Mimicry systems. Living sculptures

The project "Mimicry Systems", consisting of three exhibitions, was opened in the experimental space of the AZ Museum— AZ/ART. The curator of the project is the artist, art critic Alexander Dashevskiy. Vadim Mikhailov and Nikita Seleznev participate in the second part of the project - "Living Sculptures".

Mimicry becomes a formal technique, a curatorial move, when an exhibition project disguises itself as a scientific study, then as a thematic retrospective exhibition, then as a game of association. In wildlife, masking does not always mean visually merging with the background. Many animals use a large, bright pattern that prevents the external eye from perceiving them as a whole, highlighting the boundaries and dimensions of the body. Zebra stripes prevent predators and insects from interpreting it as a separate animal. The alternation of light and dark parts of the butterfly's wings makes it unrecognizable against the background of leaves and flowers. Similar evolutionary ways of evading visual identification, described by scientists, have found application in military affairs.

Alexander Dashevskiy, the curator of the project::

""Living Sculptures" is the second part of the exhibition series "Mimicry Systems". This time, the AZ/ART space will be filled with fragments of statues, epochs and memories. Sculptures will come to life, bodies will turn to stone, and antique fragments will demonstrate their fluidity. In the finale, the viewer will find a large museum ceremonial reliquary, where a new body of culture is formed from parts of previous traumas."

Each of the three exhibitions in the series explores a different kind of mimicry, looking for its poetic counterpart in social behavior and the language of contemporary art. Deliberately using an unreliable method of analogies, the project tries to find rhymes between the periods that have passed since the formation of Soviet unofficial art. Although each time is unique and historical situations, with all the external similarities, do not repeat themselves, there are many cases when one era puts on another's costumes, so examples of courage, cunning and perseverance of domestic artists of the second half of the 20th century can be inspiring, valuable, and in demand today.

The AZ Museum opened the AZ/ART space on Maroseyka in 2022 as a place for art experiments, contemporary art exhibitions (mainly with artworks from the AZ Museum assembly), group and solo exhibitions of contemporary artists, lectures and art meetings. The new museum space is located in the white stone chambers of the 17th century — the House of Naryshkin-Raguzinskiys.

Photo: Vasiliy Bulanov