"Between heaven and earth". Part II

From September 11 to October 10, 2019, the anniversary exhibition of the curator Tatyana Paleeva, dedicated to the 20th anniversary of the East Meets West Gallery, will open at the All-Russian Museum of Decorative Arts. It was called “Between Heaven and Earth” Part II and consists of three parts, each of which can be considered an independent exhibition.

The first part is a tribute to the ethnic component of the East Meets West Gallery, which can be traced from the foundation of the gallery in 1999. The second is a group exhibition of permanent artists and sculptors of the gallery. The third is a small special exhibition of sculpture and objects in the carriage of the museum.

On the ground floor of the museum two ethnic projects will be shown, substantially updated and supplemented, which the curator has already addressed in the past many times. The first is dedicated to China - “The Lost Paths of Southwest China. Series 5 ", the second - Japan:" An elusive world. Japan: craft as a high art. Series 3 ". At the exhibition, viewers will see most of the collection collected by the curator during several expeditions to the Chinese provinces of Guizhou and Guangxi. These are ancient and modern costumes of the “red” and “black” peoples of Miao, Bui, Dong, Ge and others, made using the techniques of embroidery, applique, hand weaving; cult relics of Yao shamans, scrolls with portraits of their ancestors, sculpture, silver jewelry of Miao and Bui women, ethnographic photographs of Tatyana Paleeva. In this space, antique collectible pieces of furniture, embroidery, and applied art of the main Chinese people Han from the curator’s collection will be shown. The project was attended by Russian artists Tatyana Yan with a series of works “The Path to the Top of Taishan Mountain” and Ekaterina Rozhkova, with a new author’s work created for the anniversary project using mixed silk-screen printing and paper collages.

Everything that keeps the “elusive world” of the traditions and culture of the people of Japan: ancient kimonos and obi, traditional lanterns, screens, antique Japanese ukiyo-e prints, umbrellas made and hand-painted from oiled paper, was collected during different trips around Japan, curator of the art project "Between Heaven and Earth" Tatyana Paleeva. Especially for him, contemporary Japanese calligraphy artists Takefusa Sashida and Shoko Hiroshi (Keiko) from Tokyo presented their work on silk and cotton.

However, in addition to authentic objects, the project also presents works by contemporary Russian artists who are interested in the theme of the East. Ekaterina Rozhkova mastered the art of working with fabrics, Japanese paper and drawing in Japan. Especially for the anniversary project, she painted vintage kimonos using the author’s technique, thus combining a traditional Japanese costume with modern art. Natalya Muradova brings from each trip to Japan not only textiles for her unique panels, but also a “waterfall of wisdom”, each of which is embodied in her latest work “A Gift of Heaven. Water ”(2019).

The project was attended by contemporary Russian artists who own the techniques of a particular type of applied art, characteristic of China and Japan: the ceramist Viktor Reshetnikov, artists Dmitry Ikonnikov, Olga Osnach and sculptors Maxim Aksenov, Oleg Kievsky, Victor Korneev. Lilia Balasanova, who graduated from a textile institute, has never been to Japan and China, but has participated in her ethnic projects with Tatyana Paleeva since 1999. The combination of various fabrics, papers, Japanese and Chinese sewing techniques, including applique, embroidery, overlays and others, made her works unique and unique.

“According to the curatorial concept of Tatyana Paleeva, the second part of the anniversary exhibition project consists of an exhibition covering four major topics related to the philosophy, aesthetics, thoughts and doubts of a Westerner. It is attended by more than 20 artists and sculptors. In their works, the world appears visible and invisible (section "Man, Spirit, Body"). The body as a house for the soul (as the sculptor Jaume Plens aptly puts it) and the soul as energy, prompting a person to rush higher and higher in their intentions and actions, connecting the earthly and highland worlds. After all, it is precisely what cannot be seen that determines the course of a person’s life - love, hatred, friendship, inspiration… There is a tradition of philosophical perception of a person as a unity of spirit and body, therefore artists also represent the image of their contemporary through these two hypostases. The participants in this topic are artists and sculptors: D. Ikonnikov, H. Mendler, A. Purlik, A. Taguti, M. Tikhonov, A. Yulikov, A. Dillendorf, M. Dronov, O. Kievsky, V. Korneev, O. Khan.

In the context of the project “Between Heaven and Earth”, the section “Shape, Space, Geometry” makes us at least recall the alchemy in which the Earth is often depicted in the form of an inverted triangle crossed by a horizontal line. But modern artists go further, creating a wide variety of visual designs and combinations (G. Troshkov), as if formed by intersecting streams of energy coming from Heaven and Earth, from these two hyperspaces, which are simultaneously attracted to each other, and at the same time never connect at a single point. The works of T. Badanina, K. Inal-Ipa, A. Lantsev, M. Tikhonov, A. Oligerov, G. Troshkov are presented in this topic.

The works of the section "Living - Inanimate Nature" directly correlate with another theme, articulated by exhibitors, under the name "Ecology". In the Eastern tradition, a person seeks to draw closer to the outside world, with its main components - Heaven and Earth. The man of Western civilization, alas, increasingly uses nature brutally, inevitably losing spiritual harmony and energy balance. Artists S. Ayvazyan, D. Ikonnikov, E. Kudryavtseva, Yu. Malinin, N. Muradov, A. Oligerov, A. Purlik, E. Rozhkova, E. Utenkova and sculptors M. Dronov, V. Peldyakov seem to appeal to the Eastern tradition the perfect harmony of art and nature, and their works are read as a symbol uniting two cultures - eastern and western.

The exhibition “Music is everywhere” completes the exhibition project as a confirmation that any violation of harmony in the Universe leads to the destruction of the once given course of time and life on Earth. The curator opens this topic together with artists who participated in several East Meets West Gallery exhibitions in 2017–2018: P. Grigoryev, A. Korovin, E. Kudryavtseva, G. Troshkov. ” (E. Romanova).

The synthesized layering of the exhibition, its appeal to the ancient fundamental cultures of China and Japan enrich our modern idea of the world, of the relationship between Heaven and Earth. In a single system, works of contemporary European and Russian art coexist with the “historicisms" of the East, which gave birth to universal philosophical concepts about a person on Earth and in the Universe.

Curator Tatyana Paleeva.

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