NEOINFANTILIZM

Densely hung walls are the general style of NEOINFANTILISM across all three spaces where it is being shown. Three versions of a single phenomenon, three curators – such was the principle underlying the exhibitions. Fifteen artists from Moscow and St Petersburg. The title NEOINFANTILISM is an attempt to generalize the phenomenon that has appeared in our artistic community among young artists. There is no exact definition of NEOINFANTILISM. The idea of art in post-truth society, is art that knows everything and at the same time possesses characteristics of openness and emotionality, heightened vulnerability, almost a hothouse environment – these may be the unifying features and are in fact NEOINFANTILISM itself. Return to traditional media, to traditional, almost parodic means of showing works as if to emphasise the condition of the artists and curators – creating a familiar picture of an exhigtion: paintings hang on the walls, sculptures are displayed on podiums, the absence of video and photographs – on the whole, almost 19th century. Such a movement should not be considered to a full extent as retrogressive, it is more a successful attempt to step into the same river twice. The water remains water, retaining its properties, however it is charged completely differently.

The curators here resemble perestroika magicians, like Chumak or Kashpirovskiy, drawing a certain spiritualistic essence of time out into the spotlight. While there are obvious differences in the works, they also have something in common – the traits of a generation, a certain general unifying poetic, a world outlook. The energetic painting that is represented in all three exhibitions has an unusual vector, uncharacteristic for art and youth, of a conscious rush into the distant past.

Peter Belyi