Translated material
Flaming Gothic
The sad circumstance is that representatives of the “reluctant art” are reacting more and more nervously and aggressively to certain phenomena or events that exist or arise in a special socio-cultural space called “contemporary art”, and if we call a spade a spade, then, directly say, the fundamentalist public, no longer particularly surprises anyone and even becomes a kind of specific routine these days.
It makes no sense to get into arguments with this, so to speak, audience, not only for reasons of moral and aesthetic hygiene (although that too). A dispute is impossible, first of all, because with any attempts it immediately becomes clear that the disputants speak different languages, which do not even imply the possibility of mutual translation, despite the fact that they sometimes use the same words.
A dispute with people who do not understand that the meaning of any statement is due to its context - cultural, historical, biographical, whatever - is unproductive. A dispute with people tend to identify real events or phenomena and the language of their description is impossible.
And I wouldn’t start this pointless conversation again if...
In general, yes.
There is such a wonderful artist in my opinion, whose name is Nikolai Polis. The artist is quite famous and respected both in the artistic and in a near-art environment. An artist with an established style and outlook on art and life. An artist with a strong reputation. With its own original and recognizable artistic strategy.
Nikolai Polissky has been organizing festivals in a village called Nikola-Lenivets for many years. Many people know about this festival. Many have been there.
So the other day such a festival took place there. And the central event of this festival was one work that caused, as media workers say, “mixed reactions” on social networks. Moreover, this very “ambiguity” (although at times it took the form of an unambiguous “unambiguousness”) came not only from a protective-obscurantist environment. This is something that is easily predictable and, as I said at the beginning, would not be worth special mention. But no, not only, unfortunately.
Voices - and numerous - irritations or even indignation often belonged to people worthy, smart, educated, endowed with a sense of humor and breadth of views, people with basic beliefs, my loved ones.
In general, I was upset, to be honest. I bitterly saw in this another symptom of the creeping epidemic that is quietly poisoning our public consciousness.
“If we are forced to play by “their” rules,” I thought, “by the rules of suspicion, easy excitability of aggressive instincts, mutual distrust, if of all the possible interpretations of everything that is incomprehensible to us or not fully understood, we will instinctively choose only the most substandard, then it will be possible to talk about “their” complete victory.”
Why, I thought, do modern people not want to see the difference between a game imitation of anything, even a temple, and the temple itself?
Well, and fire, of course. Yes, I understand that fire itself is an unusually powerful metaphor, charged with many of the darkest historical allusions. But that’s not all!
Why is it forgotten that the artistic event under discussion happened on the last day of Maslenitsa week, the day when at all times “winter” was ritually burned in the squares? Well, this time winter took on the appearance of a Gothic structure. And what?
And why, finally, is it forgotten that one of the most venerable techniques of modern art is the implementation of persistent metaphors. And what is called “flaming gothic” simply cannot help but ignite in the most literal way.
And the fact that this cheerful flame suddenly ignites a fire of mutual irritation is certainly not the artist’s fault. Moreover, this, unfortunately, is a continuation of his own metaphor. What can you do if these days there are more and more of those who consider the day lost when they never had a fight with anyone? So on the day of Forgiveness Sunday, they seem to say: “Forgive me if I accidentally offended anyone and was not offended by anyone.”
But the artist, meanwhile, found it necessary to respond to all those with whom I was angry for some reason.
I want to quote a few passages from this address - they are worth it and, most importantly, they explain and clarify a lot.
Our festival and my work are known for solving problems of architecture and art, and I have not intended and do not intend to leave this territory in the future. Issues of politics, religion, nationalities and any kind of inciting conflicts or insulting sincere feelings are taboo for the activities of artists in our park...
For Maslenitsa 2018, we decided to use the “Flaming Gothic” architectural style to create a fiery sculpture. This style was used not only in the creation of Gothic religious buildings, but also in the architecture of secular buildings: castles, universities, courts. There was nothing religious in my art object; naturally, there were no crosses, an altar or any religious symbols. This is not a copy of any existing religious building or an imitation of a temple. It's just a fire built in the style of a Gothic building...
Unfortunately, as soon as several people start a discussion on a painful topic on the Internet, no one wants to understand and listen to each other. A barrage of caustic Internet commentators attacks the artist and clergy, forcing them to comment on something that did not happen...
I appeal to everyone for whom my work seemed offensive. My thoughts never included the idea of creating and burning a Christian or other temple with my own hands. In my works people often find things that I did not put in them, this is normal, but blaming me for burning the temple is too much...
And finally:
Today, forgiven resurrection, and I ask all Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians to forgive me for Christ’s sake.
This, in my opinion, is wonderful that the artist not only once again created a brilliant work, but also found the opportunity to address with clear and, in general, humble explanations to everyone “offended and offended.” This is really very worthy. And not everyone is capable of this. For example, I got angry. And the artist, in general, put me to shame. And for this, a special heartfelt thank you to him.