Russian Refugee Artist Sergey Kishchenko's Venice Exhibition Explores Migration and Biodiversity

Sergey Kishchenko, a Russian artist who fled to Venice as a political refugee in 2022, is the subject of the first exhibition of Mapping Diaspora, a project documenting Russian artists who left their homeland due to political opposition and solidarity with Ukraine. Curated by Giuseppe Barbieri and Silvia Burini, the show 'Hortus Conclusus. Memoria, biodiversità, migrazione' is held at the Magazzini del Sale in Venice. It features works from the last decade, including the photographic series 'Recipe book-Erbari di piante selvatiche' (2014–2018), which uses survival recipes from the Siege of Leningrad paired with scientific herbarium pages. Another series, 'Macchie, buchi e fili,' alludes to Lenin's brain studied at the Institut Mozga. A video installation documents the 2016 fire that destroyed Kishchenko's Moscow studio. The exhibition draws inspiration from geneticist Nikolaj Ivanovič Vavilov and his seed bank, the Vavilov Institute, which was heroically defended during the Siege of Leningrad. Kishchenko's installation 'Banca genetica' repurposes medical bottles filled with cereal seeds, symbolizing seeds as 'blood for humanity.' Mapping Diaspora was initiated in February 2023 by the Centro Studi sull'Arte Russa (CSAR) and Ca' Foscari University of Venice, conceived by professor Silvia Burini and Pushkin Museum curator Olga Shishko.