Amnesia -- anamnesis -- archetype

The theme of war in the interpretation of the 21st century

Of the numerous exhibitions about the war, two were especially memorable. They opened on the same day. And they form a common diptych. The first is “Art at War” in the new exhibition center “Project Factory”. The second is “1418 days” in the halls of the Moscow House of Photography. Strong teams of curators worked on both (“the foreman” at MDF was Olga Sviblova, at “Factory” - Elena Kuprina). Both exhibitions were designed by excellent artists. Exposition at MDF - Yuri Avvakumov and Alena Kirtsova. Exhibition in the "Project Factory" hall - Sergey Mironenko.

The project at the MDF is dedicated to photo archives of the war, and our newspaper has already written about it (see “Vremya Novostey” of May 16) . Organized with the participation of the MDF, the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, and with the support of FosterGroup, the exhibition at the Factory is dedicated to film documentation of the war years.

Art historian and critic Faina Balakhovskaya selected materials on the topic “Art in War” at the Krasnogorsk Film Archive. In the purist and gloomy workshop of the Factory, films are projected directly onto the walls of a long enfilade. At least ten stories at a time. The sounds merge into a general hum from scraps of information bureau reports, wartime songs, reports, orders and calls. The length of the hall is divided in two by a string of minimalist composition objects. Covers for cartridges are placed on the bricks. They have lamps with smoky lampshades that resemble giant rolling papers. The light falls on photographs of the war years documenting the performances of artists. Among those captured, for example, we were able to spot Sergei Mikhalkov shaving before his performance. Captions for the photos are pasted on cans of army rations standing next to each lamp.

The screens show chronicles of the performances of front-line brigades, a choir singing against the backdrop of scenery with almost antique columns, which at the end of the song suddenly descend on the viewer and turn out to be the barrels of giant artillery installations, the transfer of an aircraft by the Vakhtangov Theater to the Soviet front, ceremonial speeches, the work of military photographers, the production of an award weapons, exercises within the framework of the NVP...

Conceptual artist Sergei Mironenko admits that he wanted to bring the perception of his video installation closer to “a state close to sleep or, if you like, to a look at the other world.” It came out. A sterile, technical space. A row of microscope-like table lamps glows in the semi-darkness. There is a kaleidoscope of movies on the walls. A wartime audiophone rustles in my ears. Very stylish. And very strange. The war, which was an unhealed wound for many generations, turned out to be the topic of conceptual research. In particular, about the perception of time and space, the diachronic and synchronic understanding of History associated with them. Turning to the linguistic theory of Ferdinand de Saussure, we have the right to assume that Mironenkov’s “laboratory” installation about the Second World War marked a change in milestones in the collective consciousness, from the synchronic model (when memory and language collect elements into a single system and the “alien” is still “our own” ) to diachronic (when language and memory do not pack elements into a whole, when the concept of historical distance appears and what was “one’s own” begins to be perceived as distant, “alien”). In principle, such a refined intellectual project would decorate an international festival of contemporary art in the biennale format. Is he considerate of shared memory? The answer is affirmative, if only because the exhibition was made in opposition to the routine anniversary programs - in today's language, taking into account the psychology of perception of people of the 21st century. If official exhibitions about the war atrophy susceptibility to complete amnesia (unconsciousness), then the conceptual perspective of the topic in the assessment of history gives the hope of anamnesis - the awakening of archetypal memory.

Sergei KHACHATUROV