curators: Olya Makhno | Sasha Pavlovskaya
Olya Makhno, "Counting II"
Olya Vasilyeva, portraits from the series "I don't remember what they look like"
Alina Yambaeva "Balloon", "Graduation", "Arranged in a Straight Line"
Alina Yambaeva, from the series "Arranged in a Straight Line"
Alexandra Pavlovskaya, "On the Surface" series
Evgeniya Bolyukh. "Trauma Center"
Anastasia Litvinova, Alexandra Pavlovskaya, Alexandra Nesterkina
Alexandra Nesterkina, "Dedicated to David Lynch", "Odyssey to the South" project
Tanya Starovoytova, postcards, "Terminal Stage" project
Olya Makhno, video documentation of the performance "In the Corner on Buckwheat"
Pavel Sohatsky, "The Stone in the Cave"
Tanya Starovoytova, "Terminal Stage" project
Anastasia Litvinova, "The Last Supper"
Olya Makhno | Misha Levin, "07_23"
Anastasia Armeeva, "forget-me-not"
Olya Makhno | Misha Levin, "10_24"
Ira Konyukhova, "Brotherhood"
Daria Setevinets, series "Substitute Dolls"
Olga Tumanova | Evgeniya Sterlyagova, video documentation of the performance "Berries to Tears".
Anastasia Geraskina, "Memorial. Cube"
Anastasia Dozortseva, "Without Fire"
Nat Tinyakova, no title
Alina Yambaeva "I Know How I Look", a series of self-portraits
Ksenia Levenkova's performance "Coating" was implemented as part of the parallel program of the exhibition "Believe / Don't Believe".
Believe / Don't Believe
2026
“A Fairy Tale Is a Lie…”*
“Of course, we do not always tell the truth. Falsehood is brighter, more beautiful, and, at first glance, perhaps even more honest. It is so easy—so tempting—to believe in it. It is a dream, a game, an indulgence, and perhaps a way not only to imagine yourself as someone else, but to become someone else, to distort reality.
For this reason, whenever I try to confront a subject as clearly and directly as possible, I find it important to begin with the cloud of falsehood surrounding it—as an inseparable part of its cultural and social mythology. Rather than condemning or tabooing lies, I want to understand, without judgment or pathos, why we live with them. Lying is a way of evading reality, of refracting it.
However hard we try to be good people, lying belongs to the fabric of our everyday lives. It is a habit, an inevitability, and perhaps the clearest expression of our instinct for self-preservation. Sometimes falsehood becomes the only way not merely to distance ourselves, to mythologize, or to encode experience, but to preserve and protect what matters most. To protect ourselves. To hide.”
Olga Makhno
Artist and curator of the project
“Falsehood does not always need to be spoken aloud. It takes shape through hints, omissions, sympathy, glances, and gestures—the very fabric of everyday life. It becomes a condition in which boundaries dissolve: there is neither a source nor an addressee, nor any possibility of reply.”
Alexandra Pavlovskaya
Co-curator
* From the Russian proverb: “A fairy tale is a lie, yet there is a hint in it—a lesson for good people.”
Artists: Anastasia Litvinova, Sasha Pavlovskaya, Alexandra Nesterkina, Anastasia Dozortseva, Evgeniya Bolyukh, Daria Setevinets, Nat Tinyakova, Olga Vasilyeva, Pavel Sokhatski, Anastasia Armeeva, Olya Makhno, Tanya Starovoytova, Alina Yambaeva, Misha Levin, Evgeniya Sterlyagova, Olga Tumanova, Anastasia Geraskina, Ira Konyukhova
The project was presented at the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, Aktsizny Workshop