Artist sandpiper painting. Metamorphoses of Oleg Kulik. This was perceived by the parents as a betrayal.

Oleg Kulik, the main provocateur of Russian art of the 90s, dog man, leader of the Party of Animals and friend of piranhas, has quietly turned into a respectable artist exhibiting in the main halls of the country. At the same time, Kulik never betrayed himself: even now, at his exhibitions, iconostases are made from black bread, and viewers are doused with something resembling oil. On June 25, a retrospective of Kulik opens at the Moscow Central House of Artists, where everything that the artist has done over 20 years is collected - “Chronicle. 1987-1907".

November 23, 1994. Moscow. Yakimanka. Marat Gelman Gallery The owner of the gallery kicks in the door, and a naked Kulik flies out into the street, screeching and barking: the artist knocks down the audience and rushes at the cars. Then the naked Kulik in a collar and on a chain was brought to light by the poet and artist Alexander Brener. This is the first of Kulik's "dog" performances. “The image of a man-dog is very important for the entire Russian culture,” says Vladimir Sorokin, his close friend and witness to almost all performances. “Then Kulik jumped onto the hood of some kind of Mercedes, and I still remember the expression on the face of the man who was sitting there: thanks to Kulik, this prosperous person looked deep into Russia, saw all its archaism, savagery and unpredictability.” Then Kulik stopped traffic and bit a journalist from Sweden, who flew home the next day and wrote a huge article about the "nightmare in Russia." “Yes, yes, he flunked a Swedish girl,” Kulik recalls. “We wanted to make art understandable to the people, to conquer the street, to fall out into reality. The image of a dog is a wild beginning that has burst out, but at the same time a defenseless, kind animal. A naked man on all fours - where is the aggression here? Moscow art critic Ekaterina Degot considers this action the most significant in Kulik's work: "Oleg has an excellent nose for everything that is most fashionable and new."

We meet with Kulik in his little closet at the Winzavod. “This is my reception room,” Kulik laughs. - For girls". We climb under the ceiling - as if on the second floor, where only a low table, buried in pillows, is placed. We drink green tea and remember the man-dog. In the form of a dog, Kulik traveled all over Europe and America. This period, which lasted about thirteen years, he calls zoophrenia. “Please do not confuse with bestiality. In general, when I did this performance for the first time in Moscow with Gelman, I was not going to repeat it again. But, as Kulik himself says, “frostbitten friends joked” and somehow stole the form from the Kunsthaus Museum in Zurich. Then they forged the invitation and the signature of curator Bice Kuriger and sent Kulik to show the dog to Switzerland. Oleg arrived, went to the museum to Bicha and immediately realized that this was a hoax and no one was waiting for him, did not even know about his existence. “I was in shock. Horror! And friends have a pig squeal. They sat down, drank, and I decided to show the dog anyway. I went and bought a chain, a collar, lubricant for swimming in cold lakes, such a special fat.

March 30, 1995. Zurich, Kunsthaus, exhibition "Signs and Wonders" Naked Kulik chains himself to the entrance and for 47 minutes does not let connoisseurs who have come from all over Europe to the opening day. A huge crowd gathers at the entrance to the museum. “They stand, laugh, they say, the artist, the madman, chained himself. It was very cold, minus one degree. Suddenly a naked man at the entrance. I wrote there, even pooped, it was very difficult. The police arrived. The discussion began. And then I bit my aunt, as it turned out, the wife of some ambassador, on the leg - it was a strange leg, there was no smell. Kulik left the opening day in a police car. The next morning, the Kunsthaus bought the Russian artist out of prison, paying a fine of 10,000 Swiss francs. Finally, Kulik really “fell out into reality”: European newspapers were full of notes about the “mad dog from Russia”, photographs of the “lonely Cerberus” went around all of Europe. “I love the early Kulik, sharp, uncompromising, I love his performances, no one in Russia does such sharp things,” says Elena Selina, director of the XL gallery, who has been collaborating with Kulik for 13 years. “A strange thing happened - my performance was presented as a super event and they began to invite a dog everywhere,” says Kulik. “I was unexpectedly recognized as almost the main Russian artist.”

March 2, 1996 Stockholm. Fargfabrik. Exhibition "Interpol" Oleg Kulik presents the Dog House project. The artist was invited as a "mad dog". “I then refused, I didn’t want to show the dog anymore. The Swedes are even worse than the Swiss. They only saw violence on TV. As a result, the exhibition failed, I bit someone to the point of blood, he was given injections for rabies. Kulik was arrested again. The performance caused a big scandal: at the request of the curators, Kulik was forced to write explanatory notes from the series “Why I bit a man.” At the same time, an angry letter was published by the world art community signed by Olivier Zam, editor of Purple Fashion magazine, artist Wenda Gu, Helen Fleiss and others. “Alexander Brener, Oleg Kulik and the Russian curator Viktor Misiano,” they were indignant, “were part of the Interpol project, a joint Russian-Swedish exhibition ... The participation of these persons - after two years of preparation for the project - took the form of deliberate destructive actions, physical, mental and ideological aggression against the exhibition itself, its artists, visitors, as well as against art and democracy. Oleg Kulik, playing the role of a chainman, dangerous dog, physically attacked the visitors, who were seriously frightened and injured. In addition, he blocked the movement of the exhibition and began to destroy the works of other artists… Why didn’t all this happen this summer in the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale, where Victor Misiano was the curator?” But just a few years later, Kulik became a favorite of Western critics and art historians. In 2003, the English contemporary art expert Sarah Wilson wrote: “The performance artist Kulik is the scourge of the civilized West. The strength and charm of Kulik on all fours, this King Lear, is in the form of a “poor unfortunate animal”, both monstrous and seductive. They continue to explore the world through passion and fear."

At the Winzavod, where we meet, Kulik, as a curator, held a grandiose exhibition “I Believe” at the beginning of the year. Then all the best contemporary Russian artists were exhibited in the former wine storage. From Kulik's artistic abilities, we move on to organizational ones; it turns out that once the future man-dog led the village club. It was in the village of Konopad, Tver region, where he lived for four years. “I was engaged in sculpture, rural cubism, sculpted naked milkmaids and a postwoman. He led the village club, was responsible for order there, we arranged some lectures, and in the evenings - dances. A good school for the cultural education of the population, plus everything was actively flavored with moonshine - sometimes he was beaten, waved off the barn lock, sometimes he ran out the window. It is strange, of course, when a drunken population is chasing each other with an ax.” Oleg came to the village of Konopad in 1981, when he was twenty years old. Prior to that, he managed to work as a geologist in Kamchatka and Western Siberia, thus escaping from his Kyiv relatives. “In Kyiv, I had a cultural, prosperous life. Dad is a party leader, mom is a teacher of English and French. But I read dissident literature and formed myself as a conscious oppositionist.” In the village of Kulik, in addition to everything else, he wrote “muddy stories” about the sufferings of a young rabbi: “I wrote about the journey of a young rabbi in China, where he talked with the kings, searched for nirvana - childish nonsense, in general.” Right there, in the village, he met his future wife, Mila Bredikhina, who explained to him that all this literature was no good. Oleg burned everything and went to serve in the army. He served in the Taman division, where, according to him, he began to realize something about his future. “This is where my development took place. I spent two years in an isolated society, in a parallel world, the worst of which, with incredible control and hard pressure. Violence in the barracks is another story. Then I had a feeling of the fragility of life.” Kulik did not play cards with colleagues, did not participate in local orgies. “At night there were Sodom and Gomorrah – grandparents, dogs, alcohol, drugs, men fucking in the ass.” His only entertainment was various kinds of calculations. For example, how much the state spent on armaments or the state apparatus of government. “There was a lot of time, I wrote everything down in a notebook, counted how many cities, how many people, how many toilets.”

In the army, Kulik took up the "category of transparency" - in other words, he began working with glass. “I didn’t want to bring anything into the world,” he says. - You - like glass - fit into this life, such a non-violent presence, because any work of art closes part of the world from us, and I put a sheet of glass in front of me and saw amazing things - both the future and the past, while the material is invisible, but real , heavy. Then I made a cutout in the glass, unexpectedly for myself, a window within a window. As Victor Misiano, curator and editor-in-chief of the Art Journal, later wrote, “Kulik became interested in the problem of transparency when, in 1989, quite by chance, he had a large amount of plexiglass at his disposal ... Kulik raved about this topic, formulated in exactly this way: transparency, for quite a long time ".

For ten years, Kulik cut glasses, placed them at different angles, caught lighting effects, searched for ideal shapes, carved figures of animals and people in them, even made a glass coffin with a wooden coffin inside - called “Life Death, or the Magnificent Burial of the Avant-Garde”. The coffin was stuffed with biblical commandments and dead cockroaches. “I did this for a long time and painfully until I came across the situation that I am thirty years old, I have a huge basement littered with glass with cutouts. It seemed to me that I desert island. There is perestroika in the country, radical art, but I lost touch with time. Then I realized that I simply did not find an adequate form.

June 27, 1995. Moscow. Polytechnical Museum As part of the Turnkey Party project, Kulik presents his Party of Animals. A few days later, he stops a strange event - a demonstration of circus and pets "Animals against atrocities." Kulik went out to Tverskaya street in a muzzle and with a chain around his neck and blocked the way for the dog procession. “Today, animals cannot resist human brutality. They are just puppets chained. I fight for animal rights. I am their deputy in the elections, ”he then commented on his act. In November 1995, he states: "To be Homo sapiens today means to be a fascist!" Under this slogan, he is trying to run for president of Russia from the Party of Animals. During pre-election speeches, he did not speak, but mumbled. “The animal is not an underdeveloped creature, as some people think, but it is not a deity either. Russia, as a country unique in its frontiers, should give the right key to understanding the problem, he reasoned then. — Animals are equal to us — this idea is natural in Russia and should appear exactly here, where the idea of ​​catholicity is still tangible. From there it will spread all over the world. I am sure that the UN will also move to Russia.”

April 9, 1996 Moscow. Museum of the Revolution Kulik shows the performance "Not with a word, but with a body" - as part of the political program "Kulik is your deputy". Kulik collected signatures of potential voters by breastfeeding the electorate: more precisely, he fed people vodka through the nipples, located, like a pig's, in two rows along the stomach. At that time, all Russian artists sought to integrate into the global, European artistic context. It was considered important and successful to create a universal work that did not refer to national roots. “And Oleg became the second Russian artist after Kabakov, a recognizable artist from Russia,” says Marat Gelman. - Original, which in his work shows the Russian character, Russian savagery. On the one hand, he lowered man to a dog, on the other hand, he demonstrated the equality of man and animal, the basis of Russian ethics. Remember, like Tolstoy: you can’t step on a bug, it is equal to a person. The period of zoophrenia ended when Kulik came up with a performance but was unable to bring it to fruition. “He is a very honest man,” continues Gelman. - He came up with a performance that would really equate a person and an animal. Since we conditionally eat cows, he wanted to cut off his finger and feed it to the dog. And when he realized that he could not do this, he simply abandoned the image of a dog forever. This aggravation of his ethical problems is a truly Russian trait, and his foolishness too.

November 23, 2002. Exhibition at the Zoological Museum As part of the Museum project, Oleg made wax imitations of human stuffed animals: a tennis player, an actress, Gagarina. “The tennis player hovered in a jump and looks like a frightening crucifix, repeated many times by shop windows. The actress is hung in a magical space,” Kulik’s wife Mila Bredikhina wrote about these works at the time. — An astronaut is like a friendly embryo, entangled in the umbilical cord of meaning. Only Madonna is clumsy, with one foot, but stands on the ground. The key to her groundedness, apparently, is an unpleasant-looking child that crawls under her feet. This whole project was meant to illustrate the rather old postmodern idea that reality as we know it no longer exists. “People were filled with empty dreams,” says Kulik. “They dreamed not of being just happy, but of becoming great writers, politicians, artists. This destroyed the whole meaning of human life. For me, art and life are inseparable. I just live like that." One day in 1993, he decided that it was time to see the animal from the inside, and stuck his head into the vagina of a cow that had just given birth. “It must be borne in mind that there is no turning back for contemporary art, and if it wants to survive, then it must expand its zone by environment, - says Vladimir Sorokin, who then went with Kulik to the Russian outback to communicate with the local population and animals. - Oleg has always worked on the edge, on the border between life and art. Few people can hold on to this steel wire over the abyss.” Then Sorokin said to Kulik, who had just got out of the cow: “What if you would suffocate?! And then everyone would talk about you - he lived sinfully and died funny.

Kulik says that he is now going through a period of the golden section: he is looking for the number of God, opposing Archimedes to Pythagoras, and magic to physics. “With our recent project“ I Believe ”, we have reconciled with many, that is, we have shown that we are absolutely sane. This project has nothing to do with the church. I have always been a church person, but as an artist I have no relationship with the church,” he says. — This project refers to the feelings that every moment of life is filled with, you are open to change, but at the same time you change with joy. Yes, the most important thing in this project is the atmosphere, not the work itself, but what arises between the work and the viewer.” While working on the project, Kulik decided (perhaps for the first time in 20 years) to get away from everything social: political, economic, religious. “We need to accept the laws of the universe, rejoice at any manifestation of reality, rejoice even when you are crucified. After all, the artist does not change anything, does not interfere with reality, he is only a carrier of information, he corrects the problem, but does not create it. Igor Markin, a collector and owner of the Museum of Modern Art that has just opened in Moscow, calls Kulik's latest reincarnations "wonderful": "He took it and surprised everyone, proved that he is very cool. He used to be a dog, but now he decided to be God, travels to Mongolia, Tibet, deals with divine manifestations. And he succeeds."

Russian artist Oleg Kulik told Bird in Flight if he is afraid of Putin, what to sell to collectors when you yourself are a piece of art, and why Pyotr Pavlensky is the Christ of modern actionism.

The action artist Oleg Kulik once became famous as a man-dog so much that after more than twenty years people bark when they meet him.

Kulik became the prototype of the hero of the film "Square" - the winner of the "Oscar". Once he fled to nowhere from his parents' house in Kyiv, then he became a part of the Moscow art underground together with Ilya Kabakov and Boris Orlov, and then, almost out of desperation, he went out into the street to make himself known - there was nowhere else to go.

Even people who are far from the art of actionism know a man who attacks passers-by and bites them as part of his performance. Clashes with the police, fines, arrests - Kulik took his Watchdog to the largest cities in the world and created a scandal everywhere.

Kulik provoked the most heterogeneous public: either slaughtering a live pig in a gallery, or depicting a mutant Christ with hooves instead of hands at the Danilovsky market in Moscow, or spinning for hours in a frozen pose in the halls of the Tate Modern in London. More than twenty years ago, the artist predicted the image of modern Putin's Russia, although no one believed him then. In the 1990s, the world looked at the country through its fingers, thinking that the militarism and aggression were a thing of the past. And the artist at the same time in his performances let the public understand: whether there will be more. Almost everything came true - at least the role model of the state.

Action "New Sermon", Danilovsky Market, Moscow, September 15, 1994. Photos provided by the artist

Did you think about money for at least one day when you started to practice art, or was it never important for you as an artist?

You know, I never thought and don't think of myself as a professional artist. I had to deal with the professional aspects of what I do in life, and I became an artist long before I thought about money.

That is, you did not think that it should or should not bring money?

No, that was not the question.

And in the end did it?

Willy-nilly, you are faced with the issue of selling, but it is more like a by-product. For example, art and family is a much more important issue than art and money, at least for me. There is the theme of the market, there are such frankly market artists - not in a bad way - very talented, whose works have not only artistic, but also material value. My works, because of which I became famous or in demand, are mostly actions and performances, in principle, things that are completely intangible. Previously, I was often asked the question: “Where is the subject of sale? What do you live on?"

It was necessary to explain to everyone that, firstly, you live modestly, and secondly, there are grants, there are funds. And then there was the sale of documentation for performances and actions that I held: some photographs, chronicles. It cannot be said that this is art in the literal sense, but you participate in the market. It so happened that I had a large number of negatives, photographs that were bought by institutions, some private well-known collectors. The money may not be much, but it allowed me to live well.

How important was it to you to be in a party?

This was extremely important, but again not immediately.

How did you get there?

I ran away from my parents' house, ran away from Kyiv, but not from Kyiv, but from such family sweaty guardianship, as I felt it then, control, the desire to manage my life, direct it in the direction they needed.

That is, in Kyiv you would not be able to do what you did in Moscow? Just because of the parents?

Maybe yes. In general, I was offended by them for a long time because there were such harsh conditions.

How much?

Control, discipline, they constantly wanted to make something of their own out of me.

Who would they like to see you?

Director of a carbon dioxide plant, for example. I worked there almost as a deputy chief engineer - and this at the age of 19. I was placed there on a whim. Now it is called "corruption", and then it was called blat. In general, everything was permeated with this pull, and it choked me very much; It seemed to me that in Kyiv there was a very unspiritual atmosphere.

I worked there almost as a deputy chief engineer - and this at the age of 19.

Wouldn't it be possible to convince them? Or was it simply that there was no necessary soil, art figures?

I didn’t know anyone, and it seemed to me that everyone here was like that. I didn’t join the party, and the party was small. Later I found out that she was here, but much more snobbish than in Moscow. Not open to new ones, all my own, all small-town, and I would be perceived a little foreign. Although maybe things could have been different; I just didn’t know anyone from the crowd then, and this influenced my decision: at the age of 19, I just ran forever and never came back.

Was it perceived by the parents as a betrayal?

More like idiotic. After all, I lost my registration, I checked out. Now it is not so important, but then it was very important. For Kyiv, for Moscow registration people gave everything, and you gave it up and went to the village. All my relatives fled the village, everyone left, and I went from the opposite.

And how did you end up in Moscow from the village?

I settled there near Moscow, went there from time to time, met people, they introduced me to the party, to the underground: Boris Orlov, Dmitry Prigov, Rostislav Lebedev, Ilya Kabakov - in a word, the entire older generation. They brought me to the workshop, made friends, began to communicate. I can say that the Soviet underground is really very noble people.

I had a Kyiv art school behind me, and then I began to learn this in practice from Boris Orlov, I went to his studio almost every day. I am 20, he is 40 - he was a real master by that time. Even at that time he was expelled from the Stroganov University, where he taught. For publications in the West, of course. I wanted to enter Stroganov at that time, but we - I and several other students - did not go there as a sign of protest, but began to study with him in the studio.

We secretly received Western magazines, reprints. We met with someone who knew English, he translated for us, everyone listened and discussed.

What year was it?

1981-1982, Brezhnev was still alive. I met these guys - and away we go. All the leaders just flew head over heels into the grave: Brezhnev, Andropov, Chernenko one after another. It was the time of the most honest communication and my real universities.

All underground artists went through everything themselves, and they did not engage in some kind of opportunistic art. They themselves interpreted Western phenomena, pop art, social art, they themselves developed and introduced terms into use.

And how did the current of Moscow actionism emerge from all this?

By the age of 30, I had a serious crisis. Just think: everyone knows me, I am friends with everyone, but I always exist separately. I don't fall into the small groups of artists that already existed - "jokers", or "pure conceptualists", or Sots Art, or kinetic art. I had such a not only unique, but marginal position.

collapsed Soviet Union, and in 1990 almost everyone left, the entire underground, even young artists. At the all-Union level, everything fell apart, the official system of art disappeared. And abroad, art has become fashionable, it is our modern art, and not Soviet.

But this has been since the late 80s, when Sotheby’s was in Moscow, the auctions and Bruskin’s painting were sold at a very high price.

Yes, everyone left, and there are literally a few artists of my generation left who have not yet had time to declare themselves - that is, we were left alone in the desert, in which these most dashing 90s began, as they say now. I was among those remaining idiots. We sat together in the kitchen and discussed where to exhibit, what to show, what to talk about. And not a single question was answered.

Why didn't they leave too?

There was nowhere, no one called us, but those were called.

And why is it so, if you all boiled in the same boiler?

Because we were mediocre, we had done little more. There are such, dregs, losers who are left, so to speak, for the second year. So we were sitting, and someone from the company said: "There is nothing left but the street." The only place where there was no art in Soviet times was the street.

Public space for art was taboo. Everything should be under control, quiet, predictable, familiar, conservative. What is it like to be on the street? Something needs to be done, to attract attention, to stop traffic.

Who started it all?

Sasha Brener began to hold the first actions near McDonald's on Pushkin Square, denouncing the absurdity of capitalism. Tolya Osmolovsky carried out some revolutionary actions: he climbed onto the monument to Mayakovsky and smoked cigars on it. There were many metaphors here: a big revolutionary and small modern revolutionaries who sit on the shoulders of great fathers.

Detentions, scandals began, when somewhere and in some way we crossed the borders.

After all, we did not invent actionism, we introduced it to Russia, but we understood that we were working with an already existing tradition and form. However, we were able to interpret it in a new way. Detentions, scandals began, when somewhere and in some way we crossed the borders.

Oleg Kulik in Kyiv. Photo: Mishka Bochkarev specially for Bird in Flight

How did you jump into actionism?

My entry into big actionism was connected with the desire to leave art. I held a couple of actions, made several exhibitions, but if in the 80s it was irrelevant, then in the 90s it was like “you seem to be not from this planet, comrade.” And I decided to give up art, go to Kyiv, to my homeland. But I wanted to leave as an artist.

It seemed to me successful the image of an animal that is guided only by its physiological data - arms, legs, teeth - but as a person, you did not take place as a vertical creature, you cannot adequately understand, fit into this world. And plus for me, art did not die - I left art, but art remained.

Are you talking about the action "Mad Dog, or the Last Taboo Guarded by a Lonely Cerberus"?

Yes, I decided that no matter what kind of art, what matters is your attitude, what you bring. So I decided to close the doors to the gallery with myself and not let anyone in like a watchdog. We gave information that there would be an exhibition. People came, they wanted to look, but it was impossible to enter, someone even got hurt. But the dynamics turned out to be significant.

People came, they wanted to look, but it was impossible to enter, someone even got hurt.

I invited the artist Alexander Brener, he was in the form of a poet who came in one coat. And he and I ran after people, jumped on cars, stopped traffic - and the audience laughed, squealed. The sensations were very strange.

But it was a planned action - did you invite someone?

Yes, there was an announcement. ""The last taboo guarded by the lonely Cerberus" - an exhibition by Oleg Kulik and Alexander Brener". There was no exhibition itself, but there was such an action, everyone tried to break through, then everyone, without noticing it, got involved in it. After the action, I intended to leave, in my opinion, I even had a ticket in my pocket, it was a terrible shame.

The very next day they wrote about us everywhere. And I suddenly felt like a real artist for the first time, who did something, caused a resonance. And suddenly I was invited to Zurich as a “dog”. There was an even bigger scandal, although we were invited by the official art institution. We "dog" blocked not an empty hall, but a large-scale exhibition of world art stars. Fifty minutes I disrupted the vernissage, where all the European bohemians gathered. They even brought a cage for me - the police, without knowing it, played along with me.

Well, there it went and went: Paris, Stockholm, New York. Everyone wanted to see the performance at home. Each time the action was accompanied by wild scandals, clashes with the police.

After Europe, were you invited to America?

Yes, it was the action “I bite America, America bites me” (as part of the action, Kulik lived for two weeks in a special box inside the gallery). I could attack people, even bite them, but it was a closed space and people came in in tracksuits. The reaction was approving: the press perceived this story as Russian art in general. Everyone said that this is such a Russian image, wild, incomprehensible, exaggerated. Still, Russia was not considered so wild then, it was believed that it had passed this stage, wrapping up communism.

In the 1990s, the West began to talk about Russia as the country of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov. But 20 years have already passed, and many now think that Kulik was right with this savagery, the image was very accurate, prophetic. And when he was on his knees, was it not the same Russia that is now rising from its knees? Therefore, now they invite with performances again. But, of course, I refuse everywhere.

How long have you been doing performances and why did you stop?

After New York, I decided that it was time to finish with the dog, although there were a lot of proposals, many said: “I started barking - I have to bark to the end.” However, it seemed to me that this was important, that this image worked, as it were, as partisanism on the verge of protest, scandal, that this wild animal was, but everything has its time.

I no longer do guerrilla actions, I do more theatrical performances. For example, we arranged a steam room at Ca'Foscari University in Venice. A huge university, one of the oldest in Europe. We set up a steam room in the yard in a glass box, where curses were read. The idea was to show an actionist body, which is beaten, whipped, like on a cross, poured with water.

And what did you protest against in the 90s?

In the 90s - against the lack of art. It was an idiotic race: no time for art, joy, philosophy, communication. Then it seemed to me that we were becoming cultureless. For 3-4 years it was hell: there were murders in every entrance, scandals in every house; catastrophes, ruin, closure, enterprises, famine, high cost, lack of food.

What happened in art?

Nothing happened, that's the point - zero. But we were, newspapers wrote about us. Empty halls were given to you for free, somewhere the exhibitions were almost in store warehouses. Basically, this publicity gave only fame. But in the late 90s, we were able to convert fame into something more material: trips, exhibitions in major museums, purchases.

The 1990s began with the actionists and ended with them. Then Putin came, and everything began to be softly frozen in art, in ideology.

The 1990s began with the actionists and ended with them. Then Putin came, and everything began to be softly frozen in art, in ideology. All the ideological seething that took place before, all these factions and divisions into leftists and marketers - all this was revealed in the 2000s, in the 90s it was as if they did not exist.

What has changed for you since Putin's arrival?

Nothing special for me. I went and exhibited. The changes for me were more personal. A freeze began, and suddenly a kind of bourgeoisness surfaced. It was sudden, because recently there were hungry 90s - and suddenly luxury cars, restaurants, money, salaries, everything appeared for everyone, and abruptly and in large numbers. We thought then that 15 years ago we were crying that we would not go abroad, and here you are sitting somewhere on the Arbat and thinking aloud: “Oh, I’m tired of this Latin America, Thailand, France ... For the fifteenth time in France, we’d better go where something to the village."

And it was a short term, a year before 2008, the first term of Vladimir Vladimirovich, one big first term! And it was a big reconstruction, everything is being built, developing, for the first time we suddenly began to live as people. And I became terribly bored: this bourgeois average world, institutions, a bunch of employees. But at the same time, of course, museums, fairs, exhibitions, private collections appeared.

Were they in the 90s?

Then they were just getting started. In 1996-1997, the very first ones began, and they were like that, new Russian: a lot of small, a lot of large, one western, one eastern, which the soul likes, and a lot of jewelry and antiques. There was no single concept. And then the approach changed. Artists suddenly started doing cool new work, technically. That is, we suddenly found ourselves ahead of the rest. But it was uncomfortable for me to participate in this, and I basically traveled all this time, began to travel to India, Tibet, and hung out in Mongolia for the longest time.

So you tried to step back for this decade?

I didn't know it would last 10 years. I just went into myself, into travel, love experiences, spiritual quests, mystical revelations. And all this Europe, all these boxes, cages, cities, races, successful or unsuccessful strategies are simply fed up. It seemed to me then that my time had passed - the time of wild people who can get out themselves, break through and make candy from scratch, as it was in the 90s.

Is there a request for shares now?

Of course, and very strong. Look at the reaction to the successor of the 90s, the art group "War".

I just wanted to ask: do you follow the founders of this art group now? You took care of them at the time.

Well, as I follow: it's just information from publications, from the press. By the way, they haven't come to Kyiv yet, have they?

Who exactly is one of them?

Well, Vorotnikov.

And he seems to have been lost. I don't know, the last thing I read was that in March he disappeared without a trace when they were in Germany.

Yes, because they wanted to imprison him, and therefore I suspect that he, like an old underground worker, is hiding somewhere, it is not clear where and how.

But the wife is not hiding.

Of course, they have four children.

And why do you think this happened? Here Pavlensky left now, not to say that his fate is particularly successful there.

Because this is already a rather radical phenomenon, they are such people, hyper-individualists who overcome collectivism, moreover, collectivism is ours, Russian. Our hypercollectivism is such that if you can leave the team, then only to another team that is at war with this team. And if you are not in a team, if you are on your own, you are a loner, then you are not perceived as a loner and as a neutral person, you are perceived as a traitor to one or another union.

Our hypercollectivism is such that if you can leave the team, then only to another team that is at war with this team.

Performance "Battleship for your show", London, Tate Modern, March 27, 2003. Photos provided by the artist

Emigration - the right decision?

Differently. Pussy Riot, for example, travel because they are invited, they perform concerts. "War" just fled, as they believe, from something. Petya Pavlensky, for example, was quite deliberately squeezed out of the country, I am a direct witness to this, it was an operation of the special services.

That is, he will not be able to return to Russia under this government?

Can not. But the situation with Pavlensky is generally very interesting. It seems to me that all actionism was a preparation for Pavlensky, he is like Christ. The whole previous prophetic tradition, what we have been doing, has been leading up to the emergence of such a clear, integral and clear-thinking strong personality. He is very different from us, he just has the art of life, and in this sense he is the highest product of Russian art. Such hyper-individualism, as in Pavlensky's - which does not collude at all and does not give in to any pressure - can only be born in a country of hypercollectivism.

It seems to me that all actionism was a preparation for Pavlensky, he is like Christ.

And for what purpose was Pavlensky squeezed out? Was the influence he exerted so great that, without squeezing out Pavlensky, it was simply impossible to achieve such an effect?

You know, in fact, there are not many people who are able to set an example of an interesting, reasonable resistance to power. And at the same time to conduct the process within the framework of the form and procedure. Independence is a bad example for others. This time. And secondly, our country is conducting such a very subtle hybrid propaganda that everything is fine, we do not act with rude methods. Of course, he could be stopped somewhere with a stick in the entrance, but this smells bad. It is clear that no one will punish anyone, but the atmosphere itself - why? Moreover, it is necessary to work not only with the local, but also with the Western public.

An extrusion operation was developed. They decided that he should not be here, because with his charisma he sits well even in prison. Moreover, he knows how not to get caught. Even if he is to blame, then a little, and this is always a calculated measure. And they realized that they were faced with such a strong guy: if he is a radical, then he will be a radical everywhere. And all KGBists are good psychologists.

If Petya was weak, they would put him in jail or slap him.

If Petya was weak, they would put him in jail or slap him. Maybe this is a kind of respect or they really don’t want to get dirty. But I really think - and Petya thinks so - that the individual wins over the mass. We are afraid of this mass, but as long as we are afraid of it, it is strong, but it, having no individuality, cannot do anything to you, cannot manifest itself. It only affects fear, in a roundabout way, while you are afraid and intimidated. But for this you need to show up - go to the FSB, throw an incendiary mixture and stand without running away.

Performance "I Bite America, America Bites Me", Jeffrey Deutsch Gallery, New York, April 12-26, 1997. Photos provided by the artist

What is holding you back now? Have you started acting cautiously?

I'm in a bit of a tricky position right now. I didn’t work for a long time, but now I immediately took up a large-scale project, a game for a long time, you can’t show it quickly.

Can you tell me what this project is?

Yes, this is sculpture - now I make sculptures, portraits of my friends: Pyotr Pavlensky, Pussy Riot, Osmolovsky, Brener, all these artists who are not in fashion now. But I do these portraits as excavations of the 90s. At first I thought that the project was innocent, peaceful, and suddenly it causes a sharp tension - all these people are recognized as individualist radicals. And the usual begins: "let's wait", "let's not show this yet." Many naked, radical loners, some crucified people. That is, for those who seem to be ready to exhibit the project, blasphemy begins to appear everywhere.

Now I'm afraid, as a young artist, you know, when a new project, when you have been doing something for a long time, invested, and it grows with time, changes. But now it’s 2018, and while I was doing this project, the context has already changed wildly. He would have gone with a bang until 2014, I'm sure. Moreover, there is a sculptural portrait of Putin, which even in London for some reason they did not dare to show, although the oppositionists there are critical, they did not notice this before.

Don't you think that "Voina" or the same Pavlensky are working with a current political context, and you are trying to introduce some kind of historical one? Is it out of caution?

Maybe I am trying. But here it is meaningless to say whether with caution, because art is not a zone of courage. I started doing these things before the war, I made some decisions about their relevance. This historical position was already occupied by me, a kind of reflection. The problem is not that it was in the 90s. What was it before the 90s? And before 1917, what was it, how did it come to this?

I am a catastrophe artist, I outlined this catastrophe, but then what? Then the 2000s began, and it turned out that my catastrophe is bullshit, it is a designation of the past, and only now it is being updated. Therefore, it is important for me to excavate the 90s and get what was thrown out by time. Actionism was thrown into the backyard in the 2000s, and even now.

Society or cultural get-together?

Both those and others. And "War", and Pavlensky, and Pussy Riot are not accepted by the cultural community. We were accepted, but we ourselves made this community.

Why don't they accept it?

Because they undermine, expose in an unfavorable light the activities of gallerists, violate order. And they will definitely interfere with this, the state will interfere, they will come for you, they will stop you.

Did the authorities put pressure on you somehow?

You know, when the war started, I was returning from a business trip, and then they take me to a separate room right at the airport, some obvious KGB man starts asking about my Ukrainian origin, and they take my fingerprints.

Do you have a Ukrainian passport?

No, Russian. But still, everyone knows that you were born in Kyiv, that you are Ukrainian by nationality, they have their own file cabinet there. In general, they took fingerprints, “eyes”, but nothing, they let me go.

I was once told your conversation with a Ukrainian artist who takes a sharp position (does not accept half measures), very empathetic towards Ukraine; obviously, he was crippled by what is happening now in the country. And he said that your conversation with him was filled with some Ukrainian-phobic arguments. Are you a Ukrainophobe?

It's even stupid to ask. I have a father, mother, family, everything is here. It's like so many Jews call other Jews Judeophobes. This man, this artist -
Ukrainian?

Well, this is the usual Ukrainian showdown.

Action "A man with a political face", Tverskaya street, Moscow, July 16, 1995. Photos provided by the artist

Many years ago you came as a guest to the "School of Scandal" and clashed with Tolstoy about whether you entered high art or not. She said that she was in high art, and you are not, you said the opposite.

Yes, I am in the museums of the world, but Tolstoy is not there and never will be. Read what circulations and publications she has there.

That is, the criterion is being in museums?

Have you seen the movie "The Square"? What is the name of the main character, the man-dog? His name is Oleg, an artist from Russia. Do you know who Oleg from Russia is?

Everyone simply said that this was an allusion to Putin and Russia's behavior in the international arena. Want to say it's you?

Yes, why is his name not Volodya, but Oleg?

In downtown New York, 22 years ago, a naked man on a leash throws himself at passers-by. A few years later, in the 1990s, he also tries to become a deputy of the Government and participate in elections from the Animal Party. True, documents signed with animal paw prints and withered insects are not accepted for some reason. This outstanding person is the artist Oleg Kulik, who receives invitations to exhibitions in Europe and America because of his extremely original performances.

Childhood

Kyiv. 1961 April 15 at three in the morning, as Leonardo da Vinci, Oleg Kulik was born.

His parents were strict, the boy attended educational sections, circles. Contacts with peers outside of school were minimized, walks were almost excluded. Oleg still remembers the lessons of English language as the worst thing in life, despite the fact that my mother was a teacher of this discipline and French. Even then, a rebellious spirit was born in Oleg, and he longed to leave his parental home as soon as possible.

Youth

Oleg Kulik received his secondary specialized education at the Geological Exploration College, which he graduated with a red diploma. After completing his studies, he went to Kamchatka, then to Siberia. Further, on the advice of Comrade Mikhail Shtikhman, he went to Torzhok. In a creative sense, Oleg at that time saw himself as a literary figure. Tormented by the dream of writing a story about life in a remote village, he settles in a village called Konopad. Oleg lived in this place for two years. During this time he wrote one, in his opinion, nice story about my father, I burned the rest. There he became interested in modeling, chose the direction of cubism and developed in it.

Teacher

On the advice of a loved one, Oleg brought to Moscow for judgment by eminent sculptors. It was 1981, in the village where Kulik lived, the poet Strakhov and his wife settled. She worked as a fashion model and had contacts in the art world. On her recommendation, armed with a bag of sculptures, Oleg Borisovich appeared before the head of the House of Folk Art. Then Vasily Patsyukov was in charge of it. It was he who introduced him to Boris Orlov. According to Patsyukov, he was the best sculptor in Moscow at that time. Oleg, on his first visit to the sculptor's workshop, was amazed by his talent, the workshop is filled with incomprehensible works in the form of cans, pieces, fragments and stumps. This is how they met. Kulik and Borisov often talked. During this period, Oleg revised his view of creativity in general. And the formation as a figure of contemporary art began. The main thing, in his opinion, in any work is the state of the artist during the process of creating a work of art. Copying the classics is nonsense. The future of creativity is in creating something new, through individual self-expression. This period was a turning point in the biography of Oleg Kulik.

Transparency

In the 1980s, Oleg Borisovich goes to repay his debt to his homeland. He himself calls this period of life isolation. In the head of the creator appears a formalized idea of ​​the transience of time. The army, with its tough morals and internal dirt, left an imprint on Kulik's work. In 1989, he initiated a new round of his activities. Perspex accidentally fell into the hands of the artist. For ten years after, he created transparent figures. Carved figures were born, the refraction of light was studied. Thanks to his work with glass, Oleg Borisovich realized that even a transparent, as if invisible material changes the space around, but does not change the vision of the world. This idea dominated his work for a long time. For ten years, the artist Kulik has been looking for perfect glass forms, creating figures and compositions.

One of the famous works of that period is Life Death, or the Lush Funeral of the Avant-Garde. This work was a glass coffin. Inside it lay a wooden coffin, smaller. It, in turn, is filled with sheets of biblical commandments. The artist sprinkled the composition with dead cockroaches.

After some time, Kulik returns to reality with the thought that he has not found the right form of self-expression. The country was in the maelstrom of Perestroika, the artist was already thirty years old.

First performance

Glory came to Oleg Borisovich Kulik after the first "dog" performance. Moscow, 1994. In the creative studio swings open Entrance door, and a naked man on a leash flies out to the surprised passers-by, the other end of the leash is held by colleague Alexander Brener. The performance was aimed at the common man as a reminder of the wild nature hidden within. Oleg jumped on the hood of passing cars, frightened the drivers. “Attacked” a Swedish journalist who published an article about Russia as a “country with wild morals” (Oleg bit her in a creative outburst). Despite the savagery of the situation, the audience's attention is focused on the fact that a naked person (like an animal) is essentially defenseless. Critics were divided. Kulik's supporters noted that he was the first to integrate beast and man in this way. Such actions were not arranged before, Oleg Borisovich was called a fashionable and avant-garde creator. With "a man and a dog", the artist Kulik traveled all over Europe and America, the theme did not let him go for thirteen years.

Zurich

One day, friends decided to play a joke on the artist. Found somewhere a form from the Kunsthaus in Zurich. They made a copy of the invitation with a request to show the "man-dog" in Switzerland. The signature of Bice Kuriger, who was in charge of the exhibition, was successfully copied and did not arouse Kulik's doubts.

Upon arrival in Switzerland, having visited the museum, Oleg, of course, guessed that he had been played. They did not hear about him and did not prepare for his arrival. Having laughed with his friends at an excellent prank, he nevertheless decided to demonstrate the "man-dog" there as well.

1995, Kunsthaus. At that time, the exhibition "Signs and Wonders" was held in the halls of the museum. European experts have arrived. Nude artist Oleg Kulik chained himself at the entrance to the vernissage and did not let people into the exhibition. He again bit the woman (she turned out to be the wife of one of the ambassadors), committed several acts of vandalism, typical of a dog on a walk. Oleg left the museum in a police car.

The European public reacted ambiguously to the performance. He was called the lone Cerberus. A photo of Oleg Borisovich Kulik in the role of a four-legged circulated in the media. In a foreign journalistic get-together, Kulik was nicknamed a mad dog.

Animal Party

Among creative and active people, the Turnkey Party project was launched. Within its framework, the avant-garde artist creates the Animal Party and appoints himself as its representative. The main message of the Animal Party is to stop human atrocities. In the pre-election debate of the parties, the author mumbled instead of human speech. Proclaimed animals equal to man.

Interpol

1996, Stockholm. The program "Dog House" was created. The author of the performances, the artist Kulik, was invited to all European countries with his works. Sweden, as a country without violence, was shocked by Kulik's behavior at the exhibition. The police took him away, the artist again bit someone. They forced me to write an explanation about the violence against visitors to the exhibition. He also damaged part of the museum's exposition.

Not in words, but in body

1996, Moscow. The new work of Oleg Kulik has become part of the election campaign. He collected signatures of the electorate in support of the candidate for deputies and at the same time breastfed people. A corset with six imitations of a sow's breasts was fastened to the artist's body, and people were given vodka through them.

During this period, the creative intelligentsia of Russia aspired to the West, they tried to work based on the requests of foreign specialists. The work was valued universal, not having a national background. The artist Kulik, thanks to his performances, has become one of the most famous artists in Russia. Although initially Oleg planned to end his career with a performance. The artist's work is original and original, the demonstration of the equality of man and animal has brought success. The end of the “epoch of zoophrenia” in Kulik’s work came when he came up with the idea of ​​taking his finger away and feeding it to a dog in public. He never got the courage for this act, so it was decided to end the man-dog.

Zoo museum

2002, Moscow. Kulik's exhibition inside the Museum project again impressed the crowd with its originality. The artist created stuffed people. The glass cubes housed a tennis player, an artist and an astronaut.

The stuffed tennis player was created to remind the viewer of eternal femininity. Many note a clear resemblance to Anna Kournikova. The figure is made in motion, surprisingly clear and believable. The hair and teeth of the stuffed animal are real, the skin is made of wax, so it has a slightly transparent, airy appearance. The work embodies fragility and at the same time rigidity, an anguish of an athlete. The dual nature of a woman is demonstrated: beauty and aggression (scars on the body).

The astronaut looked like a baby with an umbilical cord. His gaze is open and naive, like that of a child.

Regina

Much later, after a long break, the artist Oleg Kulik opens the exhibition Frames. This project involved five works of the artist. The first exposition is two wooden frames at the entrance to the exhibition. They have mirrors built into them. The person who gets inside becomes like a corridor, which observes from the inside. The sacred meaning of this work is to clear the space inside oneself. Reflections in the mirror are repeated endlessly. A person sees only himself inside the mirrors and no one else.

The next exhibit is a depicted man, surrounded by glass lamps with candles with live fire. There is a shadow inside the fiery background, the hand is raised, as if making a throw. The meaning of the work is that a person is smeared with his passions. Inside it is blackness, although everything around is bright, beautiful and reeks of religion.

The central exposition of the exhibition is "Black Square". This work repeats Malevich's Square, but it is framed in a white frame. The main thing, according to Oleg Kulik, is the frame in the picture. Inside is emptiness and blackness, but around is pure and white. The frame symbolizes hope, the salvation of people inside the square. The whole exhibition was created for the sake of revealing the meaning of this frame.

Madonna

The artist worked on this work for a long time. More than six hundred small dolls were molded, with different heads and dresses, masks and skirts. Oleg Borisovich finally settled on a simple triangle and a ball. Small puppet figures frame the outline of the Madonna and Child. Kulik's art is to convey to the audience the message of lightness and childhood. The artist is talking here about youth, which will come to the black abyss to reflect on the structure of the world.

There is a clear message to Pussy Riot in the little figurines around Madonna. According to the artist, he did not try to provoke a scandal, this is a tool, an image, and not the essence.

Dome

The geometry of the dome repeats the temple of the II century in Cappadocia. The artist accurately repeated the location of the figures inside the dome. Kulik took a photo of the dome inside the temple with a flash and received an image without the faces of the saints. Thus, torment and suffering in the name of faith were erased, only pure geometry remained.

The main idea of ​​the work is religion in the modern world. No blood, watery eyes. In the center of the exposition is a black void. The square around symbolizes the earth. The circle is a symbol of the sky. According to the author, only one shell remained from the former spiritual Christianity. The chandelier pulls up behind it, it seems that it has always been in the center of the hall.

Followers

In 2007, the art group "War" appeared. Together with another Bombila team, they held a lot of actions. The main theme of which, unlike Oleg Kulik, is politics. Some of the performances of these teams are frankly shocking and reminiscent of scenes from adult films. Most of the actions were held in the basement studio in Podmoskovny Lane. Kulik considers them extremely talented and is proud that the bands are his followers.

Also, the story of a man who nailed himself by the genitals to Red Square does not subside. His name is Peter Pavlensky, an artist also from Kyiv. The first action was called "Shov". Pavlensky sewed his mouth shut with harsh threads. The action took place against the backdrop of the Kazan Cathedral in St. Petersburg. By his actions, Peter protested against the arrest of Pussy Riot. He showed the intimidation of society and a demonstration of the position of the artist in modern Russia. After the action, Pavlensky was taken to an appointment with a psychiatrist, who let him go after making sure that the patient was insane.

A family

The childhood of Oleg Borisovich Kulik was secure, the family was not from the poor. Parents occupied good posts in Soviet times. The craving for art was inherent in him from childhood. For installations, new furniture bought by parents and mother's foreign magazines were used.

Kulik's first wife was Lyudmila Bredikhina. They met when Oleg lived in the village. Lyudmila traveled through the wilderness with her first husband, they already had a four-year-old son. When Oleg took her away, he was 20 years old. Mila shared the interests of the artist in the field of contemporary art, helped to join the crowd of the Moscow underground. It was she who convinced me to change literature to sculpture at the beginning creative way. The wife took part in all the performances of the artist.

AT last years the artist-scandalist became calmer. Oleg Kulik's paintings have become deeper in meaning. In recent years, he traveled a lot, visited Tibet, was inspired by oriental culture and meditation. Today, this artist spends a lot of time at home with a family whose composition has changed. It consists of his wife Anastasia and daughter Frosya, who will turn seven this year.

Finally

Contemporary art has always caused a lot of controversy around itself. Screaming, unexpected, open to everything unusual, it shocks people more often than it makes them admire. Nevertheless, people continue to go to Oleg Kulik's exhibitions, critics admire the works or, conversely, they are negative. Kulik's paintings continue to be exhibited around the world.

In the 1990s, when the country was gradually collapsing, Oleg Borisovich managed to make a breakthrough in art and become a world star. During Perestroika and the dashing 1990s, Kulik's ideas were not in great demand, people were busy surviving. But the artist has earned a name for himself and enjoys great success in the modern world of art. The opening of the most popular Winzavod began with his exhibition. Oleg Borisovich is one of the directors of the annual art event "Archstoyanie", is the creator of the campaign poster for Ksenia Sobchak.

The same “dog-man”, shocking artist, performance artist Oleg Kulik, now, in his own words, leads a quiet life and creates sculptures for himself, and not for exhibitions. Dialog talked to Kulik about contemporary art, the atomic explosion, and the "future artist."

Photo: Anastasia Savchuk / IA Dialog

- All Petersburg should be filled with art, where the artist decides a lot himself! It's the most important. We never had that, not even in the 90s. It is always difficult for artists to organize something themselves. We need sponsors, investors, gallery owners, collectors, the state. In the 90s they broke through, because everything was very cheap.

— Do you notice a tendency for the artist to decide for himself?

- On the one hand, this is not going forward, because the old structure is working. The one that was formed 50-60 years ago. Decisions are made by gallery owners, collectors, museum workers, officials. This system has become boring, it does not work so well, but our artists are very strong and there are a lot of them, so they are complexly organized, not friendly. A weak gallerist, a weak museum worker, a weak official are at the top. And then an artist will appear above the official. The circle will close. But it will be a special artist.

- Which?

“It’s not clear, but it will be an artist who will give the initiative, give an impulse to an official who will give a command to a museum worker, a museum worker will give a command to a curator, and the curator will look for artists for this artist.

- Do you mean someone specific or a collective image?

— While collective. At one time, such were Glazunov, Kabakov, Malevich, Kandinsky or Petrov-Vodkin, Brodsky. And the same in the West. There are artists who create the next round. This is how pop art was born. The American state supported abstract expressionism, a very different kind of art. And suddenly such a strange figure as Andy Warhol appears, who makes it very fashionable to turn to photographic reality, almost parodic, which, it would seem, should not have had any support. The state recognizes itself in this, and it is not that it submits to the artist, rather, it enters into some kind of relationship, accepts the line of this artist. This does not mean that he is given a position ... And the same thing will happen here. Now the state wants to choose such an artist. It constantly appoints someone, but it doesn’t happen like that ... The artist comes and gives instructions as if from above: “This is how the f***ing will be.” I'm waiting for such a time, but these artists roam in a free atmosphere.

Are these young people?

- Not necessary. They simply do not hide, do not suffer from escapism and megalomania. These are people who are in time. After all, artists, roughly speaking, are divided into three categories: talented, who find their own language and speak it; less talented ones who imitate them and continue their line; and the unique ones who give up their language when they start to catch the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the time and speak the language of their time. Often these artists are not immediately visible, because they differ little from the time and it seems that this is not interesting. Here is [Anatoly] Platonov, for example, a vivid expression. This is a man who concentrated in his language the abysses of horror that were in his time. It cannot be said that this is the language of Platonov. Or Kabakov, who painted a communal apartment, communal life. But now, probably, a brilliant artist is very much needed. Not just because a brilliant artist will appear, and it will be nice. It is not a matter of pleasure, enjoyment, it is a matter of salvation. If such an artist does not appear, we will disappear. Where the world is going now is not clear, we are at war with everyone.

Where is the art going, you know?

- There is no art. What is art? Let's be specific. There are artists. Where is the artist Borya Mikhailov going? It is interesting. Where is Bugaev-Afrika going? It is interesting. Let's analyze what specific artists do and understand that they do not add up to any paradigm.

Is it always like this or just now?

“Not always, but it has been going on for the last hundred years. Huge variety. The authorities and society build a hierarchy, make a selection, create a market. Everyone scolds Damien Hirst, and he put these fools in Venice and everyone says: "This is shit, this is mediocre." They start talking only about Hirst. It will take 10 years, all the museums will be in Hearst. By and large, even those who do not like Hirst are glad that something very bright, formal, plastic wins. Not this bad conceptualism, some incomprehensible texts. A powerful, juicy, bright form wins. Let it be kitsch and superficial, but still this is the art that we know and love. In this sense, Damien Hirst is the spokesman for a time that will now disappear. It feels like he's a great artist on the Titanic. Now this "Titanic" will fuck on an iceberg, and everything will crumble. For example, I am now making art after the disaster. I, fortunately, do not need a large audience, success and attention. I need peace and meditation. I work as if the atomic explosion has already happened.

- Did it really happen, or are you fantasizing?

- I do not know. I hope it won't, but unfortunately I have the strongest intuition. She never let me down. The problem is that it's so strong that I'm way ahead of my time. This is not boasting, this is just a shortcoming. If I was a little ahead, it would be cool. Now who won the Golden Lion in Venice? Dog man. They did my performance, only in clothes. I had it 25 years ago. Then everyone was shocked. I'm glad that this happened, that now they learned about the dog man. Everyone writes about it, everyone refers to me, but my train has left. Even if I were given an award for this now, I would not like it, because it was necessary then. And what I am doing now is some beautiful forms that are in weightlessness, sculptures without a podium, without support, devoid of gravity, attraction. These are the forms after a nuclear war, when we lose all support. Now a man who has lost his footing, what is it? It's dropped from the social ladder, social structure, from fashion ties. And imagine if there is no structure, no stairs, no connections. Everything will be demolished. What will be interesting to do? It will be interesting to do only what your hands and eyes want. This is a very archaic form. This is not the kind of art that refers to primitivism, which was quite high and cultured. It's clay and you. And there is no culture. At the same time, there is a certain recollection: something was or will be, or is it a dream. I have been making sculptures for 5 years and have never shown them. Only one.

- And why?

It's hard for me to admit it, but I have no desire. I can't even believe myself. It was as if something called ambition had been turned off. On the other hand, there is a terrible interest in earning so much, so that later there will be an opportunity to calmly show. I have been in art since the age of 15, and all my life I have been doing work on time, for an event, for an event, for an exhibition, for a project. I always didn’t have time to finish it, I always saw that something was wrong, I saw it through the eyes of others, I followed the reactions. Always lived in such a half-baked personal and creative state. And here I do it gradually, slowly, seriously. At the same time, I do not make large sculptures, huge, important ones. They are all a bit cartoony, funny. I am now sitting, talking and missing the unfinished sculpture. Like I miss a child. If an atomic war happens, I will be one of the rare artists who will know what to do.

- And what to do?

- The same thing I do. Bodies! human bodies! Human, animal, it doesn't matter. Moreover, they are not the most beautiful for me: they have tummies, something else. I made a portrait of Petya Pavlensky with Putin. Simply amazing. Everyone wanted to show up. It was the first one I was willing to show. I agreed, but everyone refused, got scared. This is an indicator.

- You said a little about a large audience and it seems that contemporary art does not have a wide audience. This is true?

Don't trust all these fools. This is mediocrity. Or they don't understand what they are doing. No matter how many exhibitions I did, there were queues! I had a full CHA, it was impossible to enter. He did the exhibition "I Believe" at the "Winzavod". Three and a half months! The exhibition cost 400 thousand euros! We beat back 450 on tickets. There was a blockbuster! There was a queue! Everyone still remembers my personal exhibition in Ermolaevsky! I do not argue that some exhibitions will not get a big response, but, as a rule, these are artists who do not want it: reasonable conceptualists, minimalists, or those who work for a certain special market. I don't want to belittle, but basically it's just uninteresting art. I'm doing an exhibition right now, and I won't care at all how many people will come. I tell you honestly. I am sure that someone will, but the main thing is that these works, which I have been doing for a year and a half, will be correctly displayed and highlighted. I am so worried and I want all this to take place, so that there is an opportunity to do all this for real, slowly, with taste, with changes.

Artist - actionist, author of objects, installations, photo and video works, curator.
He graduated from the Art School in Kyiv (1979), then the Kyiv Geological Institute (1982). Moves to Moscow (1986). Collaborates with the Regina Gallery (1993). He gained fame after the scandalous actions of 1994-1995, when, in the form of a man-dog, he ran on all fours along the Polyanka, bit passers-by at the entrance to the Berlin Gallery of Modern Art, and sat in an animal cage. In the 1990s, Kulik, the founder and brightest representative of "zoophrenia", appeared in the form of a dog, a bird, a bull, a monkey, a fish. It was the brightest and most brutal period of Russian actionism - “terrorist naturalism” (E. Degot), when artists realized themselves in an open public space, breaking the prevailing stereotypes without permission. Using the topical social moment in performances and objects, Kulik sarcastically ridiculed the realities of Russian politics. Works in almost all types and genres of contemporary art. In the late 1990s - early 2000s, he creates cycles of works in which he returns to his original theme - transparency. In the spirit of the glamor of the time, Kulik's works are spectacular, spectacular and glossy beautiful - they are taken from the top media video series. Created according to the laws of show and attraction, his works shock the public. Fellow of the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1990) and the Berlin Senate (1995). Laureate of the Innovation Prize for the curatorial project I Believe (2007), Winzavod, Moscow. Kulik is a participant in international projects at the Ghent Museum of Modern Art, the Freud Museum in London, the Museum of Modern Art in Rome, the Museum of Modern Art in Antwerp; Guggenheim Museum in New York and Bilbao. Participant of the Biennale in Venice, Valencia and Sao Paulo. Lives and works in Moscow.

Collections:

State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
European Trade Bank, Moscow
Museum of Contemporary Art ART4.RU, Moscow
Regina Gallery, Moscow
New Museum, St. Petersburg
and other public and private collections