Oleg Kulik

KulikPerformed actions in Moscow galleries in the 1990s. Has had solo exhibitions in Moscow (including one at the Central House of Artists in 2007), Ghent and Naples. Participated in “Manifesta 1” (1996), the Sao Paolo Biennial (1997), the Venice Biennale (1997, 2003, 2005), “Moscow-Berlin” (2002-2004), special projects for the 1st and 2nd Moscow Biennales (2005, 2007) and “ Russia!” ( New York and Bilbao, 2006), among others.

After a long and perilous career studying the boundary between man and animal, Oleg Kulik arrived at what some called New Age ideology. But now this phrase is no longer used in reference to the artist. While the West’s turn toward ancient Asian civilizations in the 1980s is seen to have sprung from naivete and a hidden sense of superiority, Kulik experienced his spiritual breakthrough on a trip to the Mongolian steppe. Third World countries have long been seen as problem areas in contemporary art; the economic situation of peripheral regions has been a source of comparisons and counterpoint to the glorious new globalized world. From this perspective, the absence of activism and politics in Kulik’s video seems both anachronistic and fresh. He went to Mongolia in search of the same things that once drew Paul Gauguin to Polynesia: emotions, sensations, simplicity, modesty, enlightenment and 40°Cheat. Thus Kulik, reputed to be a perfectionist, suddenly exchanged the surgical precision of his collages and installations for the shaky camera of Lars von Trier’s Dogme 95 movement. Von Trier and Kulik have the same goal: to film in such a way that the final product resembles life more than fiction. Viewed from the outside, a foreign culture only shows us its sunny side. But a person with some experience in adapting to a different lifestyle has a great advantage in his own culture. At least Kulik has logically concluded his artistic quest in a place where man and animal exist in a deep and natural symbiosis.
Valentin Diakonov


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