"Dividuum" by Gurgen Petrosyan 18+

The young sculptor Gurgen Petrosyan, already noticeable in the contemporary art life of Moscow, is exhibited for the first time in St. Petersburg at the Erart Museum of Modern Art. The composition of his small but capacious exhibition “Dividuum” includes works from three cycles: “Heroes and Gods”, “Models of Yves Klein” and “Reds”. They are united by a common theme - comprehension of what is happening with a person, loss of individuality.

In the modern contradictory stream of existence, a once holistic, self-sufficient individual becomes, by the definition of Gilles Deleuze, a dividual - a divisible person, multifaceted, losing integrity and self-identity.

The dissolution of the personality, the loss of subjectivity, the manipulation of man, the simulation of reality - all these problems and symptoms of today excite Gurgen Petrosyan.

In the series “Heroes and Gods”, he captures how former heroes and gods acquire comic, stout forms. Today they are no longer heroes, but “desire machines”. In fact, this is a plastic commentary on our era, a metaphor for a consumer society that mimics the sublime, dating back to antiquity, poses and gestures.

The subject of dehumanization and depersonalization also includes works from the series “Models Yves Klein”. The actionist Yves Klein used nude female bodies painted in blue as a printed form, a consumable. The flattened plastic bodies and faces of the models at the time of the print are shown by Petrosyan from the back of the canvas, as if through a glass wall. So the artist expresses an unexpected feeling of discomfort that a woman experiences.

Works from the Red series add dramatic accents to the overall theme.

Gurgen Petrosyan’s exhibition “Dividuum” in the Erart Museum opens up the world of a modern thinking sculptor who does not repeat the standards of good taste of the modern era, looking for non-trivial solutions, his own images and metaphors that are adequate to our time.

About the artist

Gurgen Petrosyan was born in Yerevan in 1985.

Graduated from Yerevan State Art Academy (2010), MGHPA named after S. G. Stroganova (Department of Monumental and Decorative Sculpture, 2012), School of Contemporary Art “Free Workshops” (2016).

He has taken part in numerous group and personal exhibitions at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Center for Contemporary Arts, the Moscow State Museum of the East, the ARTPLAY Design Center and other venues.

His works are in the collection of the State Museum of the East, as well as in private collections in Moscow, New York and Dubai.

The author lives and works in Moscow.

Venue: Erarta Museum of Modern Art (29th line V.O., 2), Exhibition wing, 4th floor.