"Surmatants - Mars Rising" is an elegiacally visceral response to the CV19 pandemic, in three acts — grounded in the Sci-Fi genre and informed by Pittsburg’s Slavic immigrant labor history, and bubonic plague imagery of Bernt Notke’s Surmatans, painting (1633), of the dance macabre. Following an abstract narrative that weaves in tenants of Russian Cosmisim, a transcendence is evoked through Jesse Gelaznik’s musical compositions, paired with renowned choreographer- Željko Jergan and John Harbist’s dances choreographies performed by the Tamburitzans. The narrative follows an ascent to Mars as a result of the dance, lead by a pale rider on a white horse disguised as a beguiling female Slavic dancer and accompanied by a chorus of female singers who transform into human Ukrainian Motanka dolls (a benevolent kind of Slavic voodoo doll — until the ribbons come off of the face). The third finds the dancers resurrected on Mars — transmitting a human resurrection on Mars from the future. This work continues to transform in meaning with current events in Ukraine and Russia. Audiences have compared the scene with the white horse departing the circle of fallen dancers to memories of German and Russian troops leaving left for dead during World War II, while also reflecting Ukraine now.Tenants of Russian Cosmism and transcendence are evoked through Jesse Gelaznik's musical compositions, paired with dances by John Harbist and renowned choreographer Zeljko Jergan and performed by the Tamburitzans. Surmatants – Mars Rising was first shown in 2021 at The Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburg, as part of her solo exhibition “Surmatants – Mars Rising.”
Her hybrid practice spans sculpture, video, immersive multimedia installation, and public art. Stanislav’s work is anchored in a collision of beauty and horror — dualities that intimate sublimity, through equations of site + scale. Andréa’s work often excavates constructs and devolution of civilizations and empires —merging the past and present, while proposing questions of the future. In the Duchampian sense, the viewer becomes a participant who completes the work. Stanislav’s installations erode the boundary between subject and object in a literal “physicality of ideas” — manifested experientially through an immersive experience.
Andréa Stanislav (b. Chicago) is based in New York City, New York; and works in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Bloomington, Indiana. Ms. Stanislav received an MFA from Alfred University, NY; and a BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Since 2018, she holds an Associate Professor of Sculpture position at the Eskenazi School of Art, Architecture + Design, and is an Affiliate Faculty with the Russian & Eastern European Institute, Indiana University Bloomington, IN.
Stanislav's work has been exhibited internationally. Selected solo exhibitions include: The Mattress Factory Museum of Contemporary Art, Pittsburg; The Museum of Russian Art, Minneapolis; The Saint Louis Art Museum, St. Louis; The Museum of Non-Conformist Art, St. Petersburg, Russia; Sergey Kuryokhin Center for Modern Art. St. Petersburg, RU; Ca'D'Oro Gallery, NYC; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis; Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis; 21c Museum, Louisville; thisisnotashop, Dublin, Ireland; Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha. Andréa has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants including: 2019 Art-residency NCCA, St. Petersburg, RU; The 2015/2016 Freund Fellowship, Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts, Washington University, St. Louis / St. Louis Art Museum; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council 2012 Residency, NYC; 2010/2011 McKnight Artists Fellowship for Visual Arts, Minneapolis; Socrates Sculpture Park 2009 Jerome Emerging Artist Fellowship, NYC. Her work has also been exhibited at: Brookfield, NYC, CYLAND, St. Petersburg, RU; Kuryokhin Center for Modern Art, St. Petersburg, RU; Smack Mellon, NYC; The 2018 Art Ii Biennial, Ii Finland; The Museum of the Defense and Siege of Leningrad, St. Petersburg, RU; The 5th Moscow Biennial, Moscow, RU; The U.S (Ambassador’s) Residence, Stockholm, Sweden; Delaware Center for Contemporary Art, Wilmington; The Minnesota Museum of American Art, St. Paul; Plains Art Museum, Fargo; The John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI; Kentucky Museum of Arts and Craft, Louisville; Dumbo Arts Center, NYC; and Catalyst Arts, Belfast Northern Ireland.
