Anna Jermolaewa »Adapters«

Adapters, 2020

For Anna Jermolaewa, markets are a magical place. People, faces, hands, everyday goods – new or used, what is sold and what is needed – provide a constant flux of impressions and inspiration. The German sociologist and economist Max Weber sees “general patterns of social action” in markets – a microcosm that, for Jermolaewa, best reflects society. No matter where she travels, she seeks out the market first. As a result of her keen interest in these centers for social interaction, Anna Jermolaewa has created several of her works in markets over the years, whether in Vienna, Yerevan, Mexico City, St. Petersburg, or La Paz; works such as Step Aside (2006-2008), Volga etc. (2008) and The way up (2008).

For her new series Adapters Anna Jermolaewa found objects in the street markets of Bolivia and Peru – power adapters in a variety of colors – to use as sculpting material. When combined, these simple forms – crosses, blocks, right angles – serve as a meeting point for the conceptual and the minimal with their occasionally gaudy colors a reminder of their humble origins – the cheap and everyday – in the possible poetics of the unremarkable, the mass-produced. Not only aesthetic, Jermolaewa's sculptures have a function: through the chain of connections one could conceivably plug in an electrical device. These multi-plug adapters not only adapt electricity; they adapt to a new situation, a new reality.

Anna Jermolaewa

Anna Jermolaewa (*1970 in Leningrad) works primarily in the mediums of photography, video, and installation. Her main interest is the analysis of functional structures of society and social systems in everyday life. She continually focuses on the basic conditions of human existence and the nature of man, capturing the relationship between the individual and the masses, freedom and restriction, power and powerlessness, (especially around relationships and networks of hegemonic structures). Her photographs and videos provide information about a world of failure, through conscious and unconscious fears, desires, and passions. The result is a reflection on individual and collective historical consciousness in the form of images that remain in the viewers’ mind. Through the visual telling of history and stories, she attempts to create places of remembrance. Anna Jermolaewa currently lives and works in Vienna.

She had solo exhibitions in 21er Haus, Vienna (2016), Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warsaw (2015), the Victoria Art Gallery, Samara (2013); Camera Austria, Graz (2012); Kunsthalle Krems (2012); Institute of Contemporary Art, Sofia (2011); Kunstverein Friedrichshafen (2009); XL Gallery Moscow (2008); and Museum Moderner Kunst, Passau (2004). Her works are part of various collections including the Stedelijk Museum, Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, MUMOK-Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig, Wien, Volpinum Kunstsammlung, Museum Startgalerie Artothek, Vienna, Tiroler Landesmuseum Ferdinandeum, Vehbi Koc Foundation, Kontakt. The Art Collection of Erste Group and Belvedere.

Read our story with Anna Jermolaewa in her studio.

Photos: Simon Veres