Cat Show

There are no medals for the best cat in this exhibition, because all cats are equally beautiful. In this project, the cat is not just a cute character, but a cultural code: an internet icon, a domestic idol, and an autonomous artistic image. In the digital space, through social media and constant online circulation, this image has long been oversaturated and endlessly reproduced. Cat Show invites viewers to see it differently, slowing down the gaze and returning the cat from the stream of digital images back into the space of real experience and artistic practice. The project brings together different artistic approaches. In Nikolay Alekseev’s work, the cat hides in the “blind spots” of an apartment: behind a door, in a closet, under a shelf, turning domestic space into a territory of observation. In Eva Gets’s piece, the image breaks into fragments. A close-up of the cat’s face becomes almost abstract and turns into an exercise in perception. Through a “dressed-up” cat, Katya Kosova speaks about the strange human form of love and control. In Misha Nikatin’s work, the cat, placed inside a fashion accessory, changes roles and begins to “look back” at the viewer. “With this project, we are bringing the image of the cat back from the digital sphere, where it has become oversaturated and endlessly reused. We are returning it into the physical world. Through artistic practices, the exhibition’s participants restore authorship to this image, while the collaboration with Vetcity connects it to reality, to real animals and the responsibility we have toward them. For me, as the guardian of two rescued cats, this theme is also personal. Every cat needs a home, and perhaps your cat is already waiting for you at a shelter”. — curator, founder of PAWS COMMS, Petr Iwanow