The exhibition of the artist Vadim Fishkin entitled Dark Times presents a work that continues and builds on his artistic explorations of the phenomenon of time, light and, indirectly, space. In the interior of the former monastery church with minimal visual and acoustic means, the artist establishes a holistic spatial intervention, where the central elements are represented by black painted wall clocks and their endlessly repeating sound.
With this multi-meaning work, the artist relates to the exhibition space itself, as it visually establishes an optical interaction between contemporary elements and historical architecture, while the sound component is based on the ticking of wall clocks, which create an almost controlled acoustic cacophony in the acoustic space of the exhibition area. The exhibition thus confronts the seemingly contradictory concepts of the unknown and the everyday, since time and the measurement of time belong to both poles at the same time. In his creative practice, Fishkin has devoted at least two decades to the reflection on human or social relation to time; in his work fast Day (2003), as a result of high speed travel in space, he reduced the time of one day to only a few minutes, in his work Choose Your Day (2005), he simulated an imaginary journey through different times and spaces in autonomous space, and in his work stretched time (2016), he turned a stationary clockwork into a metaphorical play of meanings. The work Dark Times constantly reminds the audience with its visual and sound appearance that every part of life is just one of the sounds in the relentless countdown of intervals to the end, be it the end of life or the end of the world. Time is never completely neutral, because society attributes many characteristics to it depending on current social conditions. In a figurative sense, times can be favorable or difficult, happy or gloomy, golden or dark, which in no way changes the fact that, from the point of view of human perception, time flows in the same sequence at all times, while science calls this into question. Thus, the sound-visual intervention of Vadim Fishkin, despite its unmimeticity and semantic ambivalence, draws on some fundamental questions of the modern world – the measurement of time and the (attempt) to understand its passing.
Vadim Fishkin (1965) is a contemporary artist who explores in his practice the relationships between science, personal experience and imagination, between metaphysics and pragmatism, between the artificial and the real. His core field of activity is science and its study methods, while he often uses complex technological devices to carry out his installations, sculptures, photographs and drawings, which at the same time are characterized by his specific sense of humor. He began his artistic career in Moscow, where he graduated from the Moscow Institute of architecture in 1986, and has lived and worked in Ljubljana since 1996. His work has been extensively featured in many prominent international museums, galleries and festivals, including the Venice Biennale (1995, 2003, 2005, 2017); Manifesta, Rotterdam; Istanbul Biennial; Casino Lu / / / / Secession, Vienna; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris; Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; / / Contemporar / / Art Centre, Moscow; / / Martin-Grupius / / Bau, Berlin; / / ZKM-Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; / / MACRO – Museum of Contemporar / / Art, Rome; / / Shanghai Biennale.
Curators: Miha Colner, Goran Milovanovi /
Photo: Jaka Babnik
Razstava umetnika Vadima Fiškina z naslovom Temni časi predstavlja delo, ki nadaljuje in nadgrajuje njegova umetniška raziskovanja fenomena časa, svetlobe in posredno tudi prostora. Umetnik v interjerju nekdanje samostanske cerkve z minimalnimi vizualnimi in zvočnimi sredstvi vzpostavlja celostno prostorsko intervencijo, kjer osrednja elementa predstavljajo v črno barvo prebarvane stenske ure in njihov neskončno ponavljajoči se zvok.
Umetnik se s tem večpomenskim delom navezuje na sam razstavni prostor, saj v vizualnem smislu vzpostavlja optično interakcijo med sodobnimi elementi in historično arhitekturo, medtem ko zvočna komponenta temelji na tiktakanju stenskih ur, ki v akustičnem prostoru razstavišča ustvarjajo skoraj nadzorovano zvočno kakofonijo. Razstava tako sooča na videz nasprotujoča si pojma nedognanega in vsakdanjega, saj čas in merjenje časa pripadata obema poloma hkrati. Fiškin se razmisleku o človeškem oziroma družbenem odnosu do časa v svoji ustvarjalni praksi na različne načine posveča že vsaj dve desetletji; v delu Hiter dan (2003) je kot rezultat visoke hitrosti potovanja v vesolju na zgolj nekaj minut skrajšal čas enega dneva, v delu Izberi svoj dan (2005) je v avtonomnem prostoru simuliral imaginarno popotovanje po različnih časih in prostorih, v delu Raztegnjeni čas (2016) pa je v mirovanje ujeti urni mehanizem spremenil v metaforično igro pomenov. Delo Temni časi pa občinstvo s svojo vizualno in zvočno pojavnostjo nenehno opominja, da je sleherni del življenja le eden od zvokov v neusmiljenem odštevanju intervalov do konca, pa najsi bo to konec življenja ali konec sveta. Čas pač nikdar ni povsem nevtralen, saj mu družba pripisuje mnoge značilnosti v odvisnosti od aktualnih družbenih danosti. Časi so v prenesenem pomenu lahko ugodni ali težki, srečni ali turobni, zlati ali temni, kar pa nikakor ne spremeni dejstva, da s stališča človeške percepcije čas teče v vselej enakem zaporedju, medtem ko znanost prav to postavlja pod vprašaj. Zvočno-vizualna intervencija Vadima Fiškina tako kljub svoji nemimetičnosti in pomenski ambivalentnosti napeljuje na nekatera temeljna vprašanja sodobnega sveta – merjenje časa in (poskusa) razumevanja njegovega minevanja.
Vadim Fiškin (1965) je sodobni umetnik, ki v svoji praksi raziskuje razmerja med znanostjo, osebnim izkustvom in domišljijo, med metafiziko in pragmatizmom, med umetnim in stvarnim. Njegovo osrednje področje delovanja je znanost in njene študijske metode, medtem ko pogosto uporablja kompleksne tehnološke pripomočke za izvedbo svojih instalacij, skulptur, fotografij in risb, ki jih hkrati zaznamuje njegov specifičen smisel za humor. Svojo umetniško pot je začel v Moskvi, kjer je leta 1986 diplomiral na moskovskem Inštitutu za arhitekturo, od leta 1996 pa živi in deluje v Ljubljani. Njegovo delo je bilo obširno predstavljeno v številnih uglednih mednarodnih muzejih, galerijah in festivalih, med drugim Beneški bienale (1995, 2003, 2005, 2017); Manifesta, Rotterdam; Istanbulski bienale; Casino Luxembourg; Secession, Dunaj; Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Pariz; Moderna galerija, Ljubljana; Contemporary Art Centre, Moskva; Martin-Grupius-Bau, Berlin; ZKM – Centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe; MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art, Rim; Šanghajski bienale.
Kustosa: Miha Colner, Goran Milovanović
Foto: Jaka Babnik
