HISTORY OF A GEOLOGICAL EXPLORATION EXPEDITION - 67/67. Graphics / book by the artist

Valery Nikolaevich Korchagin was born in 1969 in the Sverdlovsk region. In 1999 he graduated from the Faculty of Art and Cultural Studies of the Ural State University named after A. M. Gorky, majoring in "Art critic." In 2001 he graduated from the faculty of advanced training of the Ural State Academy of Architecture and Art, department of "Interior Design".

Valery Korchagin works in the genres of graphics, installation, book art. In his works, the author is a researcher of pseudo-real worlds, which become an integral part of the life of every person from childhood (fairy tale, myth, etc.). Archival documents, geographical maps, abandoned houses - all this is the starting point for not quite, apparently, real events, where every little nuance plays a huge role. Thanks to this, we can say that the artist’s work is not just intended for contemplation, but for the complete immersion of the viewer in the proposed topic. The artist’s hoaxes always pose the viewer with the question of what was fiction and what was reality and whether such a scenario is possible in life.

The book "History of the Exploration Expedition - 67/67" is a kind of fusion of the genres of adventure, comics and intellectual-emotional travel, written in the formal language of the geological report. With the seeming logic of the plot, teeming with details and terms from “technical documentation”, given “facts” and “evidence”, the whole text is just a series of absurd episodes from which the unstable fabric of mystification is interwoven. The number series in the book is subjected to structural coding and discovers the obsessive pseudo-sanctity of the number 67, which appears through simple calculations wherever there are combinations of numbers.

The works of Valery Korchagin are stored in state museums, libraries and private collections in Russia and abroad.

At the exhibition opening in "Khazine" the artist will hold master classes for children "Making an Art Book".

The exhibition runs until June 18, 2017.