Wanderlust Exhibition Rethinks How We Move Through Aberdeen
This new multi-format art show comes from two of Scotland’s most interesting artists.
It’s easy to take your own city for granted. But a new exhibition at kooperator.space, running from 30 August to 28 September, invites you to experience Aberdeen differently, through sound, touch, and unplanned paths. Artists Olesya Ilenok and Andrey Chugunov are using sensors, clay, and audio to offer a more instinctive, less literal way of mapping a place.
At Wanderlust, opening later this month, the city becomes something to feel your way through rather than just observe. The two East Kilbride artists have each taken a distinct approach to exploring Aberdeen, but they share a common interest in movement, memory, and sensory response.
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Listening to the surfaces
Olesya Ilenok has been collecting clay imprints from buildings and pavements across the city. These surface textures form the basis of a sound installation that merges ceramics with audio technology. The result is part sculpture, part listening space, shaped by the city itself.
Her approach sits somewhere between urban archaeology and sonic art. The work invites you to slow down and pay closer attention to the surfaces that usually go unnoticed.
Mapping without directions
Andrey Chugunov took to the streets with a self-built sensor device. It tracked his movement and collected environmental data, which he then reworked into an abstract audio-visual installation. The datawas translated into sound and visual layers using VR and multi-channel audio.
He also weaves in research on the oil industry’s presence in the city, blending everyday observations with historical and industrial context. It’s not a literal map, but is something more symbolic of a living city.
A different kind of space
The exhibition is hosted by kooperator.space, an artist-run venue based in a former shopping unit in the Academy Centre. It’s a low-key but growing presence in Aberdeen’s creative scene, and well-suited to the kind of experimental work that Wanderlust presents.
Opening night is on 29 August. The exhibition runs until 28 September with weekend hours and weekday visits available by appointment. If you’re someone who moves through Aberdeen often but sees it less and less, this might be one way to look again.
