[spectre] Ephemeral Reality. Minsk, Belarus.

[Andrey Savitsky]

EPHEMERAL REALITY
exhibition project by Pavel B. Radzetski.

 In a time of social and cultural globalization when
the international art
community is becoming actively integrated, I wanted to
focus my attention on
a group of artists whose work springs from a very
defined cultural situation
of post-Soviet Belarus. Contemporary art here is at
its nascent stage of
establishing itself aesthetically and philosophically
within the society and
larger international art community. Only recently, for
the first time,
artists from Belarus are able to look around, to see
and evaluate what is
happening in the world of contemporary art. In a
relatively short time they
have managed to refine their artistic vision to make a
relevant contribution
to the dialogue of contemporary art on a global scale.
But who are we after
all? What is our creative cultural identity as
individuals and as a
collective? These are the main questions I asked
myself as the curator and
one of the participating artists when I conceived of
the exhibition
Ephemeral Reality which comes as part of an
international collaborative
project entitled Current Tendencies Of Contemporary
Art.

Ephemeral Reality is an attempt to investigate the
issues of artistic
personal identity in order to provide a broader view
of the philosophical
and aesthetic undercurrents developing in Belarusan
art today. The show
brings together the works of artists of two merging
generations who work in
a variety of mediums ranging from video and
photography to sound and media
installation. The common thread that aesthetically
binds the show is
revealed in its title, Ephemeral Reality, which
suggests that implied
meaning and visual depiction are elusive even in the
artists' choice of
subject matter, media, execution and technique.
Such work as Andrei Savitsiy's autonomous digital
audiosystem,
T.r.a.g.matics, which randomly generates innumerous
gamma patterns without
any human involvement and is entirely self-regulating.
Igor Savchenko's
sound works give only acoustic portrayal of a variety
of time-spatial
events, like radio transmissions, without any tangible
object being
presented. Evelyna Domnitch and Dmitri Gelfand's
liquid light installation
Opening Coccyx explores the latent possibilities of
chemical elements,
derived from extensive scientific experiments in
chemistry. Pavel
Radzetski's project Spatial Being proposes new
configurations in the
perception of human identity by reflecting upon the
metaphysical condition
of the human body in relation to the spatial volume
surrounding it, and its
potential to transgress the physicality of space.
These and other works chosen for the exhibition
display a decisive forward
and outward-looking trend to the point of
self-effacement, disembodiment,
and depersonalization on the one hand, and on the
other, a profound and
precise study of the metaphysical state when the
subject/object disappears.
Ultimately, the de-emphasis of a cultural identity in
the artists' work is
supplanted by a keen examination of the overarching
philosophical questions
of self reflection on a broader universal level.


EPHEMERAL REALITY
Current Tendencies of Contemporary Art of Belarus
http://ephemeral-reality.by.ru

Exhibition of contemporary art curated  by Pavel Baned
Radzetski, New York.

Minsk, Belarus
National Museum of History and Culture of Belarus
12 Karl Marx Street
April 18 - May 1, 2002

Opening: April 18, 5:30pm

6-7pm - audio performans by Andrei Savitsky
(http://hhtp.org), Minsk, in collaboration with
Pavel Radzetski, New York
7-7:30pm - Supermarket, projection of videofilm by
Pawel Wojtasik, New York

EXHIBITING ARTISTS:

1. Kirill Goncharov, Warsaw, series of photographs
from Landing and Tea Box,
toned gelatin silver prints, 2001. 15 images depicting
 human body and
objects are being dissolved until compleatly
dissapeared.

2. Evelyna Domnitch, Dmitry Gelfand
(http://www.portablepalace.com) , New York,
chemi-luminescent
installation OPENING COCCYX, 2001. Dimentions vary,
chemicals, IV dispenser,
metallic receptacle.
...a burst of bright light is emitted as a result of a
chemical reaction
which occurs as a drop of phosphoric solution falls
into a pool of sodium
hypo chlorite (bleach). After birth the nine sacral
and tailbones are fused
into two, enabling the trunk of the body to stand
upright. Unless the sacral
and tailbones are reopened, it is not possible for the
neck muscles,
cervical spine and throat to operate freely. It is not
possible to reach an
illuminated state until this process is completed.

3. Artur Klinau, Minsk, photography/mixed-media
installation Symmetry
Disappearance, 2002.

4. Sergei Kozhemyakin
(http://kozhemyakin.dironweb.com), Minsk, black and
white photographs from the series
Phantom Sensations, toned gelatin silver prints
1997-2002.

5. Vitold Levchenya, Minsk, multimedia installation SO
8, 2002.

6. Pavel B. Radzetski, New York, photographs from the
series Spatial Being,
2001-2002. The project proposes new configurations in
the perception of
human identity by reflecting upon the metaphysical
condition of the human
body in relation to the abstract spatial volume and
its potential to
transgress the physicality of space. Also, audio
installation Chiesel Work.
Acoustic Sculpture of Mammallapuram, India, audio, ca
7 min, 2001.

7. Lyudmila Rusova, Minsk, Edition of Absence, video,
2001.

8. Andrey Savitsky (http://hhtp.org), Minsk,
multimedia installation T.r.a.g.matics (made with
Pd - Miller Puckette's Software), 2001. T.r.a.g.matics
is an attempt at
creating audio systems, existing autonomously, without
any need of
authorship or stylistic foundation. A sonic
environment emerges through a
system based on algorithms which trigger mathematical
accidents over the
course of time. The functionality of the system is
woven from the primary
elements of real-time digital sound production:
frequency modulation,
sampling, sequencing, pitch, and mixing among others.
Video installation The Trashback, 2002. The Trashback
illustrates a
fictitious mental phenomenon of arising in the
viewer's perception sort of
associative garbage mixed with graphically incorrect
interpretations of the
interface in the failed recognition system.

9. Igor Savchenko (http://wwh.nsys.by/savchenko),
Minsk, audio/mixed-media  installation A Small
Research
on Contemporary Coded Radio Transmissions, 1999. Also,
2 audio works:
Art-dealer and Artist, New York, late 1990s, ca 76
min, 1997-99; Yevgeny
Primakov is U-turning His Plane Over The Atlantic,
March 24, 1999 (fragments
of radio communications with Moscow and ground flight
control services),
audio, ca 45 min, 1999.

10. Olga Sazykina, Minsk, documented action/drawings
from Diary of
Breathing. Working with Energy Structures, 1997-2002
______________________________

Exhibition made possible through 
the generous support of ArtsLink,
a Programm of CEC International Partners, New-York




__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://http://taxes.yahoo.com/