“Seven Plagues of Seven Angels” by Vasily Kononov-Gredin

The ART4 Museum has opened a personal project of the young artist Vasily Kononov-Gredin.

The project “Seven Plagues of Seven Angels” is not just an exhibition of works, but an unusual reflection on the connections within the language and on possible scenarios of life in case of its collapse. What is art? Its essence is language. Memory, the transfer of knowledge, connections between people, between man and animal, interaction with nature, the boundaries of the human within the virtual – these are the topics that are raised in the project, and which the author discusses in the language of art. It is no coincidence that language is equated with art, as well as art with language: they are both necessary for communication between generations. The artist presented works in which he explores art as the language of society and raises the question of its immortality in the face of an ever-changing reality.

Vasily is an incredibly versatile person – an artist and sculptor, and the author of installations and video works, so it is no coincidence that he uses various visual tools to create a diverse language through which communication with the viewer takes place. The exhibition presents works of 3D modeling of the virtual environment, analog photography, laser engraving, copper forging, video and other techniques. The author notes that “during the creation of works, different technologies, methods and materials are used. Therefore, modern artists think over their projects for a long time, here it is no longer possible to do it for the sake of just doing it. Here you need to know why you are doing it, why and what you want to say with it.

The name for the project was chosen in a surreal way. Here is what the author himself says: “I thought about which movie is most related to the project, and this film turned out to be The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman. Then I decided that in search of a title, like Bergman, I would turn to The Revelation of John the Evangelist. Opening the book at random and stopping at the place where my eyes fell, I read: “… seven plagues of the seven Angels.” Since the project reflects on the painful issues of existence in the post-apocalyptic and post-human world, I decided to dwell on this title, ”says Vasily Kononov-Gredin.

This project was launched in 2021 and consists of three total installations, in which the idea of ​​the possible development of social and market relations in society is consistently connected. The central work of the first hall is a game with elements of gamification and motion capture technology, where the viewer is invited to swim to an island that he will never get to. The second room presents the artist’s skull, laser-engraved on glass, divided into parts. Work is the personification of the stages: from life to death. The last rooms display 200 negatives found in an abandoned village and depicting the life of its settlers in the early 1970s. The exposition ends with an installation featuring a robotic vacuum cleaner placed in a perfectly clean glass cube. Visually – the device cleans up, but this action is possible only after connecting to a wi-fi network, but it is possible that the image of the “vacuum cleaner” also unloads your personal data …

The tragedy of humanity lies in the fact that each generation has to re-master the experience of the previous generation, and in this relay race the acquired experience of overcoming violence, slavery, selfish and selfish attitude to the world is lost. If we imagine a world in which a person became immortal, then to what heights of humanism and knowledge could he rise? Perhaps digital immortality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence can help humanity overcome the tragedy of the end, or perhaps this is a dead end.

The author of a very unusual exposition is Vasily Kononov-Gredin, born in 1990, in the city of Urzhum, Kirov region. From childhood, he showed great interest in painting, studied with teachers in the studio of the local museum, graduated from the children’s art school, the Vyatka Art College and the BAZA Institute of Contemporary Art.

In his works, Vasily turns to large forms, the space of a total installation. He works not only with sculpture, video, objects, painting, but also with smells and sound, so that the impact on the viewer is bright and comprehensive. The artist’s attention is directed to the conceptual design, monumentality, beauty and integrity of the form. Here is how he says about his work: “In a global context, there is a connection between the cultures of different countries and religions, and the study of the modern problems of our society, its disunity, originality of thinking, working with new materials and forms, the persuasiveness and logic of artistic decisions gives us the opportunity to understand person. When I first entered the school, I had no idea what it was to be an artist. My art teacher instilled this understanding in me. An artist is a mission, a path. My favorite artists are Andrei Rublev, Francis Bacon, Kazimir Malevich. In addition, I adore the art of the ancients, Babylonian art, Cretan, Greek, Roman, Byzantine. All this inspires me a lot.”

Mikhail Kovalyov.

Photo of the author.