center of Contemporary Art, Celeia, Slovenia
Merz World: Yona Friedman & Tomas Saraceno, Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, Switzerland
European Triennial of Small Sculpture, curated by Katia Baudi, Galerija Murska Sobota,
Murska Sobota, Slovenia
Impossible Community, MMOMA- The State Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
Dada Moscow, Artplay Design Center, Moscow, Russia
2010
Art to spend time, MARS Center of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
Drawings spaces, Russian Academy of Arts, Moscow, Russia
Ellipse/Eclipse part II, Galerie Schleicher + Lange, Paris, France
Space Inventions, Künstlerhaus Wien, Wien Austria
U3 – 6th Triennial of Contemporary Art in Slovenia, Museum of Modern art, Ljubljana, Slovenia
BEYOND CREDIT – Contemporary Art and Mutual Trust, Sanat Limanı, Istanbul, Turkey
Sweet Nowhere, City Museum of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2009
Accelerated Living, Impakt Festival, Utrecht, The Netherlands
New Old Cold War, Post-Socialist Countries Experience, 3rd Moscow Biennial, Russia
Visions of the frontier, IVAM, Valencia, Spain
Azioni molto semplici senza uno scopo preciso, ARTRA Gallery, Milan, Italy
Liquid Frontiers at Europe XXL, Lille, France
2008
Eurasia, Geographic cross-overs in art, Mart, Rovereto, Italy
L’Homme Merveilleux, Chateau de Malbrouck, France
Vom Schnee, Museum Kitzbühel, Austria
Museum in the Street, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia
2007
Speed 3, IVAM-Institut Valencià dArt Modern, Spain
From Text to Machine, Rael Artel Gallery, Tartu, Estonia
Like to Like, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Berlin, Germany.
Résidents, Espace EDF Electra, Paris, France.
27th Biennial of Graphic Arts, Art Poster Project, 3500 cm2, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
Everyday Stories, HAU Hellenic American Union Gallery, Athens, Greece.
Acting in Utopia, Landesgalerie am Oberösterreichischen Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria
2006
Uchronies 49 Nord 6 Est, Fonds regional dart contemporain de Lorraine, France
Common Destination, Drawing Center, New York City, New York
This Is Not America, Braverman ByArtProjects, Tel Aviv, Israel
Zerstörte Welten und die Utopie der Rekonstruktion, Kunstraum Dornbirn, Austria
Ødelagte Verdener – og rekonstruktionens utopi, Arhus Kunstbygning
Center for Contemporary Art, Århus, Denmark
Approaching Realitys Borders. Art, Science and Technology, ARCOS-Museum of Contemporary Art
SpacePlace: Art in the Age of Orbitization, net-curating, ZKM Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany
2005
Venture II, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Ljubljana, Slovenia
JOY, Casino Luxembourg – Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg
TERRITORIES, IDENTITIES, NETS, Moderna Galeria Ljubljana Museum of Modern art, Slovenia
EVN Collection, MUMOK, Vienna, Austria
Overtures, Artcircolo Kunstprojekt, Munich, Germany
ArtStars, ON25, Luxembourg
MIR Dreams of Space, Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, England
2004
Arte del Mediterraneo, MACRO Museum for Contemporary Art, Rome, Italy
On Air, Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst, Leipzig, Germany
Venture, Galerija Gregor Podnar, Kranj/Ljubljana, Slovenia
Eintritt frei, Bawag Foundation, Vienna, Austria
Imagine Limerick, eva+, Limerick, Germany
COSMOPOLIS1, Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki, Greece
FLIPSIDE, Artists Space, New York City, New York
2003
Berlin – Moscow / Moscow – Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin, Germany
Imagining Prometheus, Palazzo della Ragione, Milano, Italy
Station Utopia, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy
Modesty, Galerija Škuc / Mala galerija (moderna galerija), Ljubljana, Slovenia
MIR 2003 Campaign, zero gravity, Star City, Russia
Fade in, Fade out, Gallery Kapelica, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Poesis, Műcsarnok Kunsthalle, Budapest, Hungary
MIR. Art in Variable Gravity, Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester, UK
Impark1, Olympia Park, Munich, Germany
Parasite Paradise, Leidsche Rijn, Utrecht, Netherlands
2002
Iconoclash, ZKM – Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, Germany
September Horse, Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Centre of Attraction, 8th Baltic Triennial of International Art, Vilnius, Lithuania
2001
Small talk, Museum for Contemporary Art, Skopje, Macedonia
Trbu dellarte, Galleria Comunale di Arte Moderna e Contemporanea, Rome, Italy
Communication between the arts, The 1st Valencia Biennial, Valencia, Spain
Parasite, Stichting SKOR, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Water proof, Stichting Fort Asperen, Acquoy, Netherlands
Body and the east, Exit Art Gallery, New York City, New York
Vulgata, Museum of Modern Art, Ljubljana, Slovenia; Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany
2000
L’ Autre Moitié de l’Europe, Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
2000+ Arteast Collection, Moderna galerija – Metelkova, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Vulgata, U3 – 3. Triennale, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
1999
….incommensurabilis…, Galerija Škuc, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Reality and fiction, Kunsthalle Faust, Hannover, Germany.
After the Wall, Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden
1998
Body and the East. From the 1960s to the Present, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia
1997
It’s a Better World, Secession, Vienna, Austria
1996
Manifesta I, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Fernbedienung–Does television inform the way art is made?,
Grazer Kunstverein, Steirischer Herbst 96, Graz, Austria
1995
ARS 95, Nykytaiteen Museo, Helsinki, Finland
Kräftemessen, Künstlerwerkstatt, Munich, Germany
Zeitgenössische Fotokunst aus Moskau, NBK, Berlin, Germany
1994
The Hamburg Project, Contemporary Art Center, Moscow, Russia
Europe 94 – Junge Europäische Kunst in München, Munich, Germany
1993
Europaer, Steirischer herbst Festival, Grazer Stadmuseum, Graz, Austria
Monumental Propaganda, Central House of Artist, Moscow, Russia;
Courtyard Gallery of the World,Financial Center, New York City, New York
1992
3rd Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey
Publications
2016
Scientific Bricolage, by Ali Akay, publication for the exhibition Scientific Bricolage, Krank Gallery,
Istanbul, Turkey, https://goo.gl/UMGCxX
Vadim Fishkin: quando l’arte diventa magia, by Marco Marelli, Artspecialday, https://goo.gl/hqETsX
Conversation with Vadim Fishkin, by Tomo Stanič, Praznine, https://goo.gl/ew1Ct7
2015
Vadim Fishkin’s Lucid Orbit, by Viktor Misiano, publication for the exhibition No Magic, MSUM,
Ljubljana, Slovenia, https://goo.gl/2nxR1Q
2013
Relief Fatalism, by Chris Sharp, in: Light Matters / Vadim Fishkin, edited by Galerija Gregor Podnar,
Gurgur Editions, Ljubljana / DUM Association, Ljubljana, Slovenia, https://goo.gl/LXUSG9
2012
Vadim Fishkin. Galerija Gregor Podnar, by Astrid Mania, ARTFORUM, https://goo.gl/RFMqrd
Vadim Fishkin: Light Matters 2, by John Quin, ArtReview magazine, https://goo.gl/xunEKN
2007
Orbit Edges, by Vadim Fishkin, edited by Gregor Podnar, Gurgur Editions, Ljubljana / JRP|Ringier,Zürich
Living in Literalness: The Biology of Vadim Fishkin, in: Vadim Fishkin: Orbit Edges,
Gurgur Editions,Ljubljana / JRP|Ringier, Zürich, https://goo.gl/zpWJm8
Partial View; Vadim Fishkin’s Dream of Reason, by Lívia Páldi, in: Vadim Fishkin’s Orbit Edges,
Gurgur Editions, Ljubljana / JRP|Ringier, Zürich, https://goo.gl/KJdYpb
2005
What’s on the other side?, Vadim Fishkin, Onestar Press, https://goo.gl/oV8sze
2000
Vadim Fishkin: Of Angels and Dreamers, Machines and Metaphysics, by Inke Arns,
Berlin, Germany, https://goo.gl/qMkxBQ
1997
What’s behind the symbolic fiction?, by Renata Salecl, in: catalogue Vadim Fishkin.
Non-Eternal Art, https://goo.gl/hPBa8E
The detonation of a gaze, by Eda Čufer, in: catalogue Non-Eternal Art, https://goo.gl/P4oKjH
Collections
MUSEUM VAN HEDENGAASE KUNST ANTWERPEN, ANTWERP, BELGIUM
NOMAS FOUNDATION, ROME, ITALY
CENTRE NATIONAL DES ARTS PLASTIQUES, PARIS, FRANCE
SAMMLUNG EVN, MARIA ENZERSDORF, AUSTRIA
MODERNA GALERIJA LJUBLJANA, LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA
MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY ART ZAGREB, ZAGREB, CROATIA
NATIONAL CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART – MOSCOW BRANCH, MOSCOW, RUSSIA
RUSSIAN MUSEUM, ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA
This is how the humanitarian nature of humanism and its man oriented perspective made itself recognised: the wizard-man who was able to commune with certain forces. The work of a man infused with the effects of cosmos would have an intense element of surprise for those who do not know what it means to be creative. He would become a miraculous man. According to hermetic thought, being able to have command over these forces was a condition of creativity. That is why the effect of these of obscure forces were sometimes referred to as a “muse”. These people were more of a wizard than a philosopher. Until the emergence of the concepts of scholar or scientist, the relationships between science, alchemy and magic has always been through a world of abracadabra, while wizards are still able to captivate people today.
Regarding Vadim Fiškin’s work, it is impossible to avoid the impression that the same magical and enchanting character is maintained here; it looks as if everything is presented in a miraculous perfection. He seems to view the world of creativity exactly from the same place a Renaissance man would have viewed it. Tommaso Campanella (1568-1639) proposed that genuine “applied science” was made possible by merging alchemy and mathematics. In that sense, Vadim Fiškin treads a line that goes back and forth between mechanics, mathematics and magic; just like the creators of the ancient times who could talk to the angels and claim their powers, he, too, would guide us towards the physics of a magical world of art. In his works, he invites us to join this path that he walks through natural, mechanical and mathematical means. He channels a different view into the vision of art in the world. When we see how the energy that flows through solid matter conveys the “light” in Genesis, we can do nothing else but be surprised: Is this sorcery, is it magic, or is it just mechanics? It is as if the “world soul” (anima mundi) was passing through there: The magical use of mechanics. If Leonardo Da Vinci was the inventor of this in the Renaissance then the line is still kept alive. Leaving aside scholastic thought, and bringing observation to the fore, Leonardo turned to the practical. And it is known that he, too, was a follower of Marsilio Ficino. He added mechanical rationality to this thought.
I see Vadim Fiškin as a part of this tradition.
Starting from objects of everyday use, and making use of a scientific approach in the form of a bricolage, Vadim Fiškin is realising a rational magical-mechanical artistic work in the spirit of a “bricoleur”. Objects that we continually use without taking notice, are presented in ways we could not begin to imagine, revealing the mysteries hidden in the elements of his art. The exhibition focuses on a line of thought that develops through these objects.
Ali Akay
As emphasized in a text by Viktor Misiano, Vadim Fiškin remains attached to the tradition of “Russian cosmism”. The legitimacy of which in the modern period hinges on the Russian avant-garde, Chizhevsky, notable for his works on cosmo-biology and Tsiolkovsky with his pioneering works on astronautics.