Liliya Lifanova
Liliya Lifanova is a Kyrgyzstan-born American artist. She received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and has been awarded the Fulbright Fellowship for Installation Art. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally, most recently at Gridchinhall in Moscow, Russia, and at the Parrish Art Museum in Southampton, NY.
‘My work explores notions of nostalgia, identity and dislocation, often using a binary scheme. Based on extensive research, I engage in a period of fastidious fabrication of parameters (spatial, narrative or costume), which I use to direct and define my video and performance projects.’
Project: ‘The Flying Carpet’
The art practice of Liliya Lifanova emanates a feeling of impermanence and fantasy. The Flying Carpet project was the result of a collaboration between the artist, the 5th grade students of the local school, Les Cometes de Llorenç del Penedès, and a group of local stitchers. Inspired by the myths and the nomadic traditions of her native Kyrgyzstan, the artist held a workshop where the children were involved in the creation of a felt carpet.
The workshop was not merely a didactic activity but an experience where the children could share with the artist the location of their magical, real and imaginary places at Cal Figueres, the farmhouse where the workshop was held. Through careful production of costumes, props and staging, Liliya Lifanova created a dream-like scenario where the children were urged to access their inner wizards so as to imbue their work with magic. The felt pieces made by the children were then sewn together by a group of women from the village to create a flying carpet. In the Espai d’Art Les Quintana, Liliya exhibited the carpet and other materials made for the workshop as well as a video piece documenting the whole project. That video piece was the result of the collaboration between the artists and Xavier Mitjan’s editing studio, ‘Solucions Audiovisuals’ in Llorenç del Penedès.
Along with The Flying Carpet project, Liliya Lifanova presented ‘Untitled. Newspapers from January-March 2011. Robert family, a work based on meditative repetition. It comprised over 5000 pieces made with rolled newspapers that the Robert family accumulated in their home between January and March 2011. The result was a spectacular landscape-archive where the patient, dedicated and healing action of the artist was displayed.
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