Grigory Yuschenko

Grigory Yuschenko was born in 1986 inNovosibirsk.
He now lives and works in St. Petersburg.
A participant of more than 40 exhibitions and happenings, he’s been a member of the Prosthesis art group since 2006.
Yuschenko’s 2008 project was a Kandinsky Prize finalist.

Magical рsychedelic рolice project

The focus of the project Magic Psychedelic Police is to create a new positive image of Russia and the Russian militsia (police). Everybody knows that in 2009-10 the Russian police force was victim to persecution; every day the mass media told us about crimes in which its men were involved. Russian people now have a vision that the militsia is a vicious, uncontrollable force that kills, rapes and never gets punished.
I want to offer an alternative vision. In this project I show militsia as men who are making magical and psychedelic practices. I show that police officers are something like a sainted caste; they’re engaging in strange practices and bloody rituals to save us all. Look at their hats — they have an image of a third eye.
Policemen are not ordinary men. They are the Magic Psychedelic Police. This is all shown in paintings, but I have also offered a film project that will create a positive image of the police in Russia. It could be shown on TV instead of many current films, where police are shown as bully scum, indistinguishable with criminals themselves.