About the artist
I was born long ago in the city of Kyzyl and almost immediately brought to Novosibirsk, where I live and work as a nobody. As the familiar song goes, “Those who were nothing shall be everything”… The world is a process, and any memory or supposition makes me do nothing but laugh. Much has probably happened, and much will most likely happen yet.
These words cannot say a thing; with them you can only think or dance, now and then lie silently in the wet water, and suddenly understand so very much.
There is no non-art. Everything is disposable creativity, like noodles: you eat them and forget.
Go not into auditoriums, where everyone is prepared and expects something specific, but into places where no one is ready to receive you. It matters to stir up that audience and bring them into the process. Put on a red nose, and people immediately begin to accept you without resistance.
Each of us is a work of art and can make a work of art out of our own life.
There is a phrase: “to bring from non-being into being.”
Born on 6 October 1961 in Kyzyl, Tuvan ASSR, Andrey Kurchenko was brought to Novosibirsk almost immediately. His father was a composer and his stepfather a writer. His mother worked as a translator, consultant and administrator on the installation of the organ in the Great Hall of the Novosibirsk Conservatory. The instrument was built by Wilhelm Sauer; the concept was developed by German organ builder Gerhard Spallek. It was inaugurated on 22 September 1968.
He graduated from the Novosibirsk State Art College.
His first solo exhibition took place at the State Public Scientific Technological Library in 1989.
In 1990, Alexander Sokurov chose one of his works for the poster of The Second Circle. That same year he made a poster for Sergei Selyanov’s Spirit Day. In 2007 he was production designer for Filipp Dmitriev’s film The Other Side.
From 1993 to 2004 he worked as a set decorator at the Krasny Fakel Theatre, and from 2004 to 2009 he headed its art and scenery workshop. According to a curator, his workshop was a place visited by “the city’s entire beau monde and visiting celebrities.” As an artist, scenographer and director, he staged productions in Novosibirsk, Omsk, St Petersburg and Moscow.
In 1995, he founded the Kosmonavt art group with Alexei Leshchenko and Maxim Zonov. Active until the late 1990s, the group took part in performances, exhibitions and festivals, including abroad.
He has been a member of the Union of Russian Art Photographers since 2017.
He took part in SPASIBO Primorye (2009), the first contemporary art residency in Siberia.
In May 2023, Way of Life opened at the CC19 Cultural Centre in Novosibirsk. It was his first solo retrospective, featuring more than a hundred works and curated by Anastasia Ermish.
He has exhibited in Russia, Italy, Luxembourg, England, Germany, France and the United States. His works are held in public and private collections.
- Born 6 October 1961, Kyzyl
- Novosibirsk State Art College
- Krasny Fakel Theatre, 1993–2009
- Kosmonavt art group, since 1995
- Member of the Union of Russian Art Photographers, since 2017
- First solo retrospective — CC19, 2023
Together with
- Alexei Leshchenko
- Maxim Zonov
- Oleg Rybkin
- Vyacheslav Mizin
- Andrey Bartenev
- Vasily Slonov
- Konstantin Skotnikov
- Sergei Selyanov
- Alexander Sokurov
- Barbara Barsch
- Anastasia Ermish