Do you know many contemporary artists, let alone sculptors, working with the theme space? Those who made this topic the main source of their creativity?

There are very few of them as taking up cosmos for a theme is very uncommon.

Vasilisa Lipatova is one such artist.

“For me, space is a big, mysterious, fascinating dream. Something very far away that you want to touch with your hand so much, but it is absolutely impossible. And I turn this distant and unreal dream into reality. I materialize it in space, form, and substance. I enjoy creating the unreal. I like striking the imagination, producing the impression on the viewer’s feelings that they will never forget,” says the artist.

Cosmos materializes in very different art objects created by the artist: multi-meter iron public art pieces, airy plastic sculptures, and tiny round canvases, as well as video artworks.

“People usually ask: ‘Wow, how have you produced it?“ or "what do you need to smoke to come up with a thing like that??!”. The first question always surprised me, and gradually I developed a whole cycle of stories for each of my production techniques. As for the second one, actually, I can say that I have never tried anything like that. In fact, I have stopped drinking alcohol for quite a while already and stopped eating foods that can be toxic to my body (including sugar and white flour). Creativity happens on its own, I just know where to find those ideas and how to extract them from there. I“m not inventing art, I’m just channeling ideas into the material world. And I think I’m good at it,” says the artist.

And it turns out really well, Vasilisa’s works take part in major exhibitions of contemporary art: Cosmoscow Art Fair and the Biennale of Young Art, works are exhibited at such venues as Vinzavod Centre for Contemporary Art and MMOMA. One of the works has joined the collection of the State Tretyakov Gallery, one of the public art pieces is in the collection of the National Museum of the Republic of Buryatia named after Ts.S. Sampilov.

The year 2021 marked an important milestone for the artist: she created several large art objects, which eventually turned into an international art project — “Space Atlas".

Space Atlas encompasses artworks that are linked to the images of the cosmos: clouds, constellations, and nebulae (hence “Space”), and are created for landscapes or public spaces (therefore “Atlas"). That is, it actually creates a map of space art objects on Earth. It is the cosmos on Earth. And Earth represents not only a planet floating in space, but also an object surrounded by constellations of cosmic art pieces.