As part of the graduation work of the program of additional professional education " Contemporary Art " I presented at the exhibition "Axiology of Renewal" - two opposite projects: "Art in itself" and "Who speaks?" The exhibition was held as part of the Winzavow Open program, in the White Workshop from 06/17/21 to 07/26/21.
In the meantime, there is no need to worry about it. ”
Curators: Mikhail Levin, Carlos Veiga do Nascimento, Ian Charlesworth, John Lovell .
MOSCOW SCHOOL OF CONTEMPORARY ART is a project of the University of Creative Industries Universal University, which combines more than 10 years of experience of the British Higher School of Design in the field of art, international education and interaction with key art institutions in Russia and other countries.
ART IN ITSELF
video art, whiteboard
duration: 15:25 minutes
2021
The question that concerns me has a long history: can an artist expect freedom of expression while operating within an institutional framework? Today, these frameworks primarily create texts. On the one hand, articles about contemporary art help us understand each other. They explain the concepts of works of art, indicate the position of the author, and describe the context in which he works. At the same time, many critical texts are overloaded with ideas and theories divorced from the specific work and the process of creation. The text of my lecture was generated by a neural network based on articles by popular theorists (Rosalind Krauss, Jacques Derrida, Edmund Husserl, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Alfred Schutz).
With this project I want to draw attention to the problem of professionalization of the art world. The authors of art historical texts determine the value of a work in the eyes of the public, and the criteria for such assessment, in my opinion, are increasingly moving away from the essence of creativity. As a result, a text about art becomes a space for quotation and argumentation, assigning art the role of illustration of abstract ideas.
Who's speaking?
video art, canvas, acrylic
duration: 03:39 minutes
2021
Typically, the amateur artist sees the essence of art as an expression of freedom from external restrictions, including the market, connections within the professional community, and the tastes of visitors to museums and galleries. For amateurs, the consumer quality of the work and expert assessment are not of decisive importance. However, such a position presupposes a break with the professional environment in which cultural values are formed and disseminated.
Freed from the influence of trends and critical assessments, the artist gains freedom, but his art is lost in everyday life and limited by the personality of the author. It is this aspect that is reflected in the video, in which the artist’s personal experiences, ideas and goals are self-censored and dissolved, never forming into something that is tantamount to creative annihilation..
In this case, a folding chair is moved from a British design school to an IKEA store space and then an identical chair is purchased and moved back to the school. This process demonstrates that the way we perceive and evaluate an object can change depending on the context in which it is found.
Thus, two projects are presented that symbolize a radical dichotomy in the field of art: on the one hand, an impostor artist whose inner world remains unembodied, and, on the other hand, a conceptual artist exploring abstract projects using neural networks. By comparing these two approaches, a middle perspective on contemporary art is formed, which is capable of independently conveying its content to the observer.
Art seems to be losing its ability to inspire and transform society. At times, art projects can seem confusing, lacking depth and lacking real art.
Today in the art world we see the dominance of conceptual ideas, where the significance of the idea itself sometimes outweighs the significance of the work itself. However, in this race for originality and experimentation, there is not always room for true inspiration. Often art becomes an arena for provoking and shocking society rather than conveying deep feelings and ideas.