UNTITLED (2013)

Duration: 1st day – 6 hours, 2nd day – 8 hours

Archstoyanie Festival of Landscape Objects, Kaluga Region, Russia

The very first time I was at the Louvre, the first thing I did was go to see the Mona Lisa. When I came back, my aunt asked, “Well, how was it?!” I told her that I was terribly sorry for her ... Hundreds of people constantly photographing a still image – it seemed to me that it was so difficult and unbearable for her to be there ... A lot of people want to take a picture and keep it as a souvenir (of course, taking a good picture through glass and the barrier is impossible), to bring a piece of a miracle back home ... Then, I started thinking about the relationship between the artist and his work. Well, any work of art is basically a naked artist telling the viewer all the most intimate details about him, and sometimes even what he is ashamed or afraid of ... People can form their own opinions, both about the artist and his work. They can think well of him, but they can also walk all over him; they can laugh, wonder, be angry or feel absolute happiness, etc. ... And you know what? I became convinced of that using this work of art as an example. I saw all the emotional gradations – all in one work of art. In general, the first day I lay there for six hours, and then the second day for eight hours, and I took an hour-long break. It can be compared to a children's game when they hide something very important under glass. And, of course, the theme – which everyone thought about – is the afterlife ... But I don't think it's bad. It is a story about a person who felt so bad that he tried to get away from it all, but the people remained. What Andrei Levkin said after the death of Yanka Dyagileva seems very appropriate here, “Angel, interrupted. This life is very similar to a wire: you have to walk through it, swinging: you walk, look down and fall, glowing with some crap. You've become something that has no name. You're lying there, where all sleep well: yes, the snow is always under us. Don't fly, don't fly so low.” This is only a short part of a long text ... You know, it is still hard for me to write texts; I feel and understand more on the inside. But I hope I have made something clear, more or less ... Just in case there are any questions. And yes, this performance was the most difficult for me. My friends told me that everything has been thought through perfectly to cause a response ... But this was not even my goal (and that is the funniest thing!) because I did the same performance two years ago at a museum. All my artist friends turned up, but it was nothing extraordinary – I lay there for only two hours and the audience had seen everything already. I didn’t even think about ordinary people coming here – bringing their own worlds with them – and that there will be so many responses, and these responses will be so sincere ...

 The performance has no name because a name would reduce the number of meanings that I wanted to reflect.

2018 “Anatomy of fairytale”, Pörnbach Contemporary, Munich, Germany

Curator: Natacha Ivanova

2013 Archstoyanie Festival of Landscape Objects, Kaluga Region, Russia

Curator: Katya Bochavar