siberian
fountain
It
could well be that fountains become the symbol of Krasnoyarsk. The building of
fountains has been the current mayor's policy in recent years. In an amazingly
short time, here and there, smaller or larger, fountains have appeared on Krasnoyarsk
streets. People even joke that it looks like Krasnoyarsk is running for having
"The City of Fountains" as it's title.
Thinking
of fountains came to my mind when I was attending the opening of a young artists
exhibition held in the halls of the Russian Union of Artists. It was like a joyful
and colorful fountain of creativity that broke though after the long pressure
of winter. It's not often that about 70 artists at once bring their works to an
exhibition place.
One hall of the young artists exhibition
The event was a themed
curated show, something different from what had taken
place before, as the Krasnoyarsk chairman of the Union of Artists Sergej Anufriev
commented in his opening speech. The curator was a young artist and the chairman
of young artists section of the Union of Artists (Krasnoyarsk Division), Oleg
Ponomarev. I talked to him to try and understand what is happening in the organization
and how they understand curated exhibitions.
Oleg
told me that the past exhibitions were held as if on behalf of the organization.
Now, the curator not only enables the exhibition through project management work,
but also takes on the responsibility for the content, i.e. compiles the exhibition
according to the discretion of the curator. This approach had a dramatic influence
on the content of the show, and sometimes led to conflicts with artists who wanted
to take part in the event. For example, Oleg mentioned that he had to refuse works
by his own friend because the works failed to conform with one of the principles
of the exhibition. He argued that the artworks should be logically connected and
not just show what each artist was good at.
Not
long ago I wrote about public control over art exhibition in Siberia. The result
of the questioning was that the kind of external control that originated from
a public or municipal body, was very poor here. Instead, there exists a kind of
internal censorship that is less seen but rather strong. I would call this internal
censorship a psychological phenomenon that is a mixture of educationally acquired
standards and fears of the "what people will say?" kind. The exhibition of young
artists provided a couple of examples of what I was talking about.
I visited the exhibition when it
was being set up, and the first thing I saw from the entrance was "Transformation",
a large collage by Maxim Sharaev.
Transformation
by Maxim Sharaev
One
end of the row in "Transformation" has a portrait of Andy Warhol, and another
row end has an image of Adolf Hitler. A banana was introduced as a symbol of art,
of spiritual and intellectual life that becomes more empty and disintegrated the
closer to the aggressive pole of power we are.
Independently
of what concept the artist wanted to present, the very image of Hitler became
a problem. WW II and its symbols are a very important part of the mentality of
contemporary Russians. That's not surprising if one takes into consideration the
20 million former Soviet Union citizens that died during the war. There were quite
heavy discussions about the participation of "Transformation" in the exhibition
and serious doubts were expressed. The work produces quite a strong impression
because of the Hitler image, and this all happened around the 9th of May, Victory
Day... Still, despite the uncertainties "Transformation" was included in the exposition.
An artwork by curator Oleg Ponomarev
had quite a different fate. To give an idea of the work, below is the first image
of the installation. Altogether there were 7 images, titled "Story of a horizontal
line".
Story of a horizontal
line, photograph, computer design, by Oleg Ponomarev
(partial view of installation)
The
images were intended to tell a story in which a man (Oleg himself acted as the
model) who was not satisfied with the size of his penis, speculated on the possible
use of the organ and finally decided to paint a picture using it. The installation
ends with a really small oil, created with this method, that consists of a horizontal
line.
Oleg
considered the work to be quite good and profound, but after some hesitation decided
to remove it from the show before the opening. The reason for the removal: he
had to take into account that he was not only an artist but also a responsible
representative of the organization. Could he successfully resolve organizational
issues, which involved liaison with local government functionaries, when he publicly
exhibited work that showed him naked and manipulating his penis? The question
had no answer. There had not been a similar work against which to judge. So, it
was the fear of encountering silent reluctance in public officials that played
the main role in making the decision to withdraw the work.
Well, anyway, the artistic life
of Krasnoyarsk sparkles and springs, and gives food for thought.
Vladimir Gavrikov
gavrikov@online.ru
