KIRILL CHELUSHKIN
LIFESTYLE.
08.04 - 22.05.2021
Kirill Chelushkin's solo exhibition “Lifestyle” presents works from two graphic series: “About Spaces” (2020) and “Lifestyle” (2019-2020). The plots of the works rhyme, in both series the author speaks of a specific way of living. The artist is interested in relations between people, especially in misunderstood, strange and uncertain situations that are often artificially constructed.
“The technique of his drawings is simple to the point of archaism: based on the talent of a draftsman, it is multiplied by gigantic handicraft labor costs. The space of the picture literally accumulates, visualizes and transmits the energy of the spent "man-hours", instant impulses and the shortest signals inconceivable for the present time. The artist deliriously attacks the canvas, fights with the pencil lead nakedly, holding it according to Filonov's behest: like a carpenter an ax, so that no one can pull it out”.
Anton Uspensky
In this video, Kirill Chelushkin is working in his Paris studio on the series "Lifestyle" and "Two Laws". The plot was provided by the artist for the HUB anniversary online exhibition at the Marina Gisich gallery. The artist carried out the shooting and editing himself.
Kirill Chelushkin (b. 1968) is a world-renowned artist and virtuoso draftsman who has been working in collaboration with Marina Gisich Gallery for 10 years. The artist lives and works in Moscow and Paris.
In 1994 he graduated from the Moscow Architectural Institute, Moscow. He was nominated for the Kandinsky Prize (2009). Multiple participant of international contemporary art fairs: Art Miami, Art Paris, ARCO Madrid. Participant of the Venice and Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art.
The artist's works are presented in the collections of major museums such as the State Tretyakov Gallery (Moscow), the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation (Moscow), the INTART Foundation (New York), the Ishibashi Museum (Japan), the Bolzano Museum of Art (Bolzano, Italy) , Museum Ludwig (Cologne, Germany), as well as in the largest private collections of contemporary art, including the collection of Bernard Arnault (president and CEO of the Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group of companies), the collection of Simon de Pury (Switzerland), the collection of Hero Hermes (France), and other.
“What is striking is the artist's insistence on ignoring at least slightly meaningful themes or iconic images, in the way he carefully builds up his personal poetics of non-recognition, in the way he consistently increases the yield of his marginal fields! In his depository it is impossible to detect a media face, a recognizable landscape or an homage gesture. To break out of any canon into an occasional freedom is an almost impossible task, but a captivating one, as one does not recall from the greats: "The world was catching me but did not catch me".
Anton Uspensky
SERIES «LIFESTYLE»
Many events that seemed important and even landmark, marking a milestone in history, have in fact turned out to be quite insignificant. Moreover, they have had no effect whatsoever, apart from creating legends. Such as aeronautics. Airships. Even though the airship industry has been thriving, airships have not been used by the military industry or civil aviation. Ans the pathos of the conquest of the moon is still incomprehensible. The many sacrifices of testing the limits of human capabilities. This constituted the meaning of human lives, completely filling the existence of generations with pathos. In the dry residue we often have only an artistic reflection of these events. Legends, rumours, heroic images, but often nothing at all. So it is not a question of recording heroic things, not of documenting events, but of creating myths, stories and legends. This is how a way of life is created. We will never know the details.
The presentiment of danger. Documentary filming, chronicling the loser is impossible. The chronicle always concerns the winner, it became possible for this reason only. The pictures that we see are exclusively the pictures of the winner, the survivor, otherwise we will never see them since they have been destroyed.
Thus, any documentary shooting is the truth of one side only, but we will never see the chronicle of the victim. A way of life is always heroic.
Kirill Chelushkin
His characters are distinctive by not falling into their own bodies, not recognizing their personal shells or being surprised at their accomplished incarnation ("Lifestyle"). The chaotic nature of this world as a whole is undeniable, but we are presented with only one mise-en-scene as a localized tragedy or personal mystery. Exploring themselves, learning their limits, risking their own health - it's almost like news publicity breaks through in these stories, recording belated rituals of initiation and postponed moments of adulthood for the Kidults. On the other hand, this is a timeless classic of existentialism, in which, as we know: " All, all that threatens us with death, / Hides for the mortal in its depth / An inexplicable enchantment" - especially in times of plague.
Anton Uspensky
SERIES "TWO LAWS"
There are some things that you think How good is it that they never happened in life, that they only existed as an art project, as an idea, or even just words. Once we were students, my friend visited architecture schools in the USA. We met, stood and then he sighed sorrowfully and said, "You know, it's hardly possible today to come up with something fundamentally new, he said quietly, "Until they abolish two laws: the law of friction and the law of gravitation, maybe then..." Enough time has passed since then; now my friend is a respected man, the owner of a thriving architectural firm and a professor at the Moscow Architectural Institute. I mean, some people manage to do it after all.
Kirill Chelushkin
The space of industrial urbanism remains perceptibly inhabited even in the absence of staffage. The bustling staircases, mushroom spawn of air conditioners, lantern joints and riveted towers cancel out the sense of desolation and create a specific comfort of anti-utopia, akin to apocalyptic and yet humane endings in Vonnegut or Saimak's fantasy novels. If the protagonists have shattered their stock of humanism, it has not evaporated completely, but is paradoxically absorbed in synthetic shells with ribs and metal trusses with buttresses. The technoforce has been humanised at the expense of a dehumanised population.
Anton Uspensky
The exhibition is open every day from 11.00 to 19.00.
On Saturdays from 11.30 to 13.00 paid admission as part of the ART O'CLOCK event.
Check the details on the eve of the event.