Private Viewing. Official Opening of Prokofiev Studio. Bending Time

​We are pleased to present Bending Time, the inaugural exhibition of Prokofiev Studio in London.

​Conceived as a group exhibition, Bending Time explores the notion of the archive — not as a static repository of the past, but as a living, generative system through which artistic legacies are continuously reactivated and reconfigured.

​At the centre of the exhibition is a reconstruction of Oleg Prokofiev’s studio from the 1990s, originally located on Dace Road in Hackney Wick. This reconstructed environment functions as an active spatial framework, revealing the conditions of the artist’s thinking and situating a selection of his distinctive wooden sculptures within their original context. Presented alongside archival materials — documents, photographs, and sketchbooks — the installation invites viewers to encounter the archive as a dynamic and evolving process.

​Prokofiev’s sculptural practice, developed following his time in New York in 1977–78, is grounded in the concept of the “line in space.” His works generate a dialogue between mass and void, structure and instability, establishing a conceptual foundation for the exhibition.

​Extending this framework, the exhibition brings together works by Valentino Vannini and Kirill Basalaev. While not directly referencing Prokofiev’s legacy, their practices resonate through shared concerns with materiality, temporality, and transformation.

​Kirill Basalaev’s works employ cement as a fragile carrier of memory, presenting surfaces marked by erosion, cracks, and traces that evoke archaeological remains. Valentino Vannini’s multidisciplinary practice explores material transformation in real time, combining industrial and organic elements to challenge the stability of architectural forms.

​Curated by Anzhela Popova, Bending Time proposes a “return to the future” — a cyclical movement in which the past is not preserved but reactivated, and where meaning emerges through ongoing transformation.

​Preview: 30 April, 6–9 pm
Exhibition dates: 1–29 May