Gluklya and Anna Bitkina

Born in Leningrad, Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya (also known as Gluklya) lives and works in St. Petersburg and Amsterdam. After graduating from the Mukhina Academy of Art and Design, she co-founded the artist collective The Factory of Found Clothes (FFC), which uses installation, performance, video, text and “social research” to develop the concept of “fragility” – relationships between internal and external and private and public. Anna Bitkina is an independent curator, director and co-founder of The Creative Association of Curators TOK (www.tok-spb.org), an art organization that conducts interdisciplinary projects in the fields of contemporary art, design and social sciences. TOK’s projects have a strong social component and deal with current issues that are widely discussed both in Russia and internationally. In her curatorial practice she is interested in issues related to the concept of public space in post-Soviet Russia, as well as on perception, understanding and mechanisms of use of public spaces and open areas by residents of post-Soviet cities. In her projects she explores the changing role of cultural workers and possibilities of creative practices in different social spheres.