The artist Pahom about his exhibition Les Fleurs du…

About the concept of the exhibition and its connection with Baudelaire’s collection of poems “Flowers of Evil”

As you know, Charles Baudelaire visited brothels, because he followed the principle “the visible should irritate the spleen.” Ordinary life is boring, and the symbolist’s rebellious soul needed thrills. In his poetry, Baudelaire, being a symbolist and decadent, plunges into the gloomy dens of Paris and its suburbs, enjoying what he saw and absorbing pictures of that side of life: bright, painful, colorful. Several verses from the book were even banned by the censors, but this only added to their charm. Now, of course, “Flowers of Evil” are canonical texts that reveal the picture of the world as a whole and help to understand the various manifestations of the human soul.

Being a symbolist, I slightly paraphrased the title and idea of ​​the collection: in Russian, the exhibition is called “Flowers of Good” – not leafy, not affectionate, not lisping, but powerful goodness. This is the other side of Baudelaire’s Flowers.

About approaches in the work of the artist

There are two types of creators. Some people save everything and sit with their backs, make underpaintings, careful developments, a billion sketches. We know that Ivanov and Repin had a whole body of sketches. The second type is those who are ready to create spontaneously, here and now. I combine two approaches: preparation, diligence, sketching, directing, dramaturgy, and at the same time flashes and splashes, characteristic of rebellious souls, always ready for instant manifestation.

On the connection of the Les Fleurs du… exhibition with the Soviet underground

I am a member of the underground culture. Not a member of the Union of Artists, did not participate in city or any state exhibitions, in competitions: it seems to me that competition, in principle, humiliates a person and can cause injury. Competition is a terrible thing. Many athletes die from this moral burden: here you are a man-universe, you are running somewhere, and another universe is running nearby. And why does his universe turn out to be cooler than yours? More expensive even?

Under the Soviet regime, there were various competitions, you could go to Czechoslovakia, to Bulgaria, if you won. But it was nicer for me to make an apartment exhibition with the same underground clowns as I do. Gradually, I gained fat, although even now I am not a refined artist. For viewers who understand the Soviet context, and in memory of my underground youth and what is dear to my heart, I made this exhibition.

About modern forms of the Russian underground

The legal and main tradition in modern Russian art is realism. So that a pot, leg, arm, and so on are similarly drawn. That is, what is clear to our simple, inexperienced person and great people. Go to the church: there are hands, feet, heads on the frescoes. Sometimes there are fantastic animals: some snakes, striped devils, fictional objects are also found. And the underground is very close to this need. Icon-painting technique with gaps, conditional, not called realism – reverse perspective, and so on – these are all recognizable and readable images that are understandable to a person with a look that is not clouded from the exercises in the study of contemporary art.

And of course, the underground always exists: there are some bright sides, but there are illegible spots in world culture – this is just the underground. The Russian underground has its own roots, its origins and forerunners, its own strength, idols and direction of movement. To the inexperienced, this is just not very close. And who is fond of music or contemporary art, cinema, it will be interesting for him to immerse himself in the semi-basement art formations created on the knee or by a community of intellectual friends.

About the audience of Les Fleurs du…

I always do the hanging of the exposition myself. Hanging is a separate culture. It is not enough for an artist to make a work, a material object. If you have the opportunity to make a solo exhibition, it is important to see it in its entirety. I always tell my students: be a spectator of your work, abstract yourself from yourself, move away from the individual at a sufficient distance and look at how the work looks with a clear look.

In my own expositions, I need dramaturgy, logic, aesthetics, ethics, corporate logic and aesthetics – everything that the viewer can read.

And about the identity of the viewer

The most important critic and viewer for an artist is himself. If an artist is dishonest with himself, if he betrays himself, his feeling, his quality, his will, if he wriggles in front of himself, this artist is worthless. Too much honor for such a “creator” to be seen. The artist is both a slave, a judge, and a master of his work.

Prepared by Valya Filippenko

The exhibition Les Fleurs du… will run until 16 April. You can visit it for free.