moscow art
critic andrey kovalev
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Avalakiteshvara's Mantra and its Revolutionary Essence. The idea of the project under an extremely original and fresh name "Art Belongs to People" (the curators are Rostislav Yegorov, Aristarch Chernyshov, Angelina Panova) is to present on the advertising boards, given by the agency "Akzent Media Russia", specially pre-pared works by modern artists to a wide audience who does not have the slightest notion about what is goingon.The boards are situated in the following places: Myasnitskaya 39, Myasnitskaya 43, "Krasnoselskaya" Underground Station, "Tretyakovskaya" Underground Station, Vasilievsky Spusk, Trubnaya Ploshchad, Kursky Railway Station, Sushchiovsky Val. The idea is nothing new at all. Last year during the Russian-Dutch project "EXCHANGE" Alexei Shulgin already used an advertising board to place a large photo of beggars. However one cannot but admit that the scene for social activity has been chosen correctiy. On semantic fields of new Russia advertising has replaced political agitation and Propaganda , though during the past decades of the Soviet regime political agitation and Propaganda clearly demonstrated a degenerated and utterly automated structure in the zone of complete indistingtion. A specific feature of modern Russian advertising is that it can in no way become an automated method , but arouses vital human feelings as political agitation and propaganda did this before. In worldly aspect our artists shall be bound to give up elite alienation and enter advertising and design business. In the catalogue of the project its main task is detemined as "expropriation of new territories of art", which suspiciously resembles assimilation of the feats of the revolutionary group ETI (i.e. - expropriation of the territories of art) under the leadership of comrade Osmolovsky. Because of this revolutionary character of the project as an aesthetic category is somehow applied. Early revolutioniers executed their provocative and terrorist actions without preliminary agreement with the representatives of exploiting class. So a new phase of revolutionary movement has come; petty hooliganism of former years has become a thing of the past, and sound revolutionary cynicism allows nowadays strategic collaboration with mechanisms of bourgeois suppression. Only after having intruded like a computer virus onto mass communications channels a modern artist can be fulfilled with a lofty zeal of destruction. In this context even absolutely formal ideas can appear to be in fact actions of concealment which demoralizes and disorients the enemy. For example, the table for eyesight checking by Alexander Sigutin which is supposed to establish positive values, or Avalakiteshvara's mantra (Sv. Ponomaryov and Michael Cherepanov) which is being produced at Kursky Railway Station. "OM MANI PADME HOOM" on the advertising board will undoubtedly "force people to love the modern art as strongly as recently they have already fallen in love with American chicken hams and vodka "Rasputin" (a quotation from press-release). By the way , the most part of actual advertising is absolutely absurd and disorienting. But most of all we are interested in a direct political effect which was demonstrated by metaphysical D.A.Prigov with a tear over a newspaper "Segodnya" as well as by the tenderest Alexander Petlyura who has created a large production photo composition by themes of works by people's artist Glasunov. But only the classicists of the genre - Konstantin Zvezdochiotov and Oleg Kulik displayed their will for true political terrorism and provocation . Having appeared before appreciative passers-by in the form of Lev Trotsky and Adolf Shiklgruber with a watermelon in his hands Zvezdochiotov made rather an uncouraging claim - "I am not the nation's Apostle" - which bears witness to defeatist frame of mind. On the contrary, Kulik exhibited right on Vasilievsky Slope his preelection poster with his wise and demonic face decorated with small shining Moses' horns. Having turned out to a beast, or rather a God of beasts, Kulik is being engaged to the promotion of himself for the post of the President of Russia from the Party of Animals. As always he was a great success, but his lofty ethical zeal was misunderstood. So the defender and lawyer of fauna was taken for a petty evil spirit and his unforgettable face was painted over with a black paint. A group of bureaucrat artists from Moscow Government took responsibility for the action. |
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Andey Kovalev - [email protected], [email protected] |