The ten minutes-long video Queue occupies a special place within Pirogova's practice: it is the first time she engages in a sort of screen adaptation of a novel and it is also the only film to use text. The artist creates a meticulous and eloquent translation in movements of what she captured as gestures in Vladimir Sorokin's description of a typical soviet queue through an endless quotation of people's questions, remarks or angry statements. Pirogova's imagery however is contemporary and so is the actors apparel, living out the references to time in the text. The queue becomes any queue then and now, fixing through bodily gestureс a state of mind that seems to persist to date. Snejana Krasteva

Agon is based on four episodes filmed in a newly-built factory: "politics", "religion", "art", and "media", conceived as a series of movements or competitions. A group of male performers enact these episodes as gestures drawn from a variety of sources — sport, dance, or fitness — in an industrial space, these movements replacing the productive activity of factory work, yet themselves a form of physical, repetitive, and bodily labor. João Ribas

BIBLIMLEN explores a series of performances – which are strung together cinematographically – the ways in which people interact with their everyday environment, which is both unique and passing. Often with little or no attention to detail, any possibility for something new or different is completely overlooked.
The performances take place in the Russian State Library, which becomes a co-author of the work. The unique atmosphere and shape of the building is closely linked to the strict rules of conduct that apply there. The work departs from common scenarios that contradict the restrictions of this strictly regulated environment.
Pirogova lets human bodies perform a surprising dance with the library's knowledge system. She shows unsuspected qualities and possible experiences in a system striving for uniformity. It's our movements that bring livability, enjoyment and depth. The real and the surreal come together; the characters are enchanted by the building and remain in an endless conversation with space. Bart De Baere




Sasha Pirogova is an artist who works with video and performance. Her creations are based on philosophical exploration of a continuous flow of life. They offer a sensual look at the duality of material and spiritual. Every work by Sasha Pirogova is a specific energy exchange. By capturing her feelings and transmitting it to the viewer the artist strives to his or her positive transformation.

Sasha Pirogova was born in 1986 in Moscow. She graduated with a MS in Physics from Moscow State University in 2010 and Moscow Rodchenko Art School, Video and New Media department in 2014. The artist has been awarded the Innovation Art Prize in the "New generation" category in 2014 (Moscow) and the Kandinsky Prize in the "Young Artist. Project of the Year" category in 2017 (Moscow). Sasha Pirogova's projects were presented at the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts (Moscow), Garage Museum of Contemporary Art (Moscow), Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma (Helsinki), Whitechapel gallery (London), Kunstquartier Bethanien (Berlin), ImPulsTanz (Vienna), Tate Modern (London) etc. In 2017 the video Garden was presented at the Russian pavilion of the 57th Venice Biennale.