In 2015, Roman Minin’s work “Donetsk Metro Generator” was sold at Sotheby’s in London for $11,400. In 2016, the artist took first place in the list of the most promising Ukrainian artists according to Ukrainian Forbes. In an interview with Bird In Flight, Minin spoke about how to properly decorate a city, why we need total amnesia, and why he didn’t leave Ukraine.

Roman Minin 35 years old

Ukrainian artist. Born in Mirnograd (formerly Dimitrov), Donetsk region. Lives and works in Kharkov since 1998. He works in painting, street art, decorative arts, and photography. Participant of personal and group exhibitions in Ukraine, Russia, USA, China, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Poland. In 2013 he was nominated for the PinchukArtCentre Prize. In recent years, he has been working on the topic of mythologizing the life of Donbass and the life of miners.

Street art on depression

What are you working on now?

Now I am striving to realize my dream projects - in the genre of monumental art using modern technologies. I would like to collaborate with programmers and make virtual decoration of cities, an environment for augmented reality. For example, implement hyperlinks that are visible in VR glasses. I put on my glasses and saw a dinosaur running around the city, or a tree that came to life. I want to implement elements decorative arts- for example, build a large glass sphere from stained glass. In reality, such an object requires millions of dollars - of course, it’s easier to do it virtually.

This is very different from what we are used to doing now. You know about the mural boom (large images on plastic panels and building facades. - Approx. ed.)- he has a lot. What do you think about it?

This is a very long conversation. I'm fine with murals. We have an infinite number of walls in Kyiv and Ukraine, enough for absolutely everyone. I was invited to do such work, but I did not have time for it.

10 years ago I was actively involved in painting walls and was looking for opportunities for this. But then it was necessary to persuade everyone. Now you don’t need to persuade anyone, but you need to filter. Murali is good, but you shouldn’t give brushes and spray cans to everyone. Because sometimes absolutely irresponsible things happen, and then we have to live with it. For example, there is Pupkin Garrison, he is famous in Canada or somewhere else. But I don’t know him. He came and made a “heap” on the wall while drinking beer, and I had to look at it.

People are carriers of depression. There are already enough reasons for it, and now some absolutely incomprehensible picture is visible from the window, which was not explained to people and which they did not choose. But all people want to have at least the illusion of control. All sorts of officials provide it to us, and everything rests on it. When this illusion disappears, people will understand that they are not the masters of their lives, and will actually live in depression.

People are carriers of depression. There are already enough reasons for it, and now some absolutely incomprehensible picture is visible from the window, which was not explained to people and which they did not choose.

The artist must be responsible for the effect that the work of art has. Visual art is slow. It can change people's moods and their condition. When organizing spaces in a city, a strategy is needed; you need to think about how it will affect people in five years. And we need to think in terms of neighborhoods, not separate walls.

I am for an alternative and for a comprehensive solution to some problems. What is happening now in Kyiv is positive. Still, most of the works are good: out of ten pictures, four will be controversial, and two will be disgusting. This is a normal process. But I don’t see that in Kyiv this task is being solved comprehensively and strategically: by blocks, by microdistricts. Everything is very spontaneous. Wherever they managed to grab a wall, they paint on that one. It seems to me that it is worth reconsidering the strategy and trying to start with small cities.

You say that these pictures can be depressing. We already live in not the most cheerful country, and if you ask the opinion of a person on the street, he will say that it is beautiful. It turns out that if the drawing is visually pleasing and bright, then everything is okay.

The shawarma in the photo also looks beautiful, and the mayonnaise flows beautifully. But eating them every day is not very healthy.

It is clear that “beautiful” cannot be a criterion.

Certainly. There is no point in criticizing what is happening in Kyiv. It is necessary to formulate the problem and solve it comprehensively. For example, there is a small town. All city-forming enterprises have closed, people are leaving. Typical situation. Those who like to dig in the ground went to dig in the garden. All. The city is sinking into depression.

A simple trick for officials is to create the illusion of happiness in the city. It's always art. Holidays and fireworks are the most convenient way. True, mayors still have not realized that fireworks are expensive and quick. People will forget about the fireworks the next day, as soon as the hangover wears off. And for the same money you can paint a neighborhood that they will look at for several years. The efficiency is greater. And if a [local] official cannot employ people and improve medicine, then he can create the illusion of positivity.

People will forget about the fireworks the next day, as soon as the hangover wears off. And for the same money you can paint a neighborhood that they will look at for several years.

On suitcases, but in Kharkov

How did you end up in first place on the list of young artists Forbes version?

It was a surprise for me. Apparently, everything just coincided: my activity, presence in the media space, the rhythm of the appearance of new works. It turns out that at a certain point I became more interesting than everyone else on this list. I'm glad it was a vote different people, mostly related to art. Many people I respect voted for me. I don’t resist - I hit and hit.

What does this first line give, taking into account the specifics of the local art market?

Did they start buying paintings from me? No, they didn't. It is not a guarantee that my work will be bought. Because now in our country everyone is thinking about how to get out of here. Those who can, have been sitting on their suitcases for a long time and will be abroad today or tomorrow. What's the point for a young collector to buy paintings here? Where will he store them if he packs his bags tomorrow?

Do you also sit on suitcases?

Same. I have no apartment here, no car, nothing except my family: my wife and child - that’s all I think about. I saved all the sketches on my hard drive, so I can make new paintings. My fatalism is becoming less and less. The older I get, the more I want to live. I don’t want war, I want to find some quiet place so I can implement as many of my ideas as possible. I have the opportunity to leave, and two years ago I had it. But I don't do that.

What is the point for a young collector to buy paintings here? Where will he store them if he packs his bags tomorrow?

Why?

Because it's more interesting for me to perform complex tasks- for example, to do something interesting from Kharkov. I really like the idea of ​​decentralization [being implemented here], I see the point in it. And the city is interesting, cool, cozy, green. I would like to stay here to live and develop it.

I had the opportunity to move to Italy, America, Russia. I stayed here. But if war, devastation, Makhnovshchina and chaos begin again, then I, like many capable people, I will be forced to leave. This is fine. The question is, what will remain in Kharkov? Don't know. Scorched earth and ruins.

Works from the series “Burn everything with blue flame!!!” were a reflection of your fatalistic views?

Fatalism and indifference were in the air then. “Burn it all with a blue flame!” - there is such an expression. It was, I think, 2011 or 2012, I went to Donetsk and made a series of landscapes. And I looked at the city and thought: “What could be here tomorrow?”

For something new to appear there, something [terrible] probably had to happen. I felt it. This fear that there will soon be a war has haunted me since about 2011.

And when everything happened, I, of course, internally and infantilely rejected this reality. I want it to be possible to give everyone total amnesia so that we can live in peace. Because otherwise, for another 50 years, if not more, all we can do is take revenge on each other.

I want it to be possible to give everyone total amnesia so that we can live in peace. Because otherwise we will only have to take revenge on each other for another 50 years.

Wheel of Images

You have a lot to do with the theme of miners. Did you start doing it because you are familiar with it?

I just realized that I could actually say something about this. Therefore, I chose the topic deliberately. Over time, I realized that I was good at it and began to put some effort into it.

You said that you create your works primarily for yourself. How true is this? Do you really care what people think, how they see your work, or whether they see it?

Why do doctors experiment? First of all, they want to invent some new medicine for themselves. And only then they want to offer it to people, knowing that it will help. But if they are used to drinking analgin, they will refuse the modern remedy. How will the doctor feel? Shrug your shoulders and say: “Well, guys, okay! Not now, but later you will come for an alternative, because analgin does not cure everything. And in general, sometimes it is harmful. I'll wait".

Maybe what it offers people cultural policy in Ukraine, and fills some needs. But the residents of the Donetsk region generally have few needs, practically none, so the most primitive efforts can cover them.

But there are people for whom this is not enough. And when a person starts looking for an alternative and finds, say, my work or some other artist, he has two options: accept it or not. I know that my art, my images, work. But not for everyone, this is absolutely normal.

Another question is how to use artists correctly. For example, we use Maria Primachenko?

They made a national hero.

National hero. It turns out that the time will come when they will take advantage of me, and I would like to control this. I would like to be useful to society. Let them use me. Because art, the layer of images that I create, can personify and be associated specifically with my native land, the Donetsk region.

Then society will look for an alternative to my images in search of some new artist. This is a normal process that I would like to go through. I would like to get into this wheel of samsara, the rebirth of the system of images in society.

Panel “Reward for Silence”, 2015

You say that the residents of Donbass have low cultural needs.

Why?

Because it is not a source of pride.

Isn't culture a source of pride? And then what?

Ability to survive in difficult conditions.

And this is the cause of the conflict?

One of them. People are proud of different things.

So what should we do?

Change items of pride.

But as? Need to find common things to be proud of? What could become such an object?

Let them at least achieve reconciliation. What are our proudest things now? War and nationalism. But humanism can also be a source of pride. They're just not betting on it yet.

Humanism can also be a source of pride.

A work by Ukrainian artist Roman Minin was sold at Sotheby's for £7,500. The famous auctions of Sotheby's and Phillips are no longer new for Minin - Ukrainian and foreign collectors regularly buy his paintings under the hammer. And this is far from all that the young artist from the mining town of Dimitrov can boast of. Art blogger Evgenia Smirnova talked with Roman and tells his story.

“When I first sent the work to auction, I was a little overzealous with the packaging - it was beautiful, but it turned out to be heavy and could not withstand falling from the height of the loading conveyor belt onto the plane. As a result, the packaging was broken, the frame of the round work was damaged, and the painting was partially dented,” recalls Minin. “They sent me photographs of the work that had arrived at the auction, and I, of course, thought that the first thing was lumpy. But thanks to the help of friends in London, the painting was restored. No one knows who bought it at the auction, but the main thing is that they actually bought it. It was a nerve-wracking but rewarding experience for me.”

About the artist

Roman Minin grew up in a mining family in the small town of Dimitrov, Donetsk region. Studied at the Kharkov Academy of Design and Arts. Moreover, thanks to his innate artistic talent, he immediately entered the second year. Studying in Kharkov left its mark - Minin is often called a Kharkov artist. Although, the paintings that made him famous are dedicated to miners - those who surrounded him since childhood.

Minin’s work “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region” became a real breakthrough for the modern young Ukrainian art in foreign markets, thanks to her they learned about the artist outside of Ukraine. Another painting, “The Big Bang Practice,” was sold at Contemporary East Sotheby’s auction in 2014 for $8,200 and brought even more laurels to the Ukrainian.

About creativity

If Roman Minin no longer experiments with beautiful packaging for his works, he conducts various experiments in his creativity. In addition to monumental art, he is close to street art, photography, and installation.

“Currently I’m working on stained glass windows with artificial lighting, trying new materials. These are expensive and technically challenging projects. In general, I like to deal with complex ideas,” admits the artist.

At the same time, he notes, many artists in Ukraine have to adapt, use things at hand or underfoot that are convenient to transport and easy to sell at minimal cost.

But this story is no longer for Roman; another art is close to him. “In the past, I have often used materials from landfills for my art, but I have always dreamed of working with quality materials and monumental projects. I like to paint walls and work with large planes. The more complex the project, the more interesting it is to me. When they trust me with difficult, expensive projects, that’s really the drive. I wanted this to happen more often,” he notes.

Roman Minin is no stranger to creative charity - this summer-autumn he, together with his colleagues - Zhanna Kadyrova, Tanya Voitovich, Alevtina Kakhidze and the GAZ group, will engage in artistic painting one of the buildings of the main children's hospital of Kyiv OKHMATDET. Large planes complex idea- everything as the artist likes.

About the Ukrainian art market

Roman Minin praises his colleagues and assures that there are artists in Ukraine who can provide worthy competition on the international market. It’s just that now is not a very suitable time for the development of the domestic art market. They say that everyone is busy with politics, war and other more vital concerns. Nobody really cares contemporary art.

“When I was in school, chewing gum first appeared on the market. But it’s one thing to chew gum that was chewed, stuck under desks and chewed again. Another thing is the earbuds. They collected them, soldered books to store them, and played on them. This was the market!”

“Figuratively speaking: when rich people buy “expensive chewing gum” for inserts in order to play and exchange them, then a gambling art market will appear. There are so many problems in Ukraine now that few people can afford to be a child, play art in public, and get carried away by it. This is one of the reasons for the scarcity of “flora” and “fauna” of Ukrainian art; we need appropriate “climatic conditions”. Before the war, of course, there were more patrons of the arts. Apparently, they have all left and are waiting for the right climate,” the artist sums up.

“When I invest my money in a project, it’s freedom, I don’t depend on anyone. If I collaborated with various grant institutions, to which I need to not only report, but also follow certain trends, this creative freedom I wouldn't have"

35-year-old Roman Minin is among the top 10 best-selling Ukrainian artists, and today he is the most expensive among young artists and the most promising according to Forbes. Its main theme is the mythologization of miners and their life, since Roman is from the Donetsk region, although he has lived in Kharkov since 1998, and graduated there art school and the Academy of Design. His exhibitions are held in galleries in Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, and Britain. His paintings are also at world auctions Phillips and Sotheby's, and his work "Donetsk Metro Generator" was sold at the latter for $11,400. Last year, at the Art Prize competition in Grand Rapids in the USA, his stained glass window "Carpet of Promises" (16 x 24 m) was in the top 25 out of 1500 works. Donald Trump's advisers during his election campaign, the route of which ran through this town, advised the future president to speak against the backdrop of Minin's "Carpet", which he did.

— Roman, why do you think Trump’s assistants chose your stained glass window? “A carpet of promises” is what any politician lays out for his voters?

— I don’t think that the PR people delved into the essence and title of the work: they liked that it was bright and eye-catching. A promise is a tool of manipulation. People even go to war not because they want to kill someone, but because they were promised something for it. Promises rule the world. They must, of course, be exaggerated, exaggerated and painted with bright colors. All politicians promise something, but as for Poroshenko, he is a champion in this, a real maestro of unfulfilled promises.

— What was the reaction of the audience to your work?

- "Wow!" And if you explain the meaning, some began to cry, because in the center of “Carpet” there is a window to heaven - what we are promised after death. I didn’t want to show everything that we have in Ukraine, I depicted only the most beautiful things - promises. It was great that in this town, instead of lessons, schoolchildren kept diaries of the competition, interviewed artists and gave points. As a result of the children's assessments, I was in the top three. But no commercial proposals have been received - they are strongly focused on their own people, you have to live there: investments are made in a long-term and stable project. And the “Carpet of Promises” was later bought in London at Phillips auction.

Painting "Carpet of Desires". Photo: buyart.gallery

— Tell me how the British street art star Banksy transferred 1000 pounds sterling to you?

- He liked my work “Homer with Homer” (an image on the wall of an ancient Greek poet who, looking in the mirror, sees the reflection of an animated Homer Simpson - the picture has become an online meme. - Author). At that time, I was wandering around Kharkov in search of work and money. Suddenly Banksy’s assistants wrote that he noticed this thing and wanted to print it on posters. They offered 1000 pounds - I agreed. My family and I lived on this money for four months.

— Was it possible to monetize global interest in art in Ukraine in the wake of political upheavals?

- Not good. $10-12 thousand for a painting is not bad, but it will be good when in Ukraine a dozen artists will receive an average of $100-200 thousand for their work. Now we have two or three such masters. China has already reached this level. No matter how much I earn, I invest everything in living and my art - I still don’t have an apartment or a car.

— At Manifesta 11 in Zurich last June you walked around in an Alien costume ( kinetic sculpture, made for the project “Your Alien” is a mix of a miner and a monster from Hollywood films). The local art community didn’t pay too much attention to you, but when you went among the people, there was a stir...

— Because their curators and journalists have it planned in advance what and who to pay attention to. Their art machine pushes strictly its own people. They are not very interested in Ukraine. For the West, we are a third world country.

— Emir Kusturica was famous in Yugoslavia before the war, but only the film “Underground” about it made him a world star. Could something like this happen here?

— In 2010, I had a series of works on this topic, “Dreams about War.” As I now understand, these were warning works made in anticipation of future tragic events. I also drew an Alien on the Maidan, feeling that society was becoming stratified into friends and strangers. And now, on the contrary, I want to abstract myself from all this, not wanting to speculate on this painful topic. The authorities have done nothing all these years to somehow consolidate the east and west of the country. There were no ideas or cultural programs.

— Your art, to some extent, is a connecting link between the West and the East. What other meaning do you put into your paintings?

— The mines are closing, the mining profession is becoming a thing of the past. I want to prove that the lives of my fellow countrymen were not in vain. This also applies to my parents. They worked in the mines all their lives. And there are entire cities like them.

- What you say is very contrary to the modern political installation of the same decommunization...

“I want to create a fairy tale, but at the same time I am not going to serve anyone’s ideology, adapting to the political situation. I want to create something positive, new, create the future. But we don’t like to invest in projects that don’t pay off immediately, so that they can make money in a week. Today in Ukraine there is not one state museum contemporary art.

— Who supported you during difficult periods of your life?

— My wife is also an artist, she understands me. And the son is still small, he is seven years old.

The artist, photographer, street artist, author of objects and installations, Roman Minin, fits the definition of “widely known in narrow circles.” Despite the fact that he is a prominent participant in the artistic process in Ukraine, the artist’s works did not take part in all large-scale exhibition projects recent years. This is due to the fact that artMininamatured not on the territory of contemporary art, although now it is certainly a component of it, but rather is connected with artistic tradition. In addition, his ethical views are often in opposition to the behavioral patterns and ideological norms accepted within the contemporary art community. The artist’s status, not without contradictions, stands out both against the backdrop of postmodernist artists, masters of the older generation, and against the backdrop of younger socially critical pragmatic artists, as if he is aloof from both the “classics” and the “critics,” thus striving to a new level of worldview.

Roman Minin is known primarily as the author of works on the mining theme. The artist managed to create not just an extremely large-scale cycle, but also a kind of anthology of miner’s life. For Minin, the image of a miner is not just a symbol, the meaning of which has a different range of metaphorical readings: from a symbol of the Christian feat of humility to modern science“Data Mining” is the search for information in the world of information, and claims to be, as the author himself puts it, an “anthropomorphic archetype.” At the same time, the artist’s works are truly social in nature and are a clear illustration of human exploitation in the capitalist market system. In 2008, his exhibition in Donetsk was closed with a big scandal; local officials then personally removed paintings from the walls of the Donetsk regional administration, complaining that Minin was defaming the “bright image” of the Ukrainian worker.

Roman Minin

Sergey KantsedalYou were born in the Donbass into a family of miners, how did it happen that you became an artist?

Roman Minin Since childhood, I had a knack for drawing and spent a lot of time doing this activity. At school, everyone decided that I was an artist, they decided for me - I didn’t do anything for it, but it was convenient for me, it helped me in life and became so harmonious with me that I didn’t resist. Moreover, I could draw anything and at any time of the year, no matter what. The only thing I didn't like to draw was tattoos.

- Did you ask?

Constantly. At that time, various criminal groups were very actively developing in Donetsk, in my case there were two local associations, and everyone had to choose which of them you belonged to, including me. But I didn’t run with anyone and didn’t choose anyone, because I’m an artist (laughs).

- How did you start drawing miners?

WITH early childhood Dad took me to the mine, showed me what, how and why it works there. He was probably sure that I would be a miner and that’s why he told me everything in advance. I don’t even know exactly in which generation I am a miner, but at least, starting from my grandparents, everyone was a miner.

Not long ago, a drawing was discovered in the things of my late grandmother, which clearly shows that without a coal combine and miners underground, the picture of the world does not add up, you need to be born with it.

Children's drawing. 1985

- And when you were already at a conscious age, when did you first turn to this topic?

The first work about miners appeared in 2004 thanks to the Orange Revolution. I painted a picture of miners sitting and looking at campaign leaflets, wondering who they should vote for, but something was missing. Then I added the inscription: “To slaughter or to binge?” The result was both a poster and a painting, where a rather primitive drawing was supplemented with text.

To slaughter or to binge? From the series “Miner's folklore”. 2007-2011

- If I’m not mistaken, it was because of this painting that your exhibition in Donetsk was scandalously closed? Why?

It was an act of censorship, a vestige of communism. After the exhibition closed, there were also commissioned articles, which many, oddly enough, believed. Here, people are more willing to believe in “horror stories” that, having sold one job, I can feed 12 mining families for a whole year, and at the same time I throw mud at them - this nonsense can be found on the Internet.

- How do miners perceive your work? Surely they don't like it?

Of course not. Because in order for the miners to like it, you need to make art not about the miners, but for the miners.

Miner's Day. From the series “Miner's folklore”. 2007-2011

- What role does tradition play for you in art?

Man has created decorative patterns that are related to the place where they are created and are authentic, carry important information, in which I see something more than just squares and triangles - this is not even a language of symbols, but the language of nature, the language of antiquity. There is nothing deeper and smarter in fine art.

The creation of an anthropomorphic archetype, which I do, is also somewhat of a folklore tradition. For example, I create the miner archetype because I was born in the Donbass. If a person lived in a lighthouse and fished all his life, his archetype would be with a tail and fins (laughs).

The last fight for love. From the series “Miner's folklore”. 2007-2011

- For you, a miner is not just an image, it’s more of a symbol, isn’t it?

This is a symbol that doesn't exist. But he couldn’t disappear with the collapse of the USSR - people remained, miners remained, but the symbol died? It turns out that with my art I was looking for this symbol to find a way out of the current situation in which he found himself, a situation of losing his bearings. However, I wanted not only to give it a new impetus, but also to give it a more global meaning, to make it an archetype of a cosmopolitan character.

If I didn't see people who are talented, but they are miners, I wouldn't be doing this. I see this as a feat of Christian humility and philosophical view to life, a simple attitude towards oneself, which can be contrasted with individualism. Every film now awakens this inflamed self in a person, the search for happiness, no matter what, in all possible ways: do what you want, but you simply have to be happy. This does not apply to miners; they, it seems to me, do not possess this inflamed self.

- I remember Andrei Tarkovsky, who said that “there are things in life that are more important than happiness.”

Yes, one could even say that the miners sacrifice themselves. The fact is that previously everyone’s personal happiness was put into the common fund. I’m talking about this without nostalgia, it’s just good when there are such social relationships between people, and a person is ready to sacrifice something for the common good.

If you look at the first part of Vladimir Molchanov’s film “Slaughter,” filmed in the early 90s during the so-called “miner’s revolutions,” then the miners there look like full-fledged members of society. They fight for their rights and are not afraid of anyone. In the second part, filmed recently, the miners are intimidated and afraid of everything, as if they had become slaves. It turns out that they were not slaves then, but now they are.

From the series “Creed”. 2010

Don’t you think that the situation in which miners find themselves in Ukraine should be criticized using art as a tool of struggle?

During the period when I was working on the series of paintings “Miner's Folklore”, I was filled with love more than now, I wanted to more quickly justify the actions of the miners. If they live like this, then there is some meaning in it, I tried to find this meaning and love what they do. And the series of photographs “Burn everything with a blue flame” or “Donetskus bacillus” represents more critical view to what was happening, here I wanted to create an aesthetic picture, but with a more pronounced political overtone.

From the series “Burn everything with a blue flame.” 2012

Let's trace the chronology of the “mining cycle”. It turns out that from large-scale, rather traditional in formal solution, not devoid of narrative picturesque paintings“Miner's Folklore” did you come to an artistic generalization of the works of the “Creed” series, where the image of the miner becomes more symbolic?

In the “Symbol of Faith” series, the image of a miner acquires a pronounced sacred character, becomes a concrete symbol, a symbol of faith, not religion, but faith.

From the series “Creed”. 2010

Then you began working on the project “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region”, in which you refer not only and not so much to the image of a miner, but to an unusually relevant Lately for Ukraine, the theme of escape, which forces us to consider this project in some sense separately from the cycle of works on mining topics. Do not you think so?

Yes, the theme of escape is more international.

- Could you outline the boundaries of this project?

There is none of them. The most main job is a diptych “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region”, consisting of two multi-figure graphic compositions. This work carries the main idea of ​​the project, which needs to be conveyed to the viewer, which is very difficult to do now, because there are many distracting moments. In this sense, replication of this work helps me in this. The rest of the project’s works rather accompany it, helping to make the viewer find themselves in another reality, in the Donetsk reality.

Escape plan from the Donetsk region. 2012

What about shocking? As part of the project “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region”, you proposed that the Donetsk “pharaohs” organize a magnificent funeral in waste heaps, for which you created sketches of sarcophagi, which you showed at the exhibition.

Sarcophagi are not shocking, shocking is making a three-meter ball of dung and, dressed in a beetle costume, rolling it towards Kyiv (laughs).

Sketches of sarcophagi for Donetsk pharaohs.

- “The plan to escape from the Donetsk region” is not without hoaxes, just look at the encrypted inscriptions...

As a child, I really loved scrambling letters and inventing a language that no one understood, this is cool and interesting game. And everyone has their own escape plan, and therefore must be secret, so I encrypted it, although in fact in terms of complexity it is the first degree of encryption and, if desired, the texts in the works can be easily read.

From the project “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region.” 2012

Is it safe to say that you occupy, in a sense, a separate place in the context of contemporary art, remaining as if aloof from the processes taking place in it?

Yes, I think that this position is in some ways stronger. When, in the 17th century, ships loaded with paintings sailed to capture colonies on behalf of catholic church, already at that time art served some kind of power, in this case religion. It has always been this way. Now is no exception, maybe someone doesn’t know about it, but I know it and I never forget about it. In this case, I want to play this game not so much according to my own rules, but according to at least not according to their rules.

Socially engaged art, for example, has many of its own rules and interesting techniques and finds, artistic, but primarily psychological, that can be borrowed. Now psychology has begun to play a leading role in contemporary art, contemporary art is a cocktail, and the result depends on how much politics, psychology and artistic inventions we pour into it. I also use the techniques of such a cocktail, but I’m interested in making my own cocktail. This can easily be explained using a metaphor. For example, it opened new bar on the corner, where they prepare a cocktail that includes vodka, coffee and milk. After this, several more similar bars open in the city, serving the same cocktail. Then again and again, he goes to these bars a large number of people and the cocktail is popular. However, I am interested in preparing a cocktail according to my own recipe, meeting my own, if not numerous, but regular clients, and being sure that they need exactly what only I make. This approach is in many ways more promising.

From the project “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region.” 2012

Are you also one of those artists who doesn’t have a complex about the love of drawing, even though it’s no longer fashionable, to put it mildly?

This is not fashionable here. The problem is that the world is very big and what is not needed here is not always not needed at all. There are a lot of people in the world who draw well, but we don’t understand that every art has its own audience. We constantly think, what is right in art? Yes, that's right, do everything. If you want to make contemporary art, do it, but don’t interfere with the guys with their sketchbooks. This is a completely different sport, why do football players and tennis players not conflict, they are friends because they practice different types sports, and we have a binary everywhere, this is good, this is bad, etc.

- There are many references to Christianity in your works about miners. How religious are miners?

The miners are religious, because there are no atheists in the trenches under fire. However, I would rather call them not religious, but believers. There is no doubt about it that faith is needed, but with religion controversial issue. If we compare, for example, the Franciscans and the Benedictines, the former are more like believers, and the latter are more like religious ones. I can talk about this because I spent several years painting churches and saw church life from the inside, I saw a lot of good things and a lot of things that I don’t even want to talk about.

Sketch for the painting of a memorial complex dedicated to the dead miners. 2008

- Lately you have been actively involved in photography...

In photography I like to balance between reality and illusion, which I bring to it through the images I put on film. It turns out that this is neither reality nor a picture, but something in between, I would even say something third, that results from this combination.

- Did the Kharkov school of photography have any influence on you?

She influenced me in the sense of complete freedom with the work on the image, I appeal to her not as a photographer, but rather as an artist. In this sense, it certainly had an impact on me and showed me that photography can be used in completely different ways.

From the series “Donetskus bacillus”. 2012

You are also known as a street art artist, but, as far as I know, you would like, first of all, to be able to implement large-scale monumental murals about miners in urban space.

As Pushkin said, “The beautiful must be majestic.” My long-time dream is to create a syndicate of muralists in Ukraine, whose efforts could be united in order to engage in large-scale paintings in public spaces. In addition, I just really love monumental art, I like working with large-scale multi-figure compositions, but, unfortunately, it is very difficult to implement such projects in Ukraine.

- How many works with miners did you manage to implement?

Although I had many opportunities to paint miners on the walls, I did not do so because I did not see the right context for them. For example, in Kharkov, where I did a lot of work during street art festivals, in my opinion, such a symbol has no place.

Homer. 2010

Comment on the situation around the street art festival and with Kharkov street art in general (maybe it would be more correct to call it muralism). On the one hand, the authorities stopped giving permission to paint walls, and on the other, some representatives of the Kharkov art community developed a negative attitude towards street art. Could you comment on this situation?

As the experience of revolutions shows, it is always the minority who do not like it. However, when a minority speaks, it feels like it is coming from the masses. In fact, this is not a mass phenomenon, and the protest against Kharkov street art came from several people who are “at the helm” mass consciousness in the media space of contemporary art. The fact that this is actually happening good sign, this suggests that the Kharkov street art movement has gained weight, attracting the attention of people whom it, to some extent, even pushed out in the information space, and they are trying to resist this, which in itself is normal.

Wanderer. 2011

Nothing further. We can say that in the end no one won, if in this case it is at all appropriate to talk about victory. Neither the artists who criticized it, because street art is no longer developing in Kharkov and there is no reason to talk on the Internet. Neither the artists who contributed to the development of this movement and who did not subsequently receive a platform for self-realization. Nor, especially, the government, which, having sanctioned a law from above, in connection with which each sketch must be approved by it, did not receive new ideas that could replace compositions with flowers and landscapes of old Kharkov. From disunity this issue in fact, no one won, but only time was wasted. During this time, we could change the city so that it would move somewhere, so that new works would appear that could again mobilize artists not just to talk on the Internet, but to take action. Anyway, street art festival, and this situation this only emphasizes that he was a certain motivator - for some in one sense, for others in another.

I admit my mistake in that I called the festival incorrectly, I should have called it not a street art festival, but a muralism festival, but I started from the fact that this is a street art festival, in which not only artists should have taken part, Only artists “caught up.” I spoke about street art not as a form of social protest, but as street art, about muralism, which is characterized not by an illegal principle, but by work with the help of special devices and scaffolding.

From the series “Losers Dream of War.” 2010

- What are taboos in art for you, first of all, connected with?

Do not hit the spectator below the belt. When you, for example, show a phallus to the viewer, then this is pure physiology, no matter who this person is, it always works. I deliberately do not use such methods of psychological attack, because I think that it is dishonest. For example, Marina Abramovich’s performance, when she sat opposite the viewer and looked into his eyes, is also pure physiology, or rather the impact on her. I am an artist of a different genre. To Ukrainian art translates as “image-creating mysticism”, this is a very good formulation and it suits me, I like to create images, and not tear out the soul from a person.