Under the gaze of paintings

The new gallery "Cultural Alliance. Project of Marat Gelman" on the territory of "Winzavod" opened the exhibition "Vector Perm"

The exposition is part of a large project created to expand the geography of Russian contemporary art. The Moscow audience already had a chance to get acquainted with Izhevsk, the city of Siberia is next in line.

The exhibition is presented by the names of the already recognized Olga Subbotina, Mikhail Pavlyukevich, and young artists, graduates of the ArtPolitics School (headed by Arseniy Sergeev), who began working in Perm in 2012. "The youth is rather not found by us, but raised," Marat Gelman commented on the choice of participants. But there is no hierarchy here, there are neither "honored" nor "beginners" - this is one vector, one-way movement.

Perm has the reputation of a harsh city. Even despite Igor Ryabov's "Steam" or "Saving Emptiness" by Subbotina and Pavlyukevich, which stand out in color, its gloomy atmosphere seems to hang in the air. The viewer looks from the tombstone, which has grown into the floor, through the dark outlines of the urban landscape, to the huge sprawling black bird on the white wall. But gradually it becomes clear - this is not pessimism, not a dark kingdom: behind the works one can hear the measured breath of urban Perm. A discreet graphic exhibition to match an industrial city. Impressive is the tombstone of Rene Magritte (A. Semakin) in the center of the hall, the contrast of white candles and wax with black soot (O. Subbotina, M. Pavlyukevich), arranged photographs of stones and water beating against them (A. Bezukladnikov). Here is the metaphysical topography of Perm, where the poems of Andrei Rodionov, read by him at the opening, fit well.

Seemingly solid, strong space of the exhibition, upon closer examination, comes to life in the desire of artists to grab onto the ephemeral. Obviously, some of the works will not survive moving to other venues, but what's there, a touch of a hand can ruin them. So, for example, the work of Zoya Mironova "Memory" is a few black boards with a chalk outline of faces and things. The fragility of memories, fixing only fragments: the grandmother's hand, a passerby's bottle, a bicycle handlebar. It is impossible to recreate the picture as a whole, because parts of the "Memory" are obscured, blurred. Or the faces appearing through the glass windows, created by Alexander Agafonov and Alexei Gavrilov for Lars von Trier's Gesamt project (but, unfortunately, they were not included in the film experiment, which is based on the idea of creating a universal work of art). Forgotten photographs, scraps of leaves from trees, on the glass like stains from paint. Or the work of the first "flooder" of street art in Perm under the name SadFace - a huge black bird painted on the wall of the gallery. The graffiti artist standing at this wall is just a dummy (M. Paknite). He seems to be pushing the viewer - if you don't like street art, try to catch me, take me off this stool. Like Yulia Bubnova's installation "Looks", so almost all the exhibits of "Vector Perm" actually look at you, and not you at them.

The language of Perm artists is diverse: the works are made in a variety of materials (from plastic and marble to wax and embroidery) and genres (installation, photography, and even several short documentaries about Perm). Marat Gelman offers the viewer to feel rather than analyze: "Everything is quite simple with modern art. You do not study it, you immerse yourself in it. It is created from the same materials that make up our life. An artist today is not an artisan who he knows how, this is the creator of images.

Perm emerges from the shadow of a provincial city, striving to represent truly European art. To form an opinion about him, it is worth watching the entire cycle of the "Cultural Alliance". Feel originality, understand the differences between different regions of Russia, enter the world of art politics. What will help the wonderful collection “Poetic guide to the cities of the “Cultural Alliance”” (Yekaterinburg, Izhevsk, Kazan, Kirov, etc.). You can get acquainted with Perm contemporary art until March 10 in the 23rd pavilion of the Winzavod.

Natalia KRYLOVA
Yana ISAENKO
Tatiana PODKORYTOVA