The «Doppelganger» project revives the exhibition of contemporary artists, works created specifically for the atrium of the Garage Museum. However, these pieces now not only interact with the Museum’s architecture but also with its growing collection. In this way, the atrium becomes yet another space for open storage, allowing for a «test run» of artists before their inclusion in the Museum’s collection or to showcase already acquired works to the audience.
The project consists of two new series, one created for the Garage, and the other, «Horned» which arrived directly from the artist’s workshop. The starting point for the development of the project’s composition is the change in height across the atrium and the contrast of the museum’s space with its color and graphic elements; the same principle is applied to the sculptural group’s color and volumetric design. Within this frame, Gorshkov enthusiastically responds to two creative challenges: exploring the artistic possibilities of the ultimate readymade (an inflatable street figure) and figuring out «what can be done with deer antlers without falling into decorative aesthetics. Giant figures, five and seven meters tall, are «tamed» by Ivan in his usual manner, using smaller ready-made objects – numerous masks and wigs purchased from popular marketplaces – as well as through graffiti.
Gorshkov approaches the antlers with the focus of a sculptor: preserving the integrity of the natural form, he discovers a tribal aesthetic within it—a tribal tattoo, which has long been an element of youth culture. He passionately distributes bone-like tribal figures between anthropomorphic and lattice-like characters, creating a diverse cast of figures. «The series works like a team and according to the laws of dramaturgy—there must be a handsome one, a fat one, a quick one…» says the artist, without elaborating on who is who and what plot is being played by each character.
With such liveliness, Gorshkov (similar to Franz West with his welded metal worm-like sculptures, Urs Fischer, whose sculptural projects have been repeatedly presented in Moscow, and even Paul McCarthy) appeals to the pre-cultural layer of consciousness, stepping onto the territory of free children’s creativity and activating the immediacy of perception. He seeks to remind us of the artist’s right not only to rethink cultural codes but also to create their own.
