Dmitry Kawarga "Elektromuzee"
ARTinvestment.RU   14 января 2019

In the halls on Rostokinskiy street, 1, opened the exhibition "Skins semantic structures" — annual report biomorphic radical and one of the main innovators in the modern technological Russian sculpture

To 1 Feb 2019
Dmitry Kawarga. Shell semantic structures
Elektromuzey
Moscow, St. Rostokinskaya, 1

In a small Museum room in the North of the capital at the right hand of the incoming audience is located sculptural statics: recognizable cores in transparent flasks, and suspended the construction of wall reliefs. Left — breathable objects, interactive installations with motors, sensors, control computers. Center — documentation of landscape architecture, giant 21-метрового Kawarga-скита completed in 2018. However, despite the diversity of forms and genres, the exhibition Kawarga generally focuses on one main idea which is the artist in recent years. We are talking about varieties of art agnosticism — principled rejection of the knowability of the world, belief in the impossibility of knowing reality through subjective experience. Especially when mankind so much self-absorbed.

This project — is yet another manifestation of the reaction to the dictates and pressures of modern civilization. Last a long time behaving in obsessive and arrogant, seeks to structure, all to "explain" to enter into the logic of "here's the cause, but the consequence". Buying off "victims" of physical comfort, civilization aims to make the world as manageable and rational. And for this it is necessary to bring all stages of interaction with people and between people to the limit of simplification, the essence of a vulgarization. "Don't think, don't click on the — will get the result." Because it's always easier to convince and manipulate, and to bring down the herd.

In response to this strategy of manipulation Kawarga offers his utopian idea of resistance — to scroll through the stuffing ago. "Spray" has been defined by who-то rational sense back to the state deintellectualization ether. Turn disgusting "bouillon cubes", which are stuffed with society back in the information soup. In other words, transform civilization imposed by the semantic of the structure back into its original intellectual abstraction. Maybe this happens to avoid the trap, when humanity all the power of new technologies is to revive the intellectual of the middle ages.

Not coincidentally, interactive object "Absorbs concepts / Semireflexive hoaxer Socal" — inverter rational in abstraction — became the Central work of the exhibition. Rumbling and blowing saliva colored hardware-программный complex is named in honor of conceptual "Scam Sakala". 25 years ago the physicist and mathematician Alan Sokal wrote an article resonance "Transgressing the boundaries. To the question of transformative hermeneutics of quantum gravity". In it, he convincingly scientific language have expressed doubts as to the physical laws, proposing to give priority to the laws of social interaction. Feigned flirting with intellectuals-гуманитариями the author managed to hold the editorial Board of the scientific journal Social Text, which in all seriousness has published an absurd article. Who would call banter, prank, trolling. But for Socal it was a social experiment. After the magazine article in light of the scientist confessed and rebuked the gullible: "anyone who believes that the laws of physics are merely social agreements, is invited to try to break these agreements from the Windows of my apartment (I live on the twenty-first floor)". The experiment proved that the publication is written in scientific style, incorporating accepted scientific terms and which creates in the reader a positive impression from reading the latter can be taken as a reliable source, even if its basic idea goes against common sense, and all things which he had been taught so far. And the name of the scientist, as the name goof of the journal Social Text, subsequently went down in history as the "Scam Sakala".

How does the "Socal" Kawarga? The spectator takes one of the cards with texts by artists, philosophers, science fiction writers (Isaac Asimov, Malevich, etc.) and stores it in a device similar to the bullet trap. There the text from the card is scanned and processed by a computer program. Assessing the emotionality of the text and its richness in complex terms, the program sends a signal to the motors of the sculpture, and she begins to respond with a certain temperament. Sometimes active (outrage), sometimes quieter. Depending on the "mood" of the sculpture itself, churning out colorful bubbles. Thus, as liquid paint flow lyrics by construction joints and flow in the plane under it. Having passed a difficult way, a clear scientific and philosophical statement is converted into graphic abstraction, becoming the result of "brainstorming" activities of sculpture. It should be understood: "Absorbing the concepts of" responds only to the formal structure of the texts. The very same idea in the lyrics is beyond comprehension of an object.

with the exception of two all the sculptures and interactive objects made in 2018. A — especially for this exhibition. That is, they are all new. But the most recent of them — is "Black stuff" hanging in the cage or on the body of sinister. On the one hand, it is an appeal to the substantia nigra of the brain (not fully explored part of the brain responsible for breathing, heart activity and that-то else). And on the other hand — address to the astronomical dark matter that emits no electromagnetic radiation and is invisible to modern devices. In form it is another "breathing" sculpture with feedback. To achieve its reaction, the audience should tell her what-то signal several possible ways to deploy the movement sensor, temperature, to "draw the attention" voice, etc. In response,the sculpture will slowly begin to change shape,making strange otherworldly hum and emitting itself from the air stream. According to the plan this should be forced interaction with the abstract body in the cage. In this reaction of the body, the viewer is unable to reliably decide whether you like the "black stuff" to participate in this communicating or not. As in life.

"a Theorem about infinite monkeys" — object, named after the real theory, according to which a conditional is a monkey, randomly banging on the keys of a typewriter, sooner or later will print the "hamlet" of Shakespeare. There is such a possibility, it is actually calculated based on the length of the text and the number of letters in the English alphabet. It is clear that there turned out so many zeros, that'll make his head spin. Nevertheless. This small, almost zero chance used by philosophers and creationists as conclusive proof of the impossibility of the origin of life from inorganic soup. The chances of this even less than the likelihood of a "hamlet" from apes. About as if a tornado blew down in a garbage dump, would gather from her ultramodern Boeing.

In the sculpture "theorem" Kawarga no monkeys, no typewriters, and the only synthetic gut, populated by thousands of men. It reductions occur in the range from conventional to biological spasm "jerking" transmission of an old car. And as a result of these movements, of course, there is a lot of random transformations. What it means — is unknown. The object is constantly changing, being destroyed with every movement, and every second he's not the equal of the former. But if a theorem about infinite monkeys is correct, and the engine is not limited, then arbitrarily long time from the material of the sculpture can grow, for example, plastic flower or object disintegrate into blocks of "LEGO". Moreover, the rate of evolution of the polymer the monster in flower is likely to be higher than the rate of occurrence of dinosaurs of bacteria.

the exhibition is very evident that all of robotized sculptures Kawarga — beings, artificially bred, and frankly not adapted to their natural habitat. Made of metal and plastic — they live, suffer, regularly require treatment and surgical intervention: they have to operate to fix the hernia and dislocations, to stop "bleeding" colors and stitches. Keep them at home is not easy, if at all possible. In most cases, hope to survive, they have only in a Museum zoo.

But a static sculpture — is another matter. Cores in transparent flasks and wall reliefs quite easily take root in homescollectors and connoisseurs of art. Such objects are often sold at contemporary art fairs and auctions. But let the stillness of these statues is not deceiving you. Each of them — is a still moment of movement, albeit frozen. And this is not what-то discrete sighs, and the movement of tectonic. Thus, the cores Kawarga project "Toxicity of anthropocentrism" is often symbolize civilizational developments, the historical spiral development. If you carefully examine them, we see the layers of how the world defies Gorbachev Stalin's world, and the world, Stalin stands over the civilizational system of Marx. The end of all civilizational movement Kawarga is usually the time of degeneration back into chaos.

the Artist is not very fond of the philosophy of anthropocentrism and, frankly, not a high opinion about the role of humanity in this world. In one of his the lyrics to the cycle of "Toxemia of anthropocentrism" he talks about it quite frankly: "the strain of the mind is planted within us, suppressing all related to the biological body, instincts, emotions, fears and worries. Along with this of us leave and more recently a disturbing and stunning our consciousness of concepts such as divine, spirit, fate, etc. We merge into a single yet biological mass, in the whole of human substance, a kind of thinking energy, alien to all life on this planet. In parallel, the person, as the individual unit loses its importance and independence". This ideological message is felt in many works: plastic man is given the role not just gutless and pointless, but harmful biomass. And only Kawarga-скит serves as a platform for gaining what-то humility before the face of the hated author of human occupation.

Giant biomorphic tower Kawarga-скита today, perhaps, is the pinnacle of creativity of the artist. Both figuratively and literally, given that its height — 21 meters. About it at the exhibition tell only film and photographs. This, of course, is not enough. Built only miracle design Kawarga-Skete dignity can only be assessed in the place where she was born, — in the woods tracts Gorenichi Leningrad region. According to the artist inhabited the dome at a height of 7-этажного house allows the visitor "to tune into your own consciousness, go into a kind of trance, as if dissolving in a special place... the sky, forest landscapes and houses with height allow him a way to rise above worldly things. Thus, modern art is not the decoration of the environment, but helps people to go beyond the ordinary, to change the consciousness, to tune in to spiritual work." And this is a film about Kawarga-ските I would advise viewers to complete the viewing of the exhibition. There are things that you want to allow a little longer to get out of my head.

Exhibition "Skins semantic structures" elektromuzee will last until the end of January 2019. Curator — Alexei Shulgin.

Vladimir Bogdanov, AI

What to read on the topic on AI:
the Exhibition "Breakthrough" at the Kuznetsk bridge, 21/5;
New sculptures Dmitry Kawarga installed in the Park "Muzeon";
Sculptural object Dmitry Kawarga height of a seven-story building erected in the Leningrad region;
Alexander Sokolov and Dmitry Kawarga "Drummer";
Interview with the artist Dmitry Kawarga.