Sacred Danger Siberian-born artist, Uliana Apatina, was the first artist to receive the Kim Fielding Award, in 2015. She talks to Emma Geliot about the challenges and unexpected pleasures of responding to new sites and contexts, with a provocative practice that inhabits the void between sculpture and architecture. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Nam nibh. Nunc varius facilisis eros. Sed erat. In in velit quis arcu ornare The late Kim Fielding was an artist, curator laoreet. and,Curabitur as he described adipiscing himself,luctuswon massa. you the Integer award. utWhat purus you acproduced augue was very different to that an arch instictator. After his sudden death, commodo friends andcommodo. colleagues Nunc set upnec mi proposal, eu justo did tempor that matter? consectetuer.
Uliana Apatina
the Kim Fielding Award to create opportunities for artists and curators to take risks and make new work. Uliana Apatina was selected to be the first recipient of the international award, which offered support as well as funds, and instant access to a vast network of creative people. Sacred Danger Part I was sited at Coed Hills Rural Artspace in the Vale of Glamorgan. The project was translated into a multi-media installation, Sacred Danger Part II, in an empty shop in the heart of Cardiff. Emma Geliot: You have so many strands to your practice, could you describe what you do? Uliana Apatina: I believe my art practice is a continuation of my complex background in fine art, architecture and journalism. It’s a crossdisciplinary encounter with a space and immersive environments.
UA: Sometimes I think proposals are written for only one reason – not to be followed. As a proposal Red Salt Bath didn’t have a Welsh context at all. At the very point I hit Wales, on the very first encounter, Red Salt Bath wasn’t a red salt bath any longer because I had a different understanding of the context. I fundamentally believe that a proposal has to be developed and evolved, because it’s extremely boring to make something you already know about. Each project should be different. Consequently, with each new project I use a different approach. What unites them is my interest in site-specificity and process. It means that I’m very much enjoying immersing myself into new realms, to dissolve in them and see what can happen. EG: So you didn’t have a fixed idea of what you wanted to do. Did that evolve as the sites for the work were identified?
EG: It was architecture that brought you to London wasn’t it? UA: I received a Scholarship from the Architectural Association and came to London to study. Prior to that, I studied fine art and contemporary media technology, consecutively. EG: The Kim Fielding Award was developed to be deliberately open to allow for risk-taking and experimentation. Was that what attracted you to apply? UA: Above all, it was the invitation to a relationship, and experimentation, of course, coupled with risks, which are an innate part of me always. EG: You had originally proposed a project called Red Salt Bath, which
UA: The idea as a mental construct was present in the form of an attractive cloud sitting on a top of a hill, becoming dangerous when you entered it. It was developed with a particular location in mind, which became unavailable later. Because of that we did experience quite a lot of site-changing procedures, indeed, and that was quite ironic, given the site-specificity of the work. I had to fight for the final site though. It happened to be the most windy spot in the whole of the Vale of Glamorgan, or at least I was told so, and everyone was kind of scared. EG: Where did the title Sacred Danger come from? UA: As part of my research, I wanted to travel around Wales and went all the way up to the North. I stayed in Llan Ffestiniog, at the Pengwern Arms, a pub run by local volunteers with hotel rooms on the top.