Arseniy Zhilyaev
Born 1984 in Voronezh. Education: Institute of Contemporary Art, Moscow (2006-07), Valand School of Fine Arts, Gothenburg (200810). Solo shows: “Rational Egoism” (2010, Regina Gallery, Moscow), “Radio October” (2011, Project_ Fabrika, Moscow), “Pegagogical Poem” in collaboration with Iliya Budraitiskis (2012, Presnya Historical Memorial Museum, Moscow).
“Museum of Proletarian Culture. The Industrialization of Bohemia”
At the core of the installation “Museum of Proletarian Culture. The Industrialization of Bohemia” is a complex dialectical relationship between the museum and the artist. Zhilyayev draws a contrast between two epochs: the late-Soviet era of work and leisure, at the juncture of which independent, uncontrolled and anonymous art forms were born, and the post-Soviet era, which professionalized these forms and carried amateur artists to a commercial level. While museums dictate the rhythms of artistic creation – art is inserted into an institutional framework of societal and political requirements – anonymous, recreational art is a side effect of this machine, and is born in amateur art circles, in workers’ clubs and cultural centers. Zhilyayev’s total installation is a conceptual response to Alexei Fyodorov-Davydov’s “Experimental Complex Marxist Exhibition” (State Tretyakov Gallery, 1931). Today Zhilyayev offers us another chance to consider the relationship between aesthetics and the conditions of artistic creation, supplemented in his project with an analysis of history and the political context. Here it is impossible to distinguish architecture from assemblage, fact from fantasy, document from fiction. The artist partially imitates and partially appropriates elements from Soviet interiors. Viewers find themselves in the era of didactic exhibitions. First they encounter the history of the late-Soviet period, whose heroes are workers, engineers and amateur artists, and then this is replaced with the history of the creative classes from the almost futuristic 1990s and 2000s.
Maria Chekhonadskikh
Арсений Жиляев. Музей пролетарской культуры. Индустриализация богемы. 2012. Инсталляция, смешанная техника. Размеры варьируются. © галерея «Риджина», Лондон — Москва Arseny Zhilyayev. Museum of Proletarian Culture. The Industrialization of Bohemia. 2012. Installation, mixed media. Sizes vary. © Regina Gallery, London — Moscow
Арсений Жиляев. Музей пролетарской культуры. Индустриализация богемы. 2012. Инсталляция, смешанная техника. Размеры варьируются. © галерея «Риджина», Лондон — Москва Arseny Zhilyayev. Museum of Proletarian Culture. The Industrialization of Bohemia. 2012. Installation, mixed media. Sizes vary. © Regina Gallery, London — Moscow
Арсений Жиляев. Музей пролетарской культуры. Индустриализация богемы. 2012. Инсталляция, смешанная техника. Размеры варьируются. © галерея «Риджина», Лондон — Москва Arseny Zhilyayev. Museum of Proletarian Culture. The Industrialization of Bohemia. 2012. Installation, mixed media. Sizes vary. © Regina Gallery, London — Moscow
Арсений Жиляев. Музей пролетарской культуры. Индустриализация богемы. 2012. Инсталляция, смешанная техника. Размеры варьируются. © галерея «Риджина», Лондон — Москва Arseny Zhilyayev. Museum of Proletarian Culture. The Industrialization of Bohemia. 2012. Installation, mixed media. Sizes vary. © Regina Gallery, London — Moscow