Focus visited the Odessa Museum of Contemporary Art at the posthumous exhibition of Stanislav Volyazlovsky and explored the concept of a private museum, as well as the artist’s place in contemporary art
At the beginning of 2018, the Ukrainian cultural community was shocked by the news of the death of the forty-seven-year-old Kherson artist Stanislav Volyazlovsky. Almost a year later, the first personal museum exhibition of his work opened at the Odessa Museum of Contemporary Art (MSIO) — unfortunately, immediately in the in memoriam format.
Singer of chanson art
Stas Volyazlovsky can undoubtedly be called one of the key Ukrainian contemporary artists. Truly original and unlike anyone else, he carved out his niche in the Ukrainian art scene back in the 1990s.
His signature style, called “chanson art,” is a whimsical combination of lubok, quotes from chanson, urban folklore, and prison romance. Volyazlovsky considered chanson a fascinating field for exploration and called it “a territory of experimentation in contemporary art.” “Chanson art” is my reflection on the world I live in, with its interests, problems, fears, religion, cultural challenges, television and programs filled with stupid advertising, dismemberment, crime, pornography, series, and politics, yellow press, and the internet,” Stanislav Volyazlovsky said about his style.
Whatever medium he worked in — graphics, painting, video, ballpoint pen drawings, and even tea stains on textile objects, such as pillowcases (which the author called “rags”) — the artist’s visual language was unmistakable.
The fact that Volyazlovsky never moved to the capital and lived his entire life in provincial Kherson did not prevent him from participating in the art process, whose center was always Kyiv. In the 2000s, he actively exhibited in Ukraine and abroad, collaborated with the art association “Totem” and the group “R.E.P.”, participated in many international exhibitions and biennales, and in 2010 became a laureate of the prestigious Malevich Prize. However, in recent years, his career slowed down: he exhibited noticeably less, dropped out of the art process, then fell ill and, according to his Kherson colleagues, reduced his social circle.
Volyazlovsky’s work is a fascinating phenomenon that still needs to be comprehended. One step in this direction is the exhibition at the Odessa Museum of Contemporary Art. Unfortunately, in Ukraine, a contemporary artist sometimes has to die to be honored with a serious personal museum-level exhibition.
“All this mess with art”
Accents. Exhibition curator Alexandra Tryanova raises the question of the artist’s place in the art system
The first thing you notice at the exhibition “Stas and all this aforementioned mess with the art market and art in general” is its spectacularity. In a high concentration, Volyazlovsky’s works look very impressive. Textile works in the “chanson art” style stand next to musical videos, and in the hall with text graphics — full-fledged graphic novels — one can spend hours.
Historically, there are not many Volyazlovsky works on the Ukrainian market: he long collaborated with the Moscow gallery “Regina” and its owner Vladimir Ovcharenko, so many of his works ended up in Russian private collections. The MSIO exhibition curator Alexandra Tryanova cleverly played on this fact in the exposition, showing photos from “Regina” next to several textile works (none more could be found in Ukraine), where works in the same technique are abundantly presented — the sharp contrast speaks for itself.
Overall, it turned out very emotional. Volyazlovsky appears at the exhibition very differently: provocative and cynical and at the same time vulnerable and defenseless. In the curator’s text, Tryanova mentions the “need to reactualize the author’s work,” but this is rather about recognizing his real contribution to the history of Ukrainian art. Focus asked Alexandra Tryanova about this, as well as about the project’s idea and “invisible” artists.
This is Volyazlovsky’s first posthumous museum exhibition. How did this idea arise and why did you decide to implement it now?
— With Stas’s departure, Ukrainian art lost a very powerful artist: it can be confidently said that Volyazlovsky is among the international top 20 Eastern European authors. His creative biography is an impressive list of exhibitions, biennales, and international fairs at the level of ArtBasel and ArtMiami.
Of course, the legacy of an artist of this level needs to be comprehended. In March this year, Sergey Bratkov held an exhibition of Volyazlovsky at the Moscow gallery “Regina.” Ukrainian cultural institutions were slow to show interest in this topic; seeing this, we decided to organize an exhibition in Odessa. I think MSIO is a symbolic venue for such a project. The southern seaside proximity brings the residents of Odessa and Kherson closer. The “southern” component is generally extremely important for understanding Volyazlovsky’s work.
Where did such an unusual exhibition title come from? What is this “mess with the art market” and what does Stas Volyazlovsky have to do with it?
— I was looking for a quote from Stas that could title the project and found it in “Letter to a Parisian Friend” — a somewhat poignant and even confessional work of his. It seems to me that this phrase speaks about Volyazlovsky’s feeling of his place in the art system. That’s what I decided to emphasize in the project.
“Rags.” Textile works by Stas Volyazlovsky in his signature technique — the artist’s calling card
In the exhibition text, you say you collected practically all of Stas’s works that can be found in Ukraine. What is it like to form a retrospective with limited access to works?
— The work on the exhibition was difficult. We consulted with those who knew Stas closely, for example, Sergey Bratkov, his Kherson friends and colleagues: Semyon Khramtsov, Vyacheslav Mashnitsky, Elena Afanasyeva. We were horrified by how few works are freely accessible. What we managed to collect is crumbs compared to what was once sold to Russian private collections. Here we are talking about the specific position of a Ukrainian artist who is “in between” the cultural systems of different countries and is basically not needed by either.
Where did you find the works that made up the exhibition?
— In the collections of Kherson friends of Volyazlovsky, as well as collectors who worked with him: for example, Yevgeny Karasy had sheets of graphics, and Viktor Savkiv had two textile works.
In the project text, you talk about the need to “reactualize” Volyazlovsky’s art. What do you mean?
— The 2000s were a period of Stas’s success (on the foreign art market even more than in Ukraine). But then came a moment when he was practically cut off from the art process. While he continued to be invited to group projects, he was almost never shown solo. And it is very important for art institutions to keep artists in sight; otherwise, we risk losing bright masters. Neglect can be fatal, and Stas Volyazlovsky is an example of this. Therefore, for me, making an exhibition about him means also talking about the fact that the Ukrainian art scene did not give him proper attention during his lifetime.
Collage. Another medium in which Stas Volyazlovsky actively worked — collage — is also presented at the MSIO exhibition
What does the exhibition consist of?
— The exposition does not start at the entrance but from the depths of the museum corridor: its starting point is the wall newspaper “Letter to a Parisian Friend,” which I mentioned. It hung in the same place during the 5th Odessa Biennale of Contemporary Art last year. In the next hall, there are five monitors with videos, which were a very important tool for the artist. As an opposition to these mature works, we made a hall with early works in the “penis art” style. Another hall includes spreads from the Dnipro magazine “NASH,” a flagship of alternative culture of the 1990s, where Volyazlovsky repeatedly published photos of his works and texts.
One of the central points of the exhibition is the hall with “rags” (textile works — Focus), which have long become the artist’s calling card. The next hall is graphics and text works that reveal stories to the viewer that can be read endlessly. We conceived the finale of the exposition as silent: we printed Volyazlovsky’s poetry collection so that people could take a piece of the exhibition with them.
Odessa art — from Soviet times to today
The Odessa Museum of Contemporary Art, where the Stas Volyazlovsky exhibition is held, is one of the most active players in the local cultural field (alongside the Odessa Art Museum, which at the beginning of the year received a strong impetus for renewal together with its new director Alexander Roitburd). MSIO essentially performs the function of a state museum of contemporary art in the city, which Odessa, like the whole of Ukraine, actually lacks.
The core of the museum collection consists of Odessa unofficial art of the 1960s–1980s, as well as Odessa art of the 1990s. MSIO does what no one else in our country manages to do — organizes a biennale of contemporary art for more than 10 years in a row. Focus asked its director Semyon Kantor about the museum’s work features.
Wall newspaper. The starting point of the exposition is the work “Letter to a Parisian Friend,” styled as a wall newspaper
Tell us about the history of the Odessa Museum of Contemporary Art and what are the features of a private museum’s existence in our country?
— The vast majority of museums before the 20th century were private at some stage. They were owned by monarchs, aristocrats, etc. Almost always, they arose when the collection owners realized that what they had gathered needed to be shown. Our case is the opposite: the collection was purchased with the aim of creating a museum. Just over 10 years ago, banker and public figure Vadim Morokhovsky had the idea that Odessa needed a museum of contemporary art. When it became known that the famous Odessa collector Mikhail Knobel was selling his collection, we acquired it. This laid the foundation for the museum.
What forms the basis of the museum’s collection?
— The main theme of Knobel’s collection was Odessa unofficial art of the 1960s–1980s (there were three centers of such art in the USSR: Moscow, Saint Petersburg, and Odessa). Unofficial artists were not invited to exhibitions, not accepted into the Union of Artists. The 1960s–1970s were a period when a generation of very talented artists appeared in Odessa, enough for a whole country. These authors gathered at each other’s homes, showed their works — thus arose such an important phenomenon for Odessa as apartment exhibitions. This art was quickly noticed by collectors (both Soviet and foreign) and was called the “second Odessa avant-garde.”
But time does not stand still — a new period has come, what we today call contemporary art. It has also become the subject of study for our museum.
What do you see as your main task and what do you want to talk about with your audience?
— The main task of the museum is to reflect and record all phenomena and directions of visual art, from painting to street art. After all, the spectrum of new media expands every day. For example, computer games are also art.
We also closely monitor the emergence of new names in Odessa. We have an experimental youth center “Arteria,” where exhibitions of young artists take place. We want to talk about all this with the audience. By the way, over 10 years, our audience has noticeably become younger: now it is mainly people under 35.
“Rapans.” A whole museum hall is dedicated to objects related to Volyazlovsky’s collaboration with Semyon Khramtsov — the group “Rapans”
One of the main activities of the museum is working with the permanent exhibition. What does it include and how is it updated?
— Today we are one of the few European countries without large museums of contemporary art. As a regional museum, we deal with Odessa art at the level of its collection, documentation, archiving, etc.
The permanent exhibition is constantly changing, the collection is expanding, and we want to fully show it to the viewer. We believe that the exposition should be built not by chronology or authors but around certain ideas. But, of course, like any museum, we have “hits” — works that do not leave the exposition during its next update.
You also hold temporary exhibitions. What themes do you choose?
— Here our focus is noticeably broader than just Odessa art. We have two key positions: socially oriented exhibitions and educational projects. Both these criteria are met by the Odessa Biennale, which we will hold for the sixth time in August 2019. This time we will have a foreign curator — Sonya Dermiens.
Besides the collection, the museum has an archive. Its online version should appear very soon. When will this happen and what materials will be in this digital archive?
— We have been collecting the museum’s archive since its first day of operation: some materials were purchased, some were donated by artists, curators, and collectors. It contains extensive information about Odessa art of the 1970s–1980s. We are also working on archiving the phenomenon of Odessa conceptualism. By the end of November, a website will launch where works from our collections and archives will be published.Link
