Translated material
Heavenly bureaucracy
The exhibitions “New Angelarium” and “Additional Element” opened
On the facade of the Moscow Museum of Modern Art on Ermolaevsky Lane there is a huge poster with a picture of a pillow. But this does not mean at all that the exhibition “New Angelarium” will be a rest for the head. On the contrary, you will have to puzzle over why the curators chose angels as a theme, although there are already plenty of heavenly messengers in both classical painting and souvenirs. The solution may be the previous project - “Art Constitution” (2003). Then the artists were asked to illustrate articles of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. And on the cover of the catalog even then there was a pillow, only a formal one, made of ermine fur, with an applique in the form of the Russian flag.It is no coincidence that the state law and the heavenly law are depicted in the same way, because they are similar in structure. There are the same ministries in heaven, each of which has its own function. Let's say you need to pray to Saint Panteleimon for health, he is the Minister of Health. And Saint Nicholas is the prime minister, you can contact him on all questions. Angels are the executive branch. Prayers are universal words for each of the petitioners; they reach heaven better than individual improvisation. In fact, the same forms in institutions are a standard that is preferable to a free-form application. Perhaps based on the concept that God punishes a person by fulfilling his desires, applications often take an incredibly long time to be considered. In a word, bureaucracy.
This is reflected in a number of interesting works. They stand out from the general mass of feathers of rather naive projects in that they represent angels “in execution.” The most intelligible and monumental image is on the canvas of Sergei Kalinin and Farid Bogdalov “After the Audience”. Members of the “Big Eight”, the same ones that were in their painting “Before the Audience”, now hanging in the Constantine Palace, only with painted wings. Serious and focused in the first version, the heads of state obviously feel relieved and float in the weightlessness of a white radiance, because they have received confirmation: their power is from God. And, like guardian angels of entire nations, they can rest peacefully, bowing their heads on ermine pillows. Don’t forget to put a volume of the Constitution under them to remember better.
Power has always had a divine aura, and in Soviet times too. In the painting by Vitas Stasyunas, a worker at a machine receives approval from above - a hand sticks out from the clouds, showing a thumb. Next to it is the inscription: “Wow!” The feat of labor shock workers, who produce 150% above the production norm, can be equated to the asceticism of medieval ascetics. The slogan “Let's complete the five-year plan in three years” is a sacred vow.
Any manifestations of state pride flicker with an angelic presence. Football is the cult of our era; every match plunges the stadium's parishioners into mystical ecstasy. In Yuri Shabelnikov’s work “Esoteric Football,” the silhouette of an angel appears on a ball flying above the field and players. Next to the painting on the floor are soccer balls made of marble. The material from which the ancient gods were sculpted has now acquired the extremely perfect shape of a ball, a symbol of divine infinity. The balls are presented in several copies, probably because if everyone is entitled to their own guardian angel, then it is also worth giving everyone a ball so that they do not take it from each other.
A feather can be equated to a bayonet. Sots artists Komar and Melamid transform an official's fountain pen into a kind of spear. A small figure in a business suit fights with the three-headed Serpent Gorynych, a kind of abstract Evil. However, the Good and the way to fight for it are very conventional - mountains of papers, covered pens and redirected powers. After all, no matter how much you cut off Gorynych’s head, it will grow back. The symbiosis of the pursuer and the pursued leads to the constant renewal of the latter and confirms the necessity of the existence of the former. If evil disappears altogether, then fighters against it will become unnecessary.
This is exactly what philosopher Giorgio Agamben read out at the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. He suggested that when the Kingdom of God comes, the need for angels will disappear, and under communism no one will need a bureaucratic apparatus. And this means that both of them, in order to continue to exist, must be inactive, passive, so as not to bring closer universal happiness, and therefore their end. Agamben further compared artistic activity with the inactivity of philosophers and politicians. And even if you don’t delve into the subtleties of his thoughts, he is certainly right.
Contemporary art fights for the rights of women, illegal immigrants, political prisoners and other disadvantaged people. And when there is justice for all, how can artists be relevant? No problem - no subject for art. And here comes the saving formalism. Just as bureaucrats improve procedures and complicate laws, artists explore the “language of art.” This mysterious action allows them to maintain their creative status.
The triumph of bureaucracy continues at the exhibition “Additional Element” by Vladimir Logutov at the Stella Art Foundation on Mytnaya. The artist’s works resemble reporting on work carried out by a government agency. Even if no tangible results have yet been achieved, the efforts invested, the materials used in the work and written off as obsolete are visible. And a responsible approach is visible in everything.
In the drawer of the easel there is a mountain of pencils worn down to short stubs. Nearby are white canvases with peeling soil. The artist did not want to begin until the final intention of the work became clear. And while I was thinking hard, the canvases became unusable. So where did he use the pencils?
To make a series of graphic sheets using the “negative drawing” technique he invented. He sharpened the lead at both ends of the pencil and, drawing on one sheet, recorded on another sheet, placed on the other side, all the pencil tears from the first sheet. And I put up these graphs of reverse movements. One wise man said that when a poet writes his words, the second end of his pen draws letters to God in the sky. Logutov’s invention makes it possible to finally read the correspondence. Captions for images like “Dealing a Crushing Blow” and “Calling for Oneself” imply specific active actions. And in the drawings themselves there are scribbles, an energetic and diligent waste of pencil.
In the crossword paintings made by Logutov, the word cells are filled with identical crosses. And it is not illiteracy that forces artists to put up abstract icons, and officials to do everything for show. There are no specific statements, because no one wants to be held accountable for their words.