Brand Field - about the exhibition "Icon"

In St. Petersburg, on the second attempt, an exhibition of contemporary artists of ICONS (“Icon”), compiled by Galerist Marat Gelman

Mountains Chahal. From the cycle "The Sun of Truth, Good and Beauty." Dimensions variables, multimedia, digital print. 2003

ICONS was first shown in September last year in Perm, in the Museum of Contemporary Art, the founder and director of which was Marat Gelman. There were no problems there. But in Krasnodar - there were: a group of local Orthodox activists opposed the exposition - none of them saw paintings, but Gelman’s name sounded like a curse for them. Stavropol and Nevinnomysskaya, as well as the Yekaterinodar and Kuban dioceses, said that the name of Marat Helman "for modern Russian Orthodoxy is a kind of negative meter." In Krasnodar, people came to the gallery where the exhibition was supposed to open, with the slogans "Hands off the Orthodox Church." A similar situation was repeated last year in St. Petersburg. And only now, a year later, the opening of ICons became possible here. The exposition includes the work of 25 famous Russian artists. This is a modern view of the Russian icon, a rethinking of images underlying religious art. “The name of the exhibition - ICONS - has a double meaning,” explains Marat Gelman. - In addition to the direct designation of the icon as a shrine, the word translates from English as a sign. An icon is an image that turns into a sign. ” The appeal to the images-signs are not accidental: this is one of the ways to understand the worldview and worldview of modern man.

Rauf Mamedov. From the cycle "Secret Office". Photo. 1998	Alexander Roitburd. "Benedication in the young month." Canvas, oil. 1988

Among the participants of the exhibition, Dmitry Gutov with lace metal images of Russian saints, Dmitry Vrubel with works from the Gospel Project, Evgeny Maltsev (her joint with Viktor Bondarenko, the project “The Spiritual Branch” caused the last autumn the fierce attacks of the Cossacks), Vladimir Kupriyanov with photographs of perishable paintings in those temples that were transferred to the church organizations, as well as Georgy Ostretsov, Irina Zatulovskaya and others.

Within the framework of the exhibition, which is deployed in the art center “Weaver”, lectures and round tables dedicated to the religious theme in contemporary art will also be held. According to Marat Gelman, the exhibition is not a reason for disputes or swearing, but for dialogue. The artists and the arrangers of the exhibition and call visitors to such a dialogue.

The appeal to the images-signs are not accidental: this is one of the ways to understand the worldview and worldview of modern man.

Dmitry Gutov. "Trinity", from the E'ik'P'NE cycle (image). Metal, welding. 2012