Object Oriented Democracy

Handle with Care – Opening

Handle with Care presents more than 30 artifacts gathered on a six months-long journey from the European Arctic, through the Caucasus over to Central Asia and then to Europe. Positions guided by reflections on family archives, intergenerational migration, and nomadic life circumstances create a cross-mapping of the history of the regions. The red line connects the dots between the displacements  of the twentieth century to what happened to the expelled over the last three generations. The destiny of those who fled the wars and famine ends up to be bound together with the the latest wave of migration from 2022.

Intimate mediations in 12 cities, starting in Arkhangelsk, Kazan, Sochi, Nalchik, Tbilisi, Yerevan, Hochheim, Astana, Tashkent, Bishkek, Vienna, and Paris, land in a final exhibition in Frankfurt am Main for the timespan from 7th to 30th August 2026. Coming in all media —from photographs, videos, over  embroidery to film — personal memories are constructed, deconstructed, and applied as healing methods.

Team: Lilit Matevosyan, Gulshat Gubaidullina, V-L-V-SH-M-D, Vladimir Seleznev and Katya Selezneva, Irina Denkmann

Curator: Irina Denkmann

Design: Denis (Gafiyatullin) Volkov

Illustration: Gulshat Gubaidullina, Denis (Gafiyatullin) Volkov

Artists: aleksandr kosykh & anastasia karkot*ska, Aleksandra Aya Demina, Altyn Kapalova, Altynai Turun, Ani Ba, Anna Malgina, Asel Bagautdinova, Aya Abdullaeva, Dalia Beshto, Denis (Gafiyatullin) Volkov, Gulshat Gubaidullina, Guram Tsibakhashvili, Jeanna Kolesova, Katya Selezneva, Ketty van Doln, Lilit Matevosyan, Lolita Futerman, Maria Motyleva, Maryam Yusifaliyeva, Masha Koshman, Mayya Bayzhanova, Mila Khatsouk, Milausha Gafurova, Nazira Saduakas, Rusudan Mirobzalova, V-L-V-SH-M-D, Vladimir Seleznev, Za Cao, Ziliä Qansurá

Collaborators: 5floora, Belova Art Gallery, Central Asian Museum of Feminist and Queer Art (MoFA+), Centre culturel Soljenitsyne YMCA-Press, Forte Kulanshi Art Space, Freizgallery, GAMAYUN Buchladen, GASP Magazin, Kolya Nakhshunov, Shoxjahon 84, TMP Space, Valery Ledenev