Translate by Abigail Prowse of Linguamore Communication studio
The exhibit Non mi lamento di niente e mi piace tutto is dedicated to Vsevolod Prokhorov (1995), an artist originally from St Petersburg currently living in Udine’s Borgo Stazione. He is also a student at the Friulian Mosaic School.
The exhibit has been curated by Constraint Association as part of the Nuovi Binari 2022-2023 project which aims both to highlight the works created by residents of Borgo Stazione and to promote social integration in the area – particularly when it comes to those under the age of 30.
In Non mi lamento di niente e mi piace tutto, visitors can immerse themselves in the works of Vsevolod Prokhorov (St Petersburg, 1995) who has based the project upon a handful of concepts relating to Russian culture and Western history.
The exhibit’s name stems from the artist’s reflections on St Petersburg. “During the Era of Stagnation (a term which refers to Brezhnev’s role as General Secretary to the Central Committee of the Soviet Union), many say that bureaucracy absorbed ideology. This was particularly prevalent in posters, slogans, and party history conferences, as well as in the Young Pioneers Movement. Initially, this ideology was intended to be provocative, aiming to mobilise the Russian population in reforming society. Because of this, it ended up being ritualistic.
The conceptual artists in Collective Action shifted the purely formal aspects of utilitarian space into the poetic space, writing extracts from Monastirsky’s poems on posters and slogans and pinning these up in the woods. In a way, the inverse process of these futuristic poets and contemporary artists was able to bring poetry from the artistic field into a more utilitarian one.
The poems in Arte concettuale è privo di funzionalità (“Conceptual art is devoid of funcionality”), both in terms of Soviet society and in terms of Western capitalism, portray the absurd nature of the ‘social normalisation’ which the system tries to attain. This is a greater threat to the system than an act of terrorism, because it proclaims with a smile: ‘the king is naked’.
Why is this transition process from the utilitarian to the poetic so important to us, who have never lived under Soviet rule but within a capitalist society?”
In order to highlight this very theory – this sense of simultaneousness between systems past and present – the artist wanted to condense his reflections into the title Non mi lamento di niente e mi piace tutto (“I complain about nothing and I like everything”).
Opening times and information
The launch party for the exhibit will take place on 2nd December 2022 at 18:30, with drinks provided by Bar Tommy – a firm supporter of all events hosted in Spazio35.
The exhibit will be open to visitors Monday to Friday from 15:00 to 19:00, and Saturdays from 10:00 to 13:00 and from 15:00 to 19:00 in Spazio35, Via Percoto 6, Udine.
For more information, please contact: [email protected]
Biography
Born in St Petersburg in 1995, Prokhorov studied at an art specialist high school before going on to earn his degree at the Industrial Technology and Design Institute, specialising particularly in mosaics. In 2019, he moved to Friuli-Venezia Giulia to continue his education at the Friulian Mosaic School in Spilimbergo. His relationship with painting, which began in Russia at his high school in St Petersburg, found itself drawn more towards mosaics and abstract art upon his move to Italy.
Vsevolod Prokhorov and the concept of mosaics
“My perception of mosaic artistry is fairly simple: it can be seen as a mix between painting, graphic design, and sculpture. Although I don’t agree entirely with this definition. It’s actually a separate type of art, like painting or sculpture, which can be detected in every culture – it was largely developed during the Hellenistic era. In the 4th Century A.C. a mosaic ‘artistic language’ was developed, which differentiated it from painting or graphics. I believe, for example, that the decorations around Grecian and Roman pavements are of greater value to us than the central image or emblem. In this emblem, the mosaic lives according to the rules of painting, but the decorations live alone, creating an autonomous art type. Today, this practice of creating paintings using stones lives on. Because particular resources are needed to create mosaics, they can never live entirely separately from the ‘Aristocratic norm’ in terms of their aesthetic, in the same way that everything trying to distance itself from naturalism is labelled as marginal. Through my work, I try to distance myself from the rules of mosaic ‘painting’ and from the aesthetic norm, and try, instead, to apply specific language, drawing from its evolution to establish a new direction.”
The Nuovi Binari Project 2022-2023
The concepts of social integration, diversification, and cultural involvement are the key objectives powering all of the Constraint Association’s projects. The association aims to educate and inform citizens by establishing cultural spaces which are enjoyable and welcoming, and which attract and integrate as many people as possible.
The Nuovi Binari Project 2022-2023 (“new platforms”, relating to the neighbourhood’s proximity to the city’s train station) is part of this trajectory, made to involve artists of diverse cultures under 30 years old in Udine’s Borgo Stazione. The project aims to develop, through cultural means, a sense of reciprocal understanding and interaction between the different people involved. Most importantly, the project hopes to establish spaces and events in Borgo Stazione which give locals the chance to understand other cultures, stimulating interaction between communities (intergenerational and intercultural).
The Nuovi Binari Project 2022-2023 has been made possible thanks to the support of Fondazione Friuli and BancaTer, with help from the Friulian Mosaic School, who believed in the project’s objectives and its partnership with other activities in the Borgo Stazione Area. Thanks also to Tommy Bar, Tipografia Marioni and Peccol Vini.
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