Go to "SVOYASI": the gym showed mansions with jewelry
The exhibition "SVOYASI. The Path of modern Russian Art". 79 contemporary artists presented their views on national traditions. The exhibition features embroidery technologies revived after six centuries, kokoshniks made of pearls and cones, a "red corner" made of carding stones and a lake with jewels. Izvestia appreciated the creators' thirst for roots.
The house is upside down
The name of the exhibition was intriguing. The word "svoyasi" in our ancestors meant "the way home." So the exhibition demonstrates an appeal to the origins of Russian applied art and crafts.
The SVOYASI project has been collecting works by the best contemporary artists for the third year now. Each time the topic sets a new vector of reflection on which images of collective memory come to the surface and become important in the life of a modern person. The exposition of the exhibition consistently expands the field of research on the phenomenon of cultural code.
This time we turned to the origins — the concept is being formulated: "Home as a space of being." In the Russian North, the house was called "mansions", like a temple, which indicates the sacredness of this place. It is the center of everything that is most valuable to a person. The space of the house is clearly structured and filled with symbols reflecting the relationship of man with nature, with the objective world, with other people.
— The exhibition, at first glance, is quite original for our museum, but if you look closely at the exhibits, we can see something similar in all the exhibition halls of the State Museum of Fine Arts," said Alexey Levykin, General Director of the Historical Museum. — Our country has been multinational from the very first days of its existence, since the time of St. Vladimir. She skillfully and organically absorbed various trends and trends in the culture and art of her numerous peoples and even neighboring countries. This is how our very vibrant Russian culture was born.
Levykin notes that the objects at the exhibition are filled with historical memory, traditions, music, songs, "everything that surrounds us, that we call our own."
The exhibition includes works by 79 artists, designers and craftsmen from different cities of Russia. Each author has been carefully curated. In the exhibition space, the works are placed in a specific context. As the curators say, there could be more authors, but the exhibition space is limited. There is a growing interest in the topic of returning to the roots, to traditions, and to exploring one's own culture anew.
— Artists and craftsmen conduct ethnographic research, work with museum funds, study historical samples and techniques, and only then create modern art objects based on them, says curator Natalia Justitskaya. — This is not a superficial interpretation, but a thorough appeal to one's culture. Each art object impresses with the depth of the author's interpretation.
One and a half kilos of pearls and chain mail made of clay
The architecture of the exhibition is organized according to the principle of the hut structure: "porch", "canopy", "upper room", "suseki", "Babi kut", "red corner". And the visitors were greeted by a brunette and a blonde in the form of birds Sirin and Alkonost. These are characters from Russian epics and legends. Their bodies are feathered, and their heads are girls. Virgo birds can sing if asked. The presentation of the exhibits is thought out to the smallest detail. Plexiglass cabinets are filled with hay. And handmade works of art look good on such pedestals.
In the center of the composition stands either a red gazebo, or a ceremonial installation decorated with scarlet ribbons to the floor. This is a bright accent of the exposition, combining the different spaces of the hall. The exhibit "Makosh" by Anna Matorina is a symbol of the mother of the Earth, one of the powerful goddesses of fertility among the ancient Slavs. It also serves as a relaxation area with red pillows.The author is engaged in land art, her works are amazing in scale. But especially for the exhibition, Anna created an interior version of her art object.
"SVOYASI" is a rare exhibition where you can touch the beautiful in the truest sense of the word. The exhibits can be touched. Tactile contact is an important component of penetration into Russian art. You can see Ekaterina Menshikova's "Grandmother's Saucer" by pushing aside a heavy curtain of strands of blue beads.
A large section of the exhibition is the gallery of female images. Babye tsardom — from brides to heroic women, from two-faced beauties of nesmeyan to the Virgin.
— The theme of a strong woman has been relevant at all times," the curator believes. — It is known that the soldiers fought on a par with the heroes. Valeria Vitvitskaya from St. Petersburg created a chain mail made of ceramics, complementing it with long blond curls that are woven into a braid. Alina Chistyakova works in the unique technique of "white soot" (three-dimensional embroidery using pearls, mother-of-pearl, beads. Alina is a student of Johann Nikadimus, whose work is also represented in the GIM. He revived a technique that is more than 600 years old.Alina makes crowns according to the canons of a centuries-old craft. And for the exhibition, the artist created a monumental work in this technique.
The panel took one and a half kilograms of river pearls and hundreds of metal sequins from India.
Sadko is with us
The most mysterious space is the "pond". The surface of the water was created using mirrors. The exhibits were collected here as if from a fairy tale. Crowns, headbands, collars of the Arkhangelsk beauties, made in various techniques, embroidered with precious and semi-precious stones. Attention is drawn to the girlish kokoshniks decorated with scales of cedar cones. An attentive visitor will see a frog Princess in the products. Morocco boots are studded with pearls, as if Sadko took them off, and next to them are jewels from the underwater kingdom.
— In the 19th century, Russia was the second largest exporter of river pearls in the world after India," the curator explains. — You can find in the literature that pearls were shot from a gun as a joke, there were so many of them. Later, the resources were depleted.
Fabulous jewelry looks different in beauty. Anna Hoffman works in the Byzantine style. Semyon Starov from Murom studies the traditions of the Finno-Ugric peoples and integrates elements into his products. Elena Okutova makes fantasy rings.
The main room in the house is the upper room. Guests were received here. A composition by Dmitry Rytyaev, in which hands with a blessing gesture are the image of the host. For this purpose, the GIM provided the only exhibit from its collections: the 17th-century painting "Wedding in Toropets" tells about the bride's looks. And a modern ceramics master, Lucy Lusich, created a whole feast. There's a samovar, and pancake pancakes, and bowls of raspberry jam. Everything is so natural that it is hard to believe that it is clay. Fine porcelain, mother-of-pearl products, wood carvings, weaving and objects made in other techniques can also be seen at the exhibition.
The exhibition is open until August 11.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
