Roundtable of Fictives, 2021

series of objects

There are moments when hands become tongues, eyes, imaginations and pre-thoughts, at times ar- rested by and at others liberated with their own volition. I want to lure all of them to play.
A wooden box unfolds into a toy set revealing a roundtable of 8 characters that include Text, the World Elephant, Hocus-Pocus, Fungus Prosaicus, Hans and Sophie, Apple on a Plate, a Holy Fool and Glass, Lead, Paper, Water. The set is accompanied by a monologue card for each one, and all members of this peculiar ensemble serve as emotional, psychological and imaginative support structures for anyone who plays with them. However, the act of playing also crumbles the support they stand to offer.

The work is a playful attempt to toy with the idea of coping mechanisms, bend support structures when they become too rigid, explore new footings one can rely on and at the same time expose the malleability of existing foundations.

Text: Alexander Snegirev
Toy design: Panika Derevya
Expert advice: Kotok | Alexander Grekov, Xenia Shishkova
Woodwork: Alexander Mamichev, Ilya Moskvitin, Sergey Semenov, Roman Yumatov Graphic design: Vlad Steyck
Illustrations: Sarolta Szanto
Production: Alisa Bunkova, Kristina Chernyavskaya, Panika Derevya
Research: Alisa Bunkova, Kristina Chernyavskaya, Vasilisa Egorova
Translation: Ben McGarr
Corrector: Yana Aladinskaya

Special thanks to Sabih Ahmed, Madhusree Dutta, Jan Kryszons, Anna Kurapova, Olga Lytkina, Maria Plavinskaya, Asya Solovieva, Evgeniya Tulyankina, Jakub Wandzioch, Ala Younis

Commissioned by Akademie der Künste der Welt Courtesy of the artist

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