Pivot 7 Club
Pivot 7 Club wields its name as strongly as the young women who shaped it. Anna Timofeeva, Maria Chernobay and Diana Berezhenko are three like minded creatives who have established a new environment accented by artistic freedom. We spoke to them in the setting of Anna Timofeeva’s show ‘Alphabet Anatomy’ curated by the Pivot 7 team, and uncovered how they navigated their way as professionals.
Maria Chernobay and Diana Berezhenko of Pivot 7 (Photo: Anna Timofeeva)
Firstly, let's uncover how you met each other
Maria: Me and Diana, we met a long time ago, we had this idea, it came to us three years ago in a members club in Amsterdam, it made us think that we wanted to create our own community. Since then it really evolved into something completely different.
Diana: It grew into being a gallery (pop ups for now) and into being a more open creative space. And later on, last year I was at an Art Foundation College, and I met Anna, she was the only Russian person. We got along super fast, and I loved her artwork. She came to our house a few times, and then she started staying there all the time, and we were just constantly creating. Now we study in CSM together, and Maria goes to the Courtauld.
Where did the name Pivot 7 Club come from?
Diana: We wanted to have a strong name, and Pivot is the middle of something that radiates outwards. I think we're consumed by art, and we’re in the middle of it. We will be.
Where does Seven come from?
Maria: Seven is just a very lucky number.
There is an oversubscription of small businesses we are exposed to every day, I wondered how you approached this in terms of setting yourself apart from the competitors?
Maria: To be honest, I feel like when I'm in London, and when I'm in the art scene, it is often very overwhelming. And I think that in order to create something new, meaningful, and to have an impact on people's thoughts and people's perceptions, you sometimes need to close in on your own circle from the outside, and just get it from the inside. I like to think that this is also the best way not to copy. There are too many distractions in the outer world, so we need to stay focused.
Diana: So, I'd say that because we are a very small circle of three people right now, we just try to be us. I think it's not even about small businesses. It's just we do what we like, and we don't consider it as a business, more like an extension of ourselves.
At some point, it could be something big. We're just absolutely into what we’re doing. If someone tells me you have to come to the gallery at night, well, I’ll come. Pivot 7 is our child, it’s the most important thing right now.
I think authenticity as a young business person is so important, building an entrepreneurial mindset is a process of exposure.
Maria; We don't even consider it as a business again. It's just a lifestyle. Of course we would love to make a lot of money from it, but it’s not the primary reason. I just want to do things that I love and be able to make a living from it. I recently read this letter of Hunter S. Thompson, who was 22 years old at the time. He believes that most goals are altered along the way as one matures, he believes life is a choice. He talks about not fulfilling someone's expectations or trying to reach a certain point in your goals, and instead orientating your path alongside yourself, not through others. Pushing your own perspective, you know.
I think that was what we want to do with Pivot 7 Club is just follow our passion and desires. We don't really want to put a label on it.
Alphabet Anatomy (Photo: Anna Timofeeva)
Where did the idea for it to be a club come from?
Maria: I'd say that the exclusivity idea came from us, because we want to be around people that feel very comfortable. It can be a space to express your true self and your opinion as well. I want to be surrounded by people who don’t oblige to society’s norms and expectations. I want to be around people who are not afraid.
Diana: We're trying to be as slow as possible in terms of accepting new people, because we really want to find someone special. Most of the members that are coming in next September are artists that we're going to promote, and also people who have the same mentality.
Our exhibition Alphabet Anatomy is actually about expressing yourself not with words, but with your body, your intuition and with your feelings. So I'd say that the way we choose people, it's mostly intuition. There isn't a certain criteria for now. And we’d like to keep it this way for as long as we can. We’d like to keep it true.
The community you’re building radiates from you three, but you are giving back to Pivot 7 Club by way of taking people on, I think that’s great.
Where did the idea of incorporating performance come from?
Anna: I came up with the idea of performance. And I'm very grateful that Maria and Diana supported me. I think that performance art comes from my trauma, and trying to overcome it in a way. Our last performance was about living in London, and being in this society. (Walks away…)
Diana: Anna is our artist, she came up with the whole idea of our first performance. For now, her main mediums are photography and performance art. But much more is coming.
Can you talk a bit more about your recent performance ‘Circle’?
Maria: I think that the last performance differs a lot from this exhibition, because many people were involved. These are mostly people we found on Instagram, or our friends. We interviewed them, and figured out that they could be a part of this collaborative process. We had many rehearsals before the performance, which was a circle that involved everyone. It was very biblical as well. We were passing wine from mouth to mouth, and this represented blood.
In the scenario of the performance, there was also supposed to be the figure of God involved, a figure who would pour the wine into the mouths. However, the performer who was supposed to do it, refused to participate in the last moment. He just didn’t feel like it. We like to think that this is fate, and everything turned out to be even better. We can say that God left us in the moment we needed him, and we did everything by ourselves.
Diana: We wanted to portray how people interact and exchange energy with each other, this is the main concept of the circle. One person gets kicked out of the circle after I think seven circles if they refuse to drink the wine. We wanted to portray how people who refuse to share certain interests or opinions can get kicked out of the social circle, If they don't conform. I think that says a lot about our family in general. It's a safe space to explore. it was fun.
Circle Performance by Pivot 7 Club (Photo: Diana Berezhenko)
What are the main obstacles you face as young curators?
Maria: Well, first of all. I'll start by performance. It was very hard for us to get the space, they refused to give it to us for some time, because we're unknown and we want to do big things straight away, that's one of the things that is very hard.
Diana: Another problem is sometimes you start speaking to people, and you explain what you do, the projects we do, and our vision, it’s easy to feel talked down to. Because we are young girls and are often not being taken seriously. But it’s not really a problem for us. Maybe it’s even better this way, for now.
Maria: But I'm very happy that we started this young. I'm 20, Diana is 19 and Anna is 19 as well. We're in our first course in university. And I'd say that this is the best time to start doing something. Because by the end, I feel like we will figure out a lot more things, and have a lot of experience. You need to start from scratch and I think the best way to do it is to start by yourself.
What are your plans for the future? A year down the line, where will you all be?
Maria: In terms of the future, I think we see ourselves as a very large community of people around the world. We don't want to stop at London. I think we're going to go to L.A. and New York this summer. We're going to see what we can do there as well, and invite people from there to us, to collaborate. We’d also like to build art residencies.
Next year, we are planning many new things. We are very inspired by the feedback we got after these few events and want to keep going like never before. We have many things we need to say.
We want to be a very influential group of people that creates and promotes art.