Sergey Kantsedal is a curator based in Turin.
He is currently running a non-profit space BARRIERA. Through a series of exhibitions and long-term projects, this institution creates opportunities for dialogue between artists, curators, collectors and engenders contamination with other cultural environments and disciplinary perspectives.
His curatorial practice explores a diverse range of interests that intersect artistic, musical, and fashion perspectives. His most current research delves into archives as abundant sources of inspiration and hidden potential.
Over the years, he has collaborated with various public and private institutions in Italy and internationally: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR) in Turin; Triennale Milano, Fabbrica del Vapore and MUDEC Museo delle Culture in Milan; Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, MAMbo - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Bologna, PinchukArtCentre and National Art Museum in Kyiv.
He took part in MEDITERRANEA 18, Young Artists Biennial in Tirana and a transnational research program A Natural Oasis? (San Marino-Kosovo-Montenegro-Malta). In 2024, he was a curator in residency at Salzburger Kunstverein (Austria).
He graduated from the State Academy of Design and Arts of Kharkiv, attended Third Moscow Curatorial Summer School by V-A-C Foundation and CAMPO, curatorial practices course at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin (2015-2016).
He is currently running a non-profit space BARRIERA. Through a series of exhibitions and long-term projects, this institution creates opportunities for dialogue between artists, curators, collectors and engenders contamination with other cultural environments and disciplinary perspectives.
His curatorial practice explores a diverse range of interests that intersect artistic, musical, and fashion perspectives. His most current research delves into archives as abundant sources of inspiration and hidden potential.
Over the years, he has collaborated with various public and private institutions in Italy and internationally: Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo and Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR) in Turin; Triennale Milano, Fabbrica del Vapore and MUDEC Museo delle Culture in Milan; Cittadellarte - Fondazione Pistoletto in Biella, MAMbo - Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Bologna, PinchukArtCentre and National Art Museum in Kyiv.
He took part in MEDITERRANEA 18, Young Artists Biennial in Tirana and a transnational research program A Natural Oasis? (San Marino-Kosovo-Montenegro-Malta). In 2024, he was a curator in residency at Salzburger Kunstverein (Austria).
He graduated from the State Academy of Design and Arts of Kharkiv, attended Third Moscow Curatorial Summer School by V-A-C Foundation and CAMPO, curatorial practices course at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin (2015-2016).
POOR BUT SEXY
Anastasia Sosunova, Mila Panic, Ala Savashevich, Dominika Olszowy, Miroslav Tichý and Nikita Kadan
- exhibition, curator
POOR BUT SEXY takes its title from the iconic phrase coined by former Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit. The slogan was designed to rebrand the post-Wall city as a raw, seductive destination for the West, with its low-cost labour and vast infrastructure. It also stands as an emblem of how, from a pro-Western perspective, the fate of the East after 1989 was framed and sold. But there’s more: it reflects the ongoing polarisation between East and West, as described in Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West by Polish author Agata Pyzik (2014, Zer0 Books). Pyzik’s book delves into the "hidden" history of the East, focusing on its troubled and somewhat submissive relationship with the “West”. From artistic practices to subcultures, from post-punk to Bowie’s fascination with the Eastern Bloc, from orientalism to self-colonization, Pyzik’s work rejects both nostalgia for the “good old days” and the desire to become a “normal” part of Europe.
Starting from this provocation, POOR BUT SEXY presents works by Ala Savashevich (1989, Belarus), Anastasia Sosunova (1993, Lithuania), Dominika Olszowy (1988, Poland), Mila Panić (1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Miroslav Tichý (1926–2011, Czech Republic), and Nikita Kadan (1982, Ukraine). Exploring various perspectives and micro-narratives spanning generations, artistic languages, and geographies, the exhibition functions as a time capsule—a glimpse into the living archive of a fractured and oblique present we inhabit. Each work relates intimately to the others, occupying a shared realm where experiences, genealogies, and cultural micro-histories intersect. A sense of belonging is questioned introspectively—not as a subject, but more as an attitude. Playful yet serious—poor but sexy in every sense—the exhibition triggers a conversation that develops across time and space, sparking a dialogue between objects, bodies, fantasies, and dreams.
Article on FRIEZE
Anastasia Sosunova, Mila Panic, Ala Savashevich, Dominika Olszowy, Miroslav Tichý and Nikita Kadan
- exhibition, curator
04/03 – 12/04/2025eastcontemporary, MilanPOOR BUT SEXY takes its title from the iconic phrase coined by former Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit. The slogan was designed to rebrand the post-Wall city as a raw, seductive destination for the West, with its low-cost labour and vast infrastructure. It also stands as an emblem of how, from a pro-Western perspective, the fate of the East after 1989 was framed and sold. But there’s more: it reflects the ongoing polarisation between East and West, as described in Poor But Sexy: Culture Clashes in Europe East and West by Polish author Agata Pyzik (2014, Zer0 Books). Pyzik’s book delves into the "hidden" history of the East, focusing on its troubled and somewhat submissive relationship with the “West”. From artistic practices to subcultures, from post-punk to Bowie’s fascination with the Eastern Bloc, from orientalism to self-colonization, Pyzik’s work rejects both nostalgia for the “good old days” and the desire to become a “normal” part of Europe.
Starting from this provocation, POOR BUT SEXY presents works by Ala Savashevich (1989, Belarus), Anastasia Sosunova (1993, Lithuania), Dominika Olszowy (1988, Poland), Mila Panić (1991, Bosnia and Herzegovina), Miroslav Tichý (1926–2011, Czech Republic), and Nikita Kadan (1982, Ukraine). Exploring various perspectives and micro-narratives spanning generations, artistic languages, and geographies, the exhibition functions as a time capsule—a glimpse into the living archive of a fractured and oblique present we inhabit. Each work relates intimately to the others, occupying a shared realm where experiences, genealogies, and cultural micro-histories intersect. A sense of belonging is questioned introspectively—not as a subject, but more as an attitude. Playful yet serious—poor but sexy in every sense—the exhibition triggers a conversation that develops across time and space, sparking a dialogue between objects, bodies, fantasies, and dreams.
Article on FRIEZE
BARRIERA UNINSTITUTE
The Aftershow Book: A Critical Inventory of Documents
- book, editor
Published by viaindustriae
Edition of 400 copies, black and white, two different covers
The book includes five contributions — Apparatus 22, MRZB, Katya Kabalina, Franco Ariaudo, Francesco Cavaliere — made specifically for the publication along with a selection of “archival materials”, such as exhibition catalogs, invitations, gallery texts, postcards, leaflets, and booklets, ‘lateral’ to the artistic and curatorial production developed during seventeen years of history of BARRIERA — non-profit space founded by a group of collectors in 2007 in Torino.
Following this predominantly visual, asynchronous, and “eccentric” documentary section, the book organizes an index with events, exhibitions, catalogues, and all artists who have passed through BARRIERA’s space.
Buy here
The Aftershow Book: A Critical Inventory of Documents
- book, editor
Published by viaindustriae
Edition of 400 copies, black and white, two different covers
The book includes five contributions — Apparatus 22, MRZB, Katya Kabalina, Franco Ariaudo, Francesco Cavaliere — made specifically for the publication along with a selection of “archival materials”, such as exhibition catalogs, invitations, gallery texts, postcards, leaflets, and booklets, ‘lateral’ to the artistic and curatorial production developed during seventeen years of history of BARRIERA — non-profit space founded by a group of collectors in 2007 in Torino.
Following this predominantly visual, asynchronous, and “eccentric” documentary section, the book organizes an index with events, exhibitions, catalogues, and all artists who have passed through BARRIERA’s space.
Buy here
GENETIC / Jenna Marvin, Anastasia Kreslina, MRZB
- exhibition, curator (together with Katya Kabalina)
presented by MRZB
20.09. — 30.09.2024
Milan, Italy
The exhibition featured a selection of video works by artist Jenna Marvin and a new sound piece by Anastasia Kreslina (IC3PEAK) in a televisual cyber-brutalist display by MRZB.
Anastasia’s repetitive lo-fi text-based sound loop Whisper2 was amplified through the speakers of seven televisions broadcasting a selection of Jenna Marvin’s video works produced in Paris in 2023-24. The landscape of the city, functioning as a scenographical suburban display to Jenna’s performances and costumes, was scored by Anastasia’s wall of whispers, screeched soft repetitions dissolving into nothingness.
The presentation was accompanied by a print-on-demand publication produced by MRZB featuring a text by writer Max Lawton and contributions by all the artists and curators involved.
Photography by MRZB
Buy here
- exhibition, curator (together with Katya Kabalina)
presented by MRZB
20.09. — 30.09.2024
Milan, Italy
The exhibition featured a selection of video works by artist Jenna Marvin and a new sound piece by Anastasia Kreslina (IC3PEAK) in a televisual cyber-brutalist display by MRZB.
Anastasia’s repetitive lo-fi text-based sound loop Whisper2 was amplified through the speakers of seven televisions broadcasting a selection of Jenna Marvin’s video works produced in Paris in 2023-24. The landscape of the city, functioning as a scenographical suburban display to Jenna’s performances and costumes, was scored by Anastasia’s wall of whispers, screeched soft repetitions dissolving into nothingness.
The presentation was accompanied by a print-on-demand publication produced by MRZB featuring a text by writer Max Lawton and contributions by all the artists and curators involved.
Photography by MRZB
Buy here
Brilla Brilla e Scompari / Alan Stefanato
- exhibition, curator
Lateral Roma
23.05. — 13.06.2024
Alan Stefanato’s practice is the result of an autodidact path, characterized by the expressiveness of the technique, the centrality of the pictorial sign, and its gradual dissolution. The exhibition highlights the synthesis of the various languages the artist uses, such as painting, sculpture, and writing. The exhibition introduces a new assemblage of works contained in suitcases. Portable and free of the constraints imposed by a definitive exhibition format, these works emphasize the ephemeral and itinerant nature of the exhibition. Both object and subject, the suitcase not only physically transports the painting, but also preserves it intimately.
The suggestion of the journey, as a tangible path and mental experience, is enhanced by a narrative dimension embodied in the series of poems written by the artist, which accentuate the tension between reality and fiction. Inspired by the names of the paintings in the exhibition, such as “Shine Shine and Vanish”, “A Race Against Time”, “Ghost Salad” and others, the small stories-anecdotes are gateways to a universe of fragments and suggestions that unfold through visions and associations, painting a picture of daily life permeated by an erratic, at times melancholy, sense. Each work is nourished by a rich mosaic of references and feelings evoked by the wandering experience, weaving a narrative that transforms painting into a form of visual storytelling.
Photography by Tiziano Ercoli
- exhibition, curator
Lateral Roma
23.05. — 13.06.2024
Alan Stefanato’s practice is the result of an autodidact path, characterized by the expressiveness of the technique, the centrality of the pictorial sign, and its gradual dissolution. The exhibition highlights the synthesis of the various languages the artist uses, such as painting, sculpture, and writing. The exhibition introduces a new assemblage of works contained in suitcases. Portable and free of the constraints imposed by a definitive exhibition format, these works emphasize the ephemeral and itinerant nature of the exhibition. Both object and subject, the suitcase not only physically transports the painting, but also preserves it intimately.
The suggestion of the journey, as a tangible path and mental experience, is enhanced by a narrative dimension embodied in the series of poems written by the artist, which accentuate the tension between reality and fiction. Inspired by the names of the paintings in the exhibition, such as “Shine Shine and Vanish”, “A Race Against Time”, “Ghost Salad” and others, the small stories-anecdotes are gateways to a universe of fragments and suggestions that unfold through visions and associations, painting a picture of daily life permeated by an erratic, at times melancholy, sense. Each work is nourished by a rich mosaic of references and feelings evoked by the wandering experience, weaving a narrative that transforms painting into a form of visual storytelling.
Photography by Tiziano Ercoli
