Kirkevich on the "Bykhov Madonna": A quiet, thoughtless gaze into nowhere — the sculptor captured the state of soul of Lukashenka's Belarus
If this is "realism", then here it is — reality. Sick, mutilated, looking with an empty gaze from under its brow, writes Ales Kirkevich on budzma.org.
New monument "Woman-Mother" in Bykhov. Photo: bykhov.by
Looking at the sculpture by the recently fashionable "monumentalist" Alexander Minkov, one doesn't feel like laughing. Not at all. The character created by the author evokes mixed feelings. Pity. Unease. Anxiety. Disgust. And finally... the uncanny valley effect.
This is when, at first glance, everything is OK with human-like figures, but disproportion and even minor deviations in appearance are frightening. The resemblance to a human does not evoke empathy. On the contrary. It causes panic and horror. Evolutionary mechanisms of the psyche, honed over hundreds of thousands of years, cry out: "Run away from here!"
Black is white. Deviation is the norm
Why is that? Because it's not a human. But something that wants to be human-like. A robot, a monster, a sick specimen... anything. But — it's dangerous. Children also create imperfect portraits and sculptures, it seems. But it's — cute. Why do we not feel unease or disgust in the case of children's drawings?
Children draw and sculpt according to their level of knowledge and skills. A child can also draw on wallpaper or — flush parents' documents down the toilet. It happens. But... when an adult does something similar, it's strange, isn't it? Imagine an adult who makes flushing documents down the toilet — their profession? Their creative credo?..
In our case, the state accepts such a character into a creative union. Gives him a state order to create an artistic object. Ceremoniously opens this "work" and covers it in the media... That is — makes a deviation from the norm — the norm. While thousands of our artists were forced to leave or remain in Belarus, but — out of their profession. Because they do not fit into the state "norm".
Composition by Alexander Minkov "Ales and Alesia" in Kastsyukovichy. Photo: golkby
If this is "realism," then here it is — reality
You might object: the West is full of strange art. Provocative, ugly, primitive, created by sick people who themselves emphasize their disorders, or — created under the influence of various substances... OK. But there's one "but." Nobody says that this is — realism. In our case — this is "realism." Which means, here it is — reality.
Remember the old saying "eyes — the mirror of the soul"? Well, art — is the mirror of society's soul.
"The Bykhov Madonna" is a documentary testament to the state of soul of our Belarus. A quiet, thoughtless gaze into nowhere, and in addition — a slight smile of a person who has just strangled someone, without blinking an eye. Because... the concept of "norm" has long been blurred.
Oncology of the soul
What is this story about? A crisis in the state or society rarely comes alone. It rarely happens only in one specific area: in politics, in the judicial system, in economics, in education, in humanities... A crisis is systemic. And art, as a mirror of the soul, documents all this horror. Just as a disease chart documents oncology, for example.
I don't know what fate awaits Belarusian "Lenins" or the sculpture of the hockey player mole in Salihorsk. Probably — they will be demolished and washed with chlorine.
Sculpture of a hockey player mole in Salihorsk. Photo: esoligorsk.by
But I would still keep the "Bykhov Madonna." Not in Bykhov, but in an appropriate Kunstkamera. In an appropriate hall. With an age restriction of "18+."
Why? Because this, just like photos of violence by security forces from protests or junk mail from the pen of propagandists, is evidence of illness. Evidence of degradation and the flowers that grow in this joyless field.
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