Glass is a brittle material. In her first solo project, Vika Kravtsova goes beyond the obvious metaphors. She is interested not just in the physical vulnerability of the material, but in the state of extreme stress that a person finds himself in when the familiar world loses stability, when the ceiling falls. An "evacuation plan" is a map that shows not a place where it is safe, but how not to petrify with fear when your own house ceases to be a fortress.

Vika acquired her first professional education at an art school in the field of graphic illustrator. Subsequently, she continued her studies at the Stieglitz Academy, first at the Department of Artistic Glass Processing, and then at the graduate school — at the Department of Artistic Metalworking. The artist, while preserving the tradition of illustration, goes beyond the two-dimensional format, in each work you can feel the combination of her graphic thinking and understanding of the plastic properties of the material.

The project is based on an extremely personal, almost intimate universe. This room is not an abstract space, but the very only place where we used to feel safe. However, the comfort zone here turns into a disaster zone. Vika simulates the situation of choice at the moment when the familiar world has cracked — and this crack passes right over your head. A black, oppressive glass ceiling that had already begun to fall. An amphora grows out of it, suspended from straps. This vessel of hope is a container for tears, a symbol of the burden that we continue to hold.

The space is built on the principle of a crossroads, according to the logic of a fairy tale familiar from childhood: "You'll go left ... you'll go right ... Or you'll go straight..." This is a scheme of three possible reactions.

The artist captures a pause, a "freeze frame" of the destruction to show that time stopped only for a moment. The choice is still possible. You can freeze under the shards, you can rush away, you can hide in your memories. But the only thing that is guaranteed to lead to salvation is action.

Text: Mikhail Pershko, curator of the exhibition

Exhibition dates: 25.04 – 05.07.2026

DiDi Gallery address: 62 Bolshoy Ave., St. Petersburg

Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 12:00 – 20:00. Admission is free