Creative Association Kruzhok
Artist, designer, and photographer Stas Falkov is known to the world primarily as the founder of the Kruzhok brand and creative association. He moved from his native Tyumen to Moscow in 2009 and became interested in photography, shooting lookbooks for Russian streetwear brands. From time to time he sent portfolios to glossy magazines, but he did not succeed in getting them interested. Then, in 2015, Stas created his own online magazine focusing on photography and underground culture, Kruzhok, where he published the work of novice photographers and artists that he found in social networks.
And in 2017 a streetwear brand emerged based from this project. It started with merch- Stas printed his photos on T-shirts and then began to create entire collections, reinterpreting Soviet codes- cosmonautics, architecture, the aesthetics of sanatoriums and research institutes. He has has many collaborations- drops with Adidas, Levi's and Kappa, and has created several collections with the Cosmonautics Museum and merchandise-uniforms for Yandex. In addition, Kruzhok gradually grew into a creative community of designers, artists, musicians, and curators that launched a music label, an online radio station, opened an upscale atelier, and hosted events. But after the events of 2022, the team members left Russia, and Kruzhok suspended offline activities, and until now only produced collections remotely.
Relocation to France
Like many Russian artists, in the fall of 2022, Stas Falkov relocated abroad to France. After the move he concentrated on his artistic activities. At first, Stas was institutionally sheltered by L atelier des artistes en exil, which supports artists from all over the world. He was given space to work in a small studio and participated in several exhibitions. And since November, Stas began working with Voskhod Gallery to develop his portfolio in the European art market.
"For relocation I had only one option right away - France. This is the first foreign country I visited at a conscious age. And I had a culture shock at the time. And then I came to Paris quite often for work, when we participated in the Fashion Week with the "Circle". And despite the challenges, I knew for sure it was a place that would inspire me. I love the culture, the people, the language, the architecture, the way of life, the attitude towards art and artists here. This experience has made me feel like I'm in a global world. And I'm starting to think about staying in France, until I can't imagine going back."
"Microcredit" in abandoned offices on the outskirts of Paris
However, the most interesting event with Stas happened later - three months after his arrival, he and a friend, the filmmaker Vasya Berezin, organized a new creative association in an abandoned office on the outskirts of Paris. Specifically, in the Noisy-le Grand neighborhood, near a 1980s postmodern apartment complex designed by Ricardo Bofill. Because of its unusual futuristic architecture, the neighborhood today has few residents, an air of emptiness, and many semi-abandoned buildings.
"I happened to be in this neighborhood the first month I arrived in Paris and was greatly impressed by its monumental architecture. Then a friend of mine, director Vasya Berezin, who already had experience in staging plays with the homeless in Moscow's abandoned buildings, came to town. We went for a walk and found a semi-abandoned building. There were people working on the first two floors, but the fourth floor was empty, so we took the space. At first it was scary to be there, mostly because you don't know the language or the laws in a foreign country. It helped to have the feeling that it couldn't get any worse.
The guys set up art workshops and living areas where they periodically stay overnight, a large exhibition space, and a theater hall, for which they bought 40 chairs at a flea market in Saint-Denis. Gradually other artist friends who emigrated from Russia joined them: Ivan Volkov, Dima Rasposov, Natasha Goncharova, Andrei Berger, Arthur Krivoshein. Each of them now has his own bright studio to work in.
"From the small backroom where I started working when I came to Paris, the space where we work now is chic. Vasya and I managed to create our own world and immerse ourselves in it."
This is how the creative association called "Mikrokredit" was formed. This post-office space, devoid of meaning, is a kind of mockery of the capitalist approach to the art world. "Micro" refers to rooting on the ground, and "credit" is Latin for trust. So Microcredit is a place where people trust each other and engage in the arts, a haven for culture. It exists with the support of the Kruzhok association and the Binary Biotheatre theater group. Every two weeks, there is a new exhibition, in which not only members of the community, but also artists from France and Germany take part. In parallel, Vasya Berezin puts on plays in the space that seamlessly complement the exhibition.
"Our audience is primarily Russian-speaking people who are in Paris and hear about us through word of mouth, from friends and acquaintances. We don't do any special promotion of the project, we only post posters on our Instagram account. And at our last show there was no empty space. We have already had six exhibitions and performances, but we don't really know what our plans are for the future. Although the practice of squatting is common in France and the owners of the building are aware of our activities, we are in this space as illegally as possible. We have already been visited by the police a couple of times. It is quite possible that soon we may be kicked out".
The emergence of the artist Stas Falkov and his art universe
Now Stas is focused on artistic activities and is working to create his own art universe. The artist says that it was painting that helped him cope with the move, find himself and focus. He began creating abstract landscapes and self-portraits united by the concept of an endless journey. They were presented at one of Stas's solo exhibitions in the Mikrokredit space, and now he plans to continue searching for the heroes of his fictional world and work on a large exhibition continuing this idea.
"When you're in immigration, you're on a never-ending journey that can only end when you're home. But you don't know when that will be, or if you don't have a home at all right now. And this concept can be a metaphor for anything, like an endless journey through some visual images, the depths of your subconscious. Reflecting on this theme, I work, in the spirit of automatic writing, improvising without sketches. The process of birth of abstract forms and characters is important to me - in this moment I feel strong emotions. Then some of them stay with me and go on an endless journey. I am in the process of finding these characters. When I have shaped this world of infinite journey, then I will be ready to make a big final exhibition.
Now an important character in my world is Connie. He was accidentally born in the first month of my arrival, when I was working in the backroom and also improvising. He is some kind of anthropomorphic animal that resembles a horse. It stayed in my mind for some reason, even though it didn't represent anything special. So I decided to scale it up and put it into real life. I was struck in Paris by the huge advertising posters that are glued one on top of the other on old, vintage frames. So we printed out a similar banner with a picture of Connie and pasted it on the Paris Metro. It lasted less than 12 hours. When I arrived in the morning to take pictures, the poster was gone. But it was cool to materialize my fantasies.
Remote collection release
At the same time, Stas continues to work on the design of clothing for his brand Kruzhok, remotely oversees the production of collections and develops the Kruzhok Supports project. The brand creates T-shirts and hoodies with illustrations, and a percentage from their sales is donated to these organizations. Also, following the spirit of the times, Stas began to work with artificial intelligence and involved a neural network in the design of things in one of the latest collections.
"Because of all sorts of physical and censorship constraints, we delegated the creation of visual and graphic elements to artificial intelligence. The neural network created the prints and meanings, removing the responsibility from us. This is a metaphor for the fact that people have left Russia for different places, and artificial intelligence has replaced the creative community. It's like it's inanimate now, like artificial intelligence.
