Mikhail Maksimov is an artist who explores the potential realities that can be mapped using video game programming techniques such as simulations and 3D animation. Through the use of ‘transmedia storytelling,’ a form of narrative-making that spans multiple formats including film, installation, and smartphone apps, Maksimov tests ideological and philosophical theories in a digital interface that acts as a mediator between producer and consumer. He believes that if reality can serve as a model for gaming, then animation and interactive artworks can also be used to shape reality.
Maksimov’s work is influenced by a range of subjects including mysticism, theosophy, pop culture, gravity, railroad transport, and forensics. His videos often contain a sub-narrative that examines sophisticated systems of movement and infrastructure as metaphors for the logics of political machinations, human life cycles, and ecologies of thought. In Maksimov’s own words, “It’s interesting to excerpt the chunks, the concentration of life and kind of hold it in your hands, examine it”
Graduated at Moscow State Construction University and Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia. participant of exhibitions and festivals including 3-th, 4-th, 5-th Moscow Modern Art Biennale, New Horizons International Film Festival, Wrozlaw, Poland, 36th Moscow International Film Festival (2014), European biennial of contemporary art Manifesta 10, (2014), 71th Locarno Film Festival (2018), 35th Hamburg Kurz Film Festival (2019), Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (2020), 17th Venice Architecture Biennale (2021), Art for the Future Biennale (2022), DA Z festival, Zurich, Switzerland (2022)
Selected exhibitions:
- Sorcerers, GES-2 (2023)
- DAZ Digital Art Zurich Festival, Zurich (2022)
- Art for the future International Biennial, MaMM, Moscow, Russia (2022)
- Assuming Distance: Speculations, Fakes, and Predictions in the Age of the Coronacene, Garage Museum, Moscow (2021)
- Radical Gaming. Immersion Simulation Subversion at HEK (Haus der Elektronischen Künste)(Basel, Switzerland) (2021)
- 17th Venice Architecture Biennale (2021)
- Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (2020)
- 35th Hamburg Kurz Film Festival (2019)
- 71th Locarno Festival, Parti Di Domani, International Competition,Switzerland (2018)
- International Festival of Cinematographic Debuts “Spirit of fire”(first prize) (2018)
- Hosting the Inhuman, Epicircle, V.A.C. Foundation,Moscow (2017)
- Burning News, London, England, Hayward Gallery (2014)
- Manifesta 10, Saint Petersburg (2014)
Awards: International Festival of Cinematographic Debuts “Spirit of fire” (Golden Taiga for the best short film)(2018), 14th Kansk Video Festival (2015, Best Russian Short winner), Festival of Ultrashort Video (Moscow) 2014 – First Prize.
email: grifgont@gmail.com