The "Spring" installation was created as part of the "Tale of Golden Apples" public art program for the city of Almetyevsk, Republic of Tatarstan, developed by the bureau "Nov." The architect behind the "Spring" installation is Maria Guseva.
The sculpture "Spring" is made from natural, and most importantly, local "Chupaevsky limestone," formed millions of years ago in the location of an ancient sea. During the construction of the new city of Almetyevsk in the 1950s, cubes of this stone were used to build the first school in the city. In our days, with the school reconstructed and redesigned, the stones have received a second life — they have become a part of the art installation. At the installation site, there is indeed a spring used by the residents of the neighborhood.
2022. Ferment Reverse Drift. Unpacking and Absorption
About this project The project "Reverse Drift" is a reference to situationism and the texts of Guy Debord, primarily his essay "Mode d'emploi du détournement" (A User's Guide to Détournement). Since the writing of these manifestos, "drift" as a form of artistic intervention has become a widely practiced method of the artist interacting with the surrounding reality during the era of modernism. Nowadays, both modernist and modernist ideas raise ethical and aesthetic questions.
The "Reverse Drift" project involves copies and plaster casts of classical sculptures covered with snails. Each version of this site-specific project has its differences related to the exhibition space, the temporal and historical context, lighting, or the season.
In Yerevan, educational casts from the Academy of Arts of Armenia were used, along with furniture and accessories from the legendary Armenian film studio Armenfilm. The appearance of these elements, sculptural busts, and factory furniture, as signs of urban civilization, occurred in the 19th century. During this time, ferments were deposited on all continents, and roots of mass culture sprouted, on which we now base our society. Coffee in cafes, gothic noir, and horror genres, characters from Homer's epics, relaxation in armchairs, and discussions about the philosophy of the national—popular music and landscape genre—all these, and perhaps some other elements, are embedded in the installation's components. The barrel organ, the wide "Eastern" tray, the local form of the basket, and finally, handwritten numbers on the windows 1828. The year when the fortress of Yerevan was taken by Count Paskevich. Objects are placed at large distances from each other, and the viewer wanders among them, immersing themselves in that very "drift."
However, the artistic intervention ends with departure and disappearance. The spiral of any process, like the spiral of a snail, can be unraveled and rolled back. Civilization and culture, ultimately tie back to humans. Anthropocene has existed for only 20-30 centuries, which is nothing compared to the millions of years during which the biosphere developed. And the practice of "détournement" turns out to be accessible not only to humans but also to gastropods.
2022. Ferment Dartington Reverse Drift. Unpacking and Absorption
About this project The project "Reverse Drift" is a reference to situationism and the texts of Guy Debord, primarily his essay "Mode d'emploi du détournement" (A User's Guide to Détournement). Since the writing of these manifestos, "drift" as a form of artistic intervention has become a widely practiced method of the artist interacting with the surrounding reality during the era of modernism. Nowadays, both modernist and modernist ideas raise ethical and aesthetic questions.
The "Reverse Drift" project involves copies and plaster casts of classical sculptures covered with snails. Each version of this site-specific project has its differences related to the exhibition space, the temporal and historical context, lighting, or the season.
However, the artistic intervention ends with departure and disappearance. The spiral of any process, like the spiral of a snail, can be unraveled and rolled back. Civilization and culture, ultimately tie back to humans. Anthropocene has existed for only 20-30 centuries, which is nothing compared to the millions of years during which the biosphere developed. And the practice of "détournement" turns out to be accessible not only to humans but also to gastropods.
The project "Department of Approvals" brings together fragments of gypsum statues, semi-transparent amber, and details of XIX-century office furniture. The installation immerses viewers in the realm of complex administrative decisions that preceded the installation of any monument in St. Petersburg throughout the centuries.
The recommended prescription, informative in nature, and necessary approvals represent the "soft power" in cultural policy for several centuries. The project is inspired by the 19th century when each of the active units in this bureaucratic process – the artist and the official – first acquired a relatively independent public status, and their interaction became strictly regulated.
2022. Landscape in Sculpture
In Russian sculpture from the second half of the 20th to the beginning of the 21st century, alongside its traditional genres such as portrait, figure, and genre composition, still life and landscapes, previously mainly represented in painting and drawing, are increasingly emerging. Moreover, landscape in sculpture doesn't only exist on the relief surface; it actively extends into space and explores volumetric compositions. Contemporary sculptors, more and more frequently turning to the landscape genre, find various plastic interpretations, ranging from classical depictions of landscapes or urban environments to abstract compositions or installations.
The exhibition brought together around 130 works from the collection of the Russian Museum and private collections. Alongside sculptural pieces and numismatic samples, the exhibition featured paintings dedicated to the depiction of sculpture in the landscape.
The exhibition showcased the two-sided relief "Lakhta-Ohta" (2017). The object represents two locations associated with the design of the first skyscraper in St. Petersburg. Ohta, the first location, was influenced by the impact of the city's community, and "Lakhta," where the 400-meter building was erected.
2021. Memorial sign to the Kronstadt Uprising of 1921
In March 1921, the Kronstadt Rebellion occurred. Sailors of the Baltic Fleet, residents of the fortress city, and soldiers stationed at the forts of the Gulf of Finland rose against the Bolshevik policies of war communism and forced requisitioning. Throughout March, the island city resisted, repelling several assaults. However, the opposing forces were uneven, and after several days of street fighting, Kronstadt fell. Each day of that month was filled with tragic events. One significant episode was the exodus of 8,000 participants of the uprising across the ice to Finland. Sailors, officers, and their family members left the shores of Fort Rif, the last defense point.
The memorial is placed on the northern shore at the exact location of Kronstadt residents' departure onto the ice, and its main axis is oriented toward the opposite shore. The artwork is assembled from "found objects," fragments of welded rails, and perforated metal discovered during restoration work at the fort. Figures 1, 9, 2, and 1 are cut into the frontal plane of each element.
The authenticity of the found objects and the historical accuracy of the installation site on the shore of Fort Rif require no additional explanations, textual details, or narrative elements.
2021. The Pavlovian Session
Music: Dmitry Shubin. Libretto: Pavel Ignatiev. Soloists: Anton Morozov, Svetlana Arzumanova, Vadim Tarakanov, Ekaterina Lopatina. Recording, mixing: Dmitry Shubin. Saint Petersburg.
Historical background: The Pavlovian Session was a joint session of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences held in Moscow from June 28 to July 4, 1950. Additionally, it included a combined meeting of the extended presidium of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences and the Plenum of the All-Union Society of Neuropathologists and Psychiatrists, held from October 11 to 15, 1951.
These sessions were organized to combat Western European and American influence on Soviet physiology and psychiatry. During the sessions, a group of Pavlov's disciples, known as "Soviet physiologists" (K. M. Bykov, A. G. Ivanov-Smolensky, E. Sh. Ayrapetyants, I. P. Razenkov, and E. A. Asratyan), criticized another group of Pavlov's disciples (L. A. Orbeli, A. D. Speransky, I. S. Beritashvili, P. K. Anokhin, L. S. Stern), accusing them of deviating from I. P. Pavlov's teachings. As a result of the sessions, Soviet physiology became isolated from the international scientific community, institutes and laboratories were liquidated, and the development of genetics, psychology, and psychiatry was significantly slowed down.
The project is an international collective of artists exploring the world of dreams. The result of two performances held in St. Petersburg in the summer of 2021 is the film "Big Dream".
The performances featured composer and musician Dmitry Shubin, singer Sainkho Namchylak, and sculptor Pavel Ignatiev. Video and cinematography were carried out by the camera team led by Pavel Matchikhin. The film includes not only excerpts from the performances and the preparation process but also the mapping procedure of their dreams.
The DREAM MAPPING PROJECT is a collaboration between dream historian Dr. Kelly Bulkley and artist-researcher Alisa Minyukova. The project's idea is to unite the science of dreams with creative practices such as dance, sculpture, music, and reading. Through this collaborative effort, a language of dreams is revealed, providing access to Carl Jung's collective unconscious. Ancestral memory and experiences shared by all of humanity are tapped into through this exploration.
2021. "Sacred Grove of Socialism". Public Art in Razliv
The aesthetics of the Soviet state, despite its all-encompassing regulation and the measured use of colors and symbols depending on the rank of the subject, represents a sealed phenomenon. An ideological entity in itself, a closed system resistant to external unprepared understanding.
Flags of the republics within the USSR were developed by special committees, and numerous variations of proportions and color combinations were discussed by higher/lower authorities. However, today, applying any knowledge, neither logically nor intuitively, can determine which specific territory corresponds to a particular combination of color stripes. The recent past turns out to be encrypted without the possibility of breaking the code.
2019. Cassandra. No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference
"No one is too small to change the world" – words by Greta Thunberg, an environmental activist. Six months before gaining worldwide fame, she began skipping school as a protest against the environmental indifference of adults. However, Greta is not the first schoolgirl-environmentalist, not the first "Cassandra" warning about catastrophe. Nevertheless, the global media picked up and elevated this particular girl to top news. The strength of the weak, the voice of the voiceless, intertwines with the myth of "celebrities for 15 minutes." The spotlight is so bright, and the rage is so furious that we fail to notice the genuine warning of Cassandra.
2019. Clay Flag
When working on a project, the place in which it is to be presented invariably forms a key starting point. I endeavor to build upon my impressions of this place, with my art being the result of deliberation on a specific situation or problem which interests me. My installations, such as Thalassocracy, Reverse Drift, or Macrostudies were created as site-specific objects. They invariably incorporate sculpture and found objects. All of them were connected to the places in which they were shown, be they the Baltic Sea, a museum for students, or a scientific conference at the Hermitage.
As I was considering what to do for Flag, I came to realize that I had to use clay. I believe it to be the main sculptural material. It is malleable, natural, and capable of conveying any meaning. This 'earthenware flag' had to represent the Platonic idea of a flag. In reality, we are incapable of truly thinking about a flag at all. Only the viewer can apply their own definitive and personal meaning to it. Only the viewer can decide whether it is a flag signifying surrender or victory, whether it is a flag of a nation or a sporting competition.
As I conduct this 6−8-hour performance with clay, I continuously include elements of improvisation and free maneuvering as and when they arise in a moment of spontaneously creating the work in question. The script for the performance is always open-ended.
The clay I am accustomed to working with within St Petersburg is green in color. It was procured during the construction of the deepest metro system in the world and is of ancient geological origin. It is on this clay foundation that the entire former capital of Russia was constructed.
I was surprised to find that the clay used by sculptors in Indiana is dark brown. The color came to signify a new kind of freedom, a new location-specific feature. A challenge had been issued to me. Complex associations and reflections already arise within you, as the viewer. Conversely, I, as the artist, the creator, who merely formed part of the performative process, created the spaces.
Before my eyes flickered a series of images: timber walls of shingled houses, water--filled and frozen gullies with broken cobs of corn, white pyramids on church towers, the leather of bar couches, old barns, factory managers' desks, professors' offices, the brown earth of Indiana, and the snowstorm which delayed my flight from Chicago by a day.
Proportions, light, and the equipment at sculptural workshops all made a big impression on me.
2019. Vous sortez du secteur américain
The project "You are leaving the American sector" was presented at the "Digital Gonzaga" competition (Digital Opera2.0 Festival). The premiere took place at the Hermitage Theater on November 9, 2019.
Press release: Baroque-era opera is filled with allegorical plots related to current events. Theatrical premieres were always timed to celebrate historical dates—coronations, victories, or the birth of heirs. In our performance, we will travel back 30-50 years, to the divided Berlin of the 20th century, and observe how events would unfold in baroque settings. We will witness the destruction of the Wall on November 9, 1989.
2019. Lens (Mactostudies-2)
Cyberfest Project "LINZA" (Mactostudies-2). The first version of the project was presented at the State Hermitage Museum (General Staff) during the Intellectual Marathon "Passions for Piero della Francesca."
"LINZA" is a continuation of visual reflections on the hypothetical nature of research approaches to art. "Macrohistories" are contrasted with "microhistories," a method associated with the names of Giovanni Levi and Carlo Ginzburg. Microhistory is characterized by attention to detail. From trivia and "private cases," complex constructions of anthropological plots emerge, adding new accents to our understanding of the surrounding world. Details taken from the works of Piero della Francesca: beads, hat, egg, horn, and column are executed excessively large compared to the originals. Perhaps something similar happens in the minds of scientists when they construct a "Magic" lens in their consciousness. Enlarging objects to a hypertrophied size, they endlessly focus on a specific question, losing connections with reality and reaching the limit of art historical research. A trap, a dead end that any detailing of knowledge eventually falls into when it becomes impossible to say anything for sure. Pavel Ignatev, Natalia Shapkina. CYFEST-12
2019. Cement Operetta
"Cement Operetta" "The Lookout" (Kronstadt, Fort Konstantin). Engaging in the history of early types of cement, I spent a lot of time in archives. Studying archival documents, I discovered that in the 19th century, there were years when all the cement produced by all the factories of the Russian Empire went into the construction of Kronstadt structures. This means that many projects of palaces and other buildings were never seen in their completed form. For the installation, I also created a remix of Johann Strauss's operetta "Der lustige Krieg" ("The Merry War"). The operetta, in which no one is at war, yet there is enough of the bloodless military crimes that used to amuse everyone in comedies – looting, kidnapping women, unlawful detention. Meanwhile, the regiments are commanded by Duchess Artemisia and Countess Violetta. «THE LOOKOUT»
2019. Macrostudies. Macrostories
Pavel Ignatev's installation is an ironic reflection on research approaches in art. "Macrohistories" are contrasted with "microhistories," a method associated with the names of Giovanni Levi and Carlo Ginzburg. Microhistory involves attention to details akin to a good microscope, where seemingly insignificant elements begin to illuminate an unseen layer of reality. From these minutiae and "private cases," a kind of anthropological narrative emerges, adding new and significant accents to our understanding of larger social processes.
2019. The awarding ceremony named after Sergey Kuryokhin
Kurekhin's head - a multimedia, interactive project-video, sculpture, online broadcast. The author of the idea is Fedor Kurekhin.
2019. Epic Fail.
Curator and idea author - St. Petersburg sculptor Pavel Ignatiev, gathered "difficult" works that the authors themselves consider unsuccessful for various reasons. Artists Ivan Govorkov, Alexander Dashevsky, Nadya Zubareva, Vera Martynov, Vitaly Pushnitsky, Olga Tobreluts, Sergey Filatov, Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai, and others decided to showcase (and tell) their "failures," which, in one way or another, became "transitional"
and decisive for their creators.
In 1839, the famous Karl Bryullov, starting to work on the painting "The Siege of Pskov by Polish King Stefan Batory," assumed that this epic work would become a new "Pompeii." Having recently received the "Golden Medal" in Paris and inspired by success, he sought a new inspiring plot. After failing to depict scenes from European national histories, Bryullov turned to descriptions of the Russo-Livonian War of the 16th century.
The Siege of Pskov was a significant event in the era of Ivan the Terrible. Pskov was a large fortified city. One of the participants from the besieging side, Abbot Piotrovsky, wrote: "We admire Pskov. Lord, what a big city! Like Paris. Help us, God, to deal with it."
However, unlike the real, triumphantly captured Paris by Bryullov, the picturesque victory over the "Northern Paris" did not happen. After many attempts to create a large painting, a "grand penture," the maestro retreated. The new Pompeii did not happen. The canvas was not destroyed but left unfinished by Bryullov.
This grand failure has always interested me. The case of the "Siege of Pskov" was an example where the theme, skill, and expectations of the era seemed to contribute to the birth of a masterpiece, but an Epic Fail occurred.
Can this historical episode shed light on understanding the life of a modern artist? Or is it all in the past? And now, artists have various stimulating procedures, from meditative practices to books on creativity development and seminars on stepping out of the comfort zone, at their disposal. Can gallery owners, curators, or experts guide talent in a "positive direction"?
But perhaps the artist's path is always years of constant failures, erroneous experiments, unconvincing projects, among which singular masterpieces emerge. There are not many of them in the end, but it is precisely by them, like peaks, that we judge the talent, precision, and depth of the author. A few successful ones launch the process of validating the entire remaining portfolio.
By inviting artists to choose and exhibit, from their perspective, their unsuccessful work, curators took risks. Firstly, we received negative responses, and there were many (we were prepared for that), and secondly, we could have received an exhibition space for a "collective drain." (Spoiler - it didn't happen.)
One of the participation conditions was a mandatory author's text from the artist. Because only the author can tell what constitutes the failure of the painting, object, or film. It was not easy to verbalize, but the result exceeded expectations. Unlike many texts from contemporary authors that provide a fuzzy commentary, widely open to various interpretations, the texts for Epic Fail are maximally localized and always tell about something specific, punctual, and singular.
In the art space of the Gromov Cultural Center, works from different historical periods were placed side by side. Traugot's graphics is a microdrama from the closed world of brilliant Leningrad illustrators. Govorkov presents to the wider public for the first time a series of paintings "The Ulyanov Family" - art of reconstruction, fixing the collapse of artistic consciousness in an era of change.
Tobreluts's silent film started in the 1990s as a sign of powerless anticipation of the new digital revolution.
Pushnitsky's painting is the 21st century, where painting continues to die, but already on each individual easel, in each individual workshop. The author realizes that failure is not just mixed in the paint but seems to be woven into the threads of the canvas.
And finally, the future is presented by the exhibitor of the Venice Biennale, Shishkin-Hokusai, acting in an uncharacteristic role - the author of an oil painting.
In our project, artistic technologies (and practices) are replaced by others - performance is replaced by text (Martynov-Kokhanov), an interior detail can be a pictorial object, and, as it turns out, the cause of the author's failed death (Dashevsky). The catastrophic disruption of the manufacturing technology of the sculpture does not deprive it of the properties of "sculpturality" (Novikov).
Epic Fail happened to everyone, and Epic Fail took place as a project. The text must be concluded with Arnold Schwarzenegger's eighth rule: "I'm not afraid to make mistakes." He follows this point literally, not just avoiding mistakes but intentionally making them in every film. The exhibition took place at the Gromov Cultural Center from February to April 2019.
The author raises questions about form, exploring processes occurring in the modern museum space.
The space provided for the project is a monumental enclosed ring of halls. Moving through them, you lose your understanding of your precise location and the structure itself—where is the real center? Where is the middle, where is the main point on this interrupted circle? The project's title refers to situationism, to the texts of Guy Debord, especially "Derives A User's Guide."
Since the writing of these manifestos, "drift" as a form of artistic intervention has become one of the common practices of interaction between the contemporary author and the surrounding reality.
In the "Reverse Drift" project, replicas of classical sculptures such as "Homer," "Boy on a Dolphin," "Hermes," "Princess," "Vespasian," and others are proposed to be placed in several halls of the Museum of Plaster Casts. The sculptures undergo a dual impact—they simultaneously duplicate the presented museum exemplars, but also experience "traumatization" by snails crawling on their surfaces. The author's object also centers the museum's exposition with its point of attraction—glass cubes in showcases—into which snails crawl, returning in groups and forming hemispheres. The artistic intervention ends with a flight, an outcome. Indeed, the spiral of any process, like the winding of a snail, can unwind and wind up in both directions. Now the museum is losing not only the function of a tool for exploring classical heritage but, following this, the wow effect of artistic intervention is also disappearing.
2018. UNGARISCHE CALENDARISCHE
Buek, translated from Hungarian, means "Happy New Year." Reflections on Hungarian advertising calendars by Alexandra Generalova, "Marginal Design."
The collection of advertising calendars by St. Petersburg sculptor Pavel Ignatiev dates back to 1982 in Hungary. It's a country we don't know well, and that's a shame. There, people joyfully drank Pepsi, fitness model Ika Biro advertised the lottery and smoked sausage, and women in mini-shorts danced among colorful lights. The advertising imagery in Hungary in 1982 was closer to American than Soviet. In the Soviet Union, they also produced advertising calendars, often in large quantities. The leader in this field was Gossstrakh. Citizens were offered life insurance, child insurance, home insurance, and insurance for weddings - to save up for a decent wedding for a daughter or son. The images on Soviet calendars were dull. A girl diligently played the piano, a woman diligently cooked lunch, and a family diligently relaxed in armchairs with a newspaper. People didn't look into the camera, didn't smile with an advertising smile, and didn't sell anything. Naturally, in the Soviet year of 1982, there were no bikini models or explicit poses; sexual imagery only emerged in 1987-89. The most glamorous advertising on calendars at that time was for the "Berezka" currency network, but even there, the girls and boys were focused, sad, and seemingly on alert. Calendars advertised domestic services, clothing stores, cars, televisions, and jewelry. They promoted products but not a lifestyle. Hungarian calendars are not about lemonade but about how a cute, smiling girl enjoys it and savors the day.
2018. Lyubov Kholina. Severe Plastic. To the 100th Anniversary of the Sculptor
The Fyodor Dostoevsky Monument near the Vladimir Cathedral is familiar to every city resident. However, the sculptor behind the monument, Lyubov Kholina (1918-1998), is known only to connoisseurs of genuine sculpture.
The image of the writer is a recurring theme in the work of this remarkable sculptor. Kholina's childhood in places associated with Dostoevsky's characters inspired her to create a clear and concise representation. The first sketch of the monument was made in 1958, and after 30 years, Kholina's project won a competition.
The monument was unveiled in 1997, and over the decades, the sculptor continued to refine her concept. It has become a part of the city environment, serving as a landmark, meeting place, and attracting attention from different eras.
Kholina, a notable representative of the "Matveevskaya school" (studied at the Repin Institute from 1939-1947), managed to develop her own rigorous artistic language. Her creative thinking is rooted in the tragic experience of the blockade of Leningrad in 1941-1942, where she lost her mother and sister. Works like "Leningrad Women," "White Night," and "On the Trenches," created in the late '60s and early '70s, express the idea of women and war through silhouettes resembling anti-tank pyramids, ruins of bombed houses, or mirages of pre-war memories.
The exhibition showcases graphics, small sculptures, and Dostoevsky monument projects from the family collection. Additionally, sculptures and graphic sheets, along with newspaper publications, are presented from the State Museum of Urban Sculpture archives.
2018. Heliopolis. Performance
The "Heliopolis" project was conceived and realized for the "Protoart" improvisational art festival. The theme of simultaneous concerts, performances, and installations was the modern city. I viewed my performance as a critical exploration of the idea of the "ideal city," a central myth in the history of urban planning. Through an opening in the center of the table, the performer emerged through a layer of clay and began sculpting the perfect layout. A projector and video camera were attached to the "builder's" helmet, capturing all clay-related actions on a large screen. The resulting imagery resembled scenes from the game "Minecraft," perhaps the most recognizable contemporary "construction game."
2018. REVISION
The project "Revision" was presented at the group exhibition "About Zin, You Are the World" (curated by Lizaveta Matveeva). In the halls of the library dedicated to book graphics, an archive of Leningrad adolescent art from the Perestroika period (1988-1991) was displayed.
The exhibition featured collages, handwritten journals such as "Tanker," "Bright Path," "Vacuum," black-and-white films shot on 8mm film, audio recordings of music groups "Konets Operatsii Rezident" and "Psihadelic Pops."
2017. Thallasocracy
Waterfront is an exhibition that is part of the larger project "Ecology and Culture - Strengthening Cooperation between Northern Countries and Russia in Environmental Protection."
Organizers: Danish Cultural Institute and Street Art Research Institute.
In the "Colossus" project, the author explores the relationship between the Creator and the Statue. Focusing on the process of shaping between light and shadow, the interaction of applying soft clay, and the oscillation of the elastic metallic framework.
2017. Studio With No Artist
On the four floors of the museum, the viewers could see more than 200 works created by 5 generations of the artists of our family. Hardly could one imagine that the paintings, sculptures, drawings, tapestries, and other works could have been made without any human interference.
Nowadays AI, neural networks, and robots are changing life before our own eyes, which seems to provide us with unlimited opportunities for creation.
In 2015, I visited a stone-cutting manufacturer in France. All major work there was done by robots. The machines cut Greek kouroi, gothic chimeras, and nymphs of the Versailles. The sculptor's service was needed only in the end: to fix accidental manufacturing defects. However, despite the excessive accuracy and high production speed, inconceivable by humans, these items were not beautiful. Neither did they inspire nor impress. By looking at them, one could not experience the so-called catharsis. It turned out that robotic works were only needed by robots.
The object "Studio With No Artist" tells us about the possible future of the world where a human is only a bystander who accidentally entered the workshop. Robotic art needs neither the human creator nor the human viewer.
2017. Intervention
Solo exhibition. 50 objects Erarta Museum of Contemporary Art, St. Petersburg, Russia
2017. Kiefer-Khlebnikov-Dürer. Performance
The Dürer-Kiefer-Khlebnikov Project.
Ideas that concerned me in this performance: Where do works of art or works of Culture in general take place? In Dürer's engraving, a German artist and a symbol of German culture frequently referenced by Kiefer, Saint Jerome is depicted. He was a Bible translator, the patron saint of all translators worldwide.
How is he depicted by Dürer? In a secluded, quiet space, sitting at a table. The entire classical culture envisioned a place where texts are produced in this manner. Khlebnikov, a futurist poet of the 20th century, works quite differently — he writes while moving on trains, between the front lines of the Civil War. He types his manuscripts on pillows. Leaving the train at the stations, he could forget his poems or research. Not only the conditions for creating texts change. Khlebnikov leaves the further existence of literature open to the public. Someone may throw away the pillows, burn them, or preserve them. In Jerome's room, the pillows lie on a bench, possibly as symbols of rest and sleep, as signs of the opposite of conscious activity. Kiefer notices the pillow as an important element and incorporates its image into his paintings-objects. There is another difference between the figures of Khlebnikov and Jerome — the medieval writer knew many languages and translated the universal book, the Bible. Khlebnikov did not know any foreign languages but created a universal language consisting of spatial concepts.
In our time, the place of production of a work can be anything. In the classical case, sculpture was produced in the studio and then, bypassing various instances, both expert and physical, such as rigging, it enters the museum. Following Khlebnikov's practices, my project shows another path — objects are created in the main museum, the Hermitage, and after the end of the performance, they don't remain anywhere. In the performance, I recreate the interior of Dürer's engraving, replicating the design and arrangement of the benches. I sculpt pillows, wrapping them in vintage magazines. China, America, the Soviet Union, Korea, England — bundles of periodical propaganda or chronicles of the 20th century. After the performance, all objects were destroyed. However, a significant portion of the magazines (as well as my Kiefer catalog) did not return to me but were dispersed by different people, and the texts, like Khlebnikov's manuscripts, began some unknown life for the artist. I also envisioned such a fate for the magazines in the project. Pavel Ignatev
2016. Why Stasov? Performance
From the history of Russian culture, we know two Vladimir Vasilievich Stasovs (1824-1906). The Stasov of the 19th century was a radical opponent of international academism and neoclassicism, while the Stasov of the 20th century was a phantom predictor of socialist realism.
Is it possible to envision Stasov as a relevant figure in 2016? On the night of June 10-11.2016, sculptor Pavel Ignatev conducted a performance recreation.
2014. Memorial sign to the Russian philosopher Mikhail Bakunin
