Exhibition of artists of the creative association PARAZIT "OLYMPUS"

Painting, graphics, objects, installation, performance, video art

In the halls of the gallery and in the Small Hall
Curator Timur Musaev-Kagan

The participants:

Alexander Morozov, Alexander Strokov, Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai, Alyona Monyati, Alyona Tereshko, Andrey Kabo, Andrey Rudyev, Andrey Sikorsky, Vera Svetlova, Vladimir Kozin, Vladimir Lilo, Vladimir Speransky, Vyacheslav Kapralov, Gerasim Kuznetsov, Danita Pushkareva, Dmitry Zheravov, Evgeny Poznyakov, Ivan Chemakin, Igor Panin, Igor Plotnikov, Ilya Zelenetskiy, Maria Grabareva, Unknown 51, Neil Exkolor, Olga Rostrosta, Petr Shvetsov, Semyon Motolyanets, Sofia Kokhanskaya, Stas Kazimov, Tanya Dubovskaya, Timur Musaev-Kagan Khigros, Fedor Emilia Sangi, Yuri Nikiforov.

PARASITE. OLYMPUS

There, there
Where isanami
Read Monogatari to Perun
And Eros sat on the knees of Shang Ti
And a gray-haired crest on the bald head of God
It looks like snow on a snowball
Where Cupid Kisses Maa Emu
And Tien talks to Indra,
Where is Juno and Cintecuatl
Watching Correggio
And admired Murillo,
Where is Unkulunkulu and Thor
Chess is played peacefully
Leaning on my arm
And Hokusai admires Astarte,
There, there!

V. Khlebnikov, 1919

The new large exhibition of the art association PARAZIT in the Borey gallery is called how plainly, equally pretentious. OLYMPUS. Just Olympus. And with all, at first glance, perpendicular to the name of the exhibition, held by the group relatively recently in the walls of the Center for Contemporary Art. Sergei Kurekhin "I go out alone on the highway", the current is about the same. About a strange feeling of loneliness in conditions of total immersion of the participants of the association in a busy art schedule. About alienation, which does not, however, cause any negative emotions and associations. About the feeling of parallelism to the stream, rushing somewhere very close, and that you don’t really want to enter it.

A commonplace was the mention of the Parasite as a group that does not have a clearly defined and meaningful creative vector, an easily readable visual code, as a group whose organization is based more on the personal qualities of its participants and on a well-established horizontal communication between its members than any or an ideological platform. In such conditions, the “face” of the group that escapes from definitions becomes extremely attractive against the background of doctrinaire rigidly oriented towards a certain type of expression of art communities of the recent past. Modus Vivendi Parasite implies the continuity of the art process in a series of regularly changing expositions (once every two weeks), and in this situation the members of the group feel like something like members of the Guild of St. Luke or the union of artists working out a common, but at the same time very individually painted, largely unique contemporary art product.

A special and very important practice characteristic of meetings of members of the association is the artistic councils held with each new change of exposure. Despite the seemingly ironic coloring (especially for new participants), these discussions play a very important role, and it extends far beyond the functions of pure apologetics. In the parasitic artistic councils, as in the rites of initiation, the birth and constant nourishment of the foundations of the collective mind takes place, and at the same time, the feeling of individual uniqueness and significance is formed. Here everyone is the first among equals. And everyone bears a certain share of responsibility for such a poorly shaped general. And it is just right to speak about intragroup ethics separately.

The parasite, in an amazing and almost mystical way - for such a specific association - brings itself to a sparkling pedestal. To the top of the ivory tower. To Olympus. And it remains at the same time, just like its Hellenic divine prototype, open to the appearance of new actors in it, carrying with them fresh features, functions, techniques, emotions, meanings. The parasite continuously generates in itself multidimensional semantic fields that intersect each other, enter into interactions, creep onto each other like tectonic plates, and splashes occur at the sites of their collisions - complex in composition, not similar to anything else, large-scale collective projects.

The parasite highlights another characteristic feature - lightness. In many ways, this current ease is the fruit of regular and very intense training in the main corridor of the Borey Art Center. But not only. When the expositions, as it were, naturally add up visually and conceptually into a capacious, original and uncompromising statement, it is time to discuss the nature of the divine spark that shines between the Olympians - members of the group.

Here everyone bends his line. Poseidon shakes the trident and angrily crushes the rocks. Artemis persuades others to crazy, cleansing orgies. Hephaestus forges his glands. Apollo leads the choir of muses. And no one bothers anyone. The parasite, as if in a mockery of everyone, demanded a granite pedestal of selectness for itself, while retaining the right to ordinary jokes and sharp booby jabs to the entire surrounding world.

Got into eternity - do not stop others from knocking on her gates. If the Parasite had a family coat of arms, this inscription would be engraved on it.

Timur Musaev-Kagan, April 2018