Michael and Tamara Ivanova Milkmen: "Made in Berlin"
ARTinvestment.RU   13 апреля 2012

The exhibition opens tomorrow, April 14, the Agency Art Ru

Agency Art Ru, April 14 - May 8, 2012
Moscow, Ozerkovskaya Quay, 26

Tomorrow, 14 April, the Agency Art Ru opens exhibition of artists Molochnikova Michael and Tamara Ivanova, "Made in Berlin".

Molochnikova Michael and Tamara Ivanova much in common. They share a common workshop in Berlin and is easily found common ground: they - the people of one generation, which managed to get the Soviet art education, crafts in a good sense of the word, and the Soviet experience of artistic dissent, though not too long. Craft (Mikhail Molochnikova - architectural, Tamara Ivanova - printing) fed by allowing them to be formalists-dissidents against both the official art, and to alternative culture. Fair trade, an outspoken formalism and independence have led them both, though in different ways, to experiment with the book, from which somehow go all represented at the exhibition "Made in Berlin" work.

MICHAEL Milk Untitled. 2011 Series "Antennas to God» collage, mixed media. 140 x 20 x 20 Source: Press Release Agency Art Ru

MICHAEL Milk Untitled. 2009 Series "Cubes» collage, mixed media. 60 x 15 x 15 Source: Press Release Agency Art Ru

Books Michael Molochnikova obviously narrow limits of the book block. They strive to break free, raspolzayas space centipedes elegant clamshell. And the pages they did not keep within the rectangular format: exquisite abstract collages made of colored cardboard, photographs and text found riddled as if by bullets, round cuts targets-mandalas, which sometimes goes off the edge of the sheet a sort of wood mushrooms. The book is in the classical European tradition, always refers to the architecture, with clear post-and-beam constructions, horizontals and verticals, showing all of its resemblance to the shape of the temple of truth, or to her tombstone. But whether those wounded bleed, or swollen cells ready to divide the book-folding is most like a living organism, capable of multiplying indefinitely. How reminiscent of the "cellular" structure "made" pictures - Michael Milkmen argues that Filonovsky principle "madeness" made on him in his youth a strong impression. However, no matter how many new pages have not grown a "living" books, the text does not change it, because there is no text. Rather, the text is there, but he is one and predzadan all books, sculptures and objects of the artist, whether it be cheerful savage masks, idols, or ziggurats of cardboard bricks, made of acid paper flowers in technology applications. This text seems to be equivalent to instantly recognizable style of Michael Molochnikova successfully arms crossed "madeness" Filonov with the ritual work of Aboriginal Australia, and Africa, he takes in the space of myth, telling the world about the filling of vitality and perpetual witness to the gyre of natural forces.

MICHAEL Milk Untitled. 2009 Series «Masks» collage, mixed media. 63 x 32 x 16 Source: Press Release Agency Art Ru

MICHAEL Milk Untitled. 2006 series "Endless Book» collage, mixed media. 30 x 21 x 400 Source: Press Release Agency Art Ru

Scenic Series" River "Tamara Ivanova, too, in fact, the book, rather, geographic origin. Decorative abstract canvases at first sight are the cards: portraits of imaginary rivers, seen from space with an imaginary companion GPS, whose cold eyes fixed earth dies randomly covered the fields and cut the storm water flows. Referring to the multi-valued character such as a river, the artist appeals to our mythological memory and imagination, offering a view of these "blood vessels of the Earth" is something anthropomorphic - from the sap-filled life lived to so naively rendered stream of consciousness. And once again comes to mind paintings of Australian Aborigines, whose topographical landscapes of real tribal areas are mixed with mythical lands of the Rainbow Serpent. "The further into the high-tech, more sensitive to the archaic man," - says Tamara Ivanova.

Tamara Ivanova Purple River 1. 2010 Acrylic on canvas. 100 x 110 Source: Press Release Agency Art Ru

Tamara Ivanova Yellow River. 2011 Acrylic on canvas. 90 x 90 Source: Press Release Agency Art Ru

Authors wordless books and maps is not by chance looking for support in nonliterate cultures: it is possible to explain the meaning and purpose of art history books dissected. Only in the XX century artist who works with the book, has finally taken revenge on the writer for the fact that for centuries had to be content with humble position illustrator. The first step towards emancipation was livre d'artiste: luxurious limited edition collectors edition for sophisticated intellectuals, where everything - from the box to the font - relegated to art, replaced by a reader audience, releasing a book from the dictates of the text, so that Joyce retreated into the shadows in front of Matisse and Aristophanes - to Picasso. The final victory is won over literature book art, book-object, to get rid of the sometimes not only text but also on the cover, roots, pages, even from the paper - in short, of everything that made the book a book. However, in the XXI century, the century of electronic readers, proclaimed the end of an era Guttenberg, artist, referring to the book, which, though deprived of the text, but can still rustle the pages, saving the ancient charm of what is now increasingly referred to as "paper" is formless Don Quixote. Apparently, biological and mythological elements in the works of Michael and Tamara Ivanova Molochnikova says antediluvian paper book will be the last effort to resist the cold of screen media. In the same way as people will be the last effort to hold on to their archaic, symbolic consciousness.

Anna Tolstova

Source : Press Release Agency Art Ru