Tobias Zielony: Maskirovka

Lia Rumma Gallery presents the fifth solo exhibition by German artist Tobias Zielony in the Milan Gallery. Maskirovka (which means masking) is a project realised by Zielony between 2016 and 2017, in the city of Kiev.

Maskirovka is a military doctrine developed in the Soviet Union since the 1920s, based on denial and deception in order to confuse the enemy. The term has been used to indicate Russian policy towards Ukraine, military operations in Crimea and the hybrid state of war, never officially declared, which followed the protests of the Maidan in 2013 and is still ongoing.

The project investigates the disguise in its various forms, Zielony has produced a photographic series and a video where he investigates the queer and techno underground scene in Kiev, in the context of the current Ukrainian crisis.
Using stop-motion animation we are thrown between socio-political contexts and scenes of the young people’s private lives. The photographs focus instead on the intimate gestures and poses of the teenagers.