Olga and Alexander Florensky
Live and work in St. Petersburg. Were organizers of the Mit’ki artist group. Have participated in Russian and international film festivals (1993-2006). Works included in the collections of the Tretyakov Gallery, the RussianMuseum, the Victoria and AlbertMuseum ( London) and Kiasma ( Helsinki), among others.
In Russian Trophy Olga and Alexander Florensky come armed with their best strategic designs from the time they were part of the Mit’ki folk art movement to their post-Mit’ki period. Their toy arsenal was assembled as part of the Russian Design project, in which artists made objects for war out of old household junk such as tubes and oil stove burners, acting as a people’s inventors, a rubbish-heap Mikhail Kalashnikovs. Their battle pieces and other visual aids are made in their trademark aesthetic of pseudo-childish popular print and old comics. Their enemie’s flags demonstrate “the psychology of the common font” used for housing department announcements and fence aphorisms. Everything together comprises a would-be military-historical museum where the Florenskys act as curators-cum-anthropologists. Russian Trophy is conceptualism with a Petersburg accent. With an absurdist irony derived from Daniil Harms and the Oberiuts, they thoroughly dissect the whole range of Soviet-era myths, from the great-power myth with, its cult of the military-industrial complex, to the communal one. The outcome of this artistic study of Soviet mentality is couched in a form that resists verbal description; it demonstrates an antiquarian passeї quality typical of Petersburg since the World of Art movement. However, the loving attitude toward the spoils of a past civilization and the ironic attitude toward newly extolled militarism both expressed here give a clear answer to the eternal question of whether Russians want war.
Anna Tolstova
Военная картина № 5. 1) Эскадренный миноносец «Забияка» («Урицкий»). 2) Гвардейский крейсер «Красный Крым» («Светлана»). 3) Минный катер «Чесма» с вооруженного парохода «Великий князь Константин». 4) Гвардейский монитор «Сунь Ят Сен», он же шквал. 5) Пароходофрегат «Владимир» атакует турецкий пароход «Перваз Бахри». 2006. Из серии Русские военные картины. Из проекта Русский трофей. Холст, масло, 150х100; War Painting No. 5. 1) Zabiyaka (Uritsky) fleet destroyer. 2) Red Crimea (Svetlana) guard cruiser. 3) Chesma mine launcher with the armed steamer Great King Konstantin. 4) The Sun Yat-Sen guard monitor is a squall. 5) The frigate Vladimir attacks the Turkish steamer Pervaz Bakhri. From the project Russian Trophy. Oil on canvas. 150 х 100 cm.
Военный вертолет. 2006. Из проекта Русский трофей. Объект. Смешанная техника. 250х100х50; Florensky. Military Helicopter. 2006. From the project Russian Trophy. Mixed media. 250 х 100 х 50 cm.
Субмарина крупных размеров. 2006. Из проекта Русский трофей. Объект. Смешанная техника. 380х187х82; Submarine of Large Sizes. 2006. From the project Russian Trophy. Object. Mixed media. 380 х 187 х 82 cm.
Гибель вражеского аэроплана. Аэрофотография, сделанная при помощи фотокамеры, установленной на крыле аэроплана-разведчика. 2006. Из серии Образцы шпионской аэрофотографии. Из проекта Русский трофей. 50х60.; Demise of the Enemy’s Airplane. Aerial photography taken with a camera mounted on the wing of a spy plane. 2006. From the project Russian Trophy. 50 х 60 cm.
Танковая атака на сильно пересеченной местности. Аэрофотография, сделанная при помощи фотокамеры, установленной на крыле аэроплана-разведчика. 2006. Из серии Образцы шпионской аэрофотографии. Из проекта Русский трофей. 50х60.; Tank Attack on Rugged Terrain. Aerial photography taken with a camera mounted on the wing of a spy plane. 2006. From the project Russian Trophy. 50 х 60 cm.