Rustam Mirzoev
PARADNIY PORTRET
06.07 - 01.10.2013
Elevator man, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, spray, ready-made, 119x56cm
Fly, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, 118x57cm
Angela, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, container, 116x105cm
Cat, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, 119x115cm
Rustam Mirzoev, Sanitary
Seagull, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, 119x115cm
Venus, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, ready-made, 119x57cm
Radio, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, ready-made, 119x56,5cm
Zaya where is small one, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, spray, 118,5x55cm
Jessica, don’t worry, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, 119x56cm
101, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, 119x56,5cm
Rammstein, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, 56x117,5cm
103, 2013, polystyrene, acrylic, charcoal, spray, 118,5x64,5cm

Rustam Mirzoev
PARADNIY PORTRET
06.07 - 01.10.2013


The new exhibition of Rustam Mirzoev, “Paradniy Portret” ("Formal Portrait" or “Ceremonial Portrait”), is a study of a marginal culture of local entrance lobbies and their particular aesthetic. The title of the exhibition is based on the pun: in the old days ‘paradnaya’ (formal, ceremonial – about entrance) was used to refer to entrance lobbies that were, in fact, so ceremonial compared to the ones of our days that our contemporaries would now be willing to be photographed on the ‘formal portraits’ there.
Also, the walls of the entrance lobbies are a kind of a collective ‘portrait’ of the people that generation after generation paints the white-washed and sad-colored walls into graffiti’s and uncomplicated pictures, full of simple ‘conventional wisdom’ and ‘toilet humor’, with the participation of elements of the biosphere represented by flies, pigeons, cats, dogs, spiders, other fauna of the entrance lobby, and aggressive influence of the environment and employees of the housing and utility services. Thus, throughout the years and decades the walls of entrance lobbies turn into a kind of a textual and visual palimpsest, a peculiar document recording the city life in the fullness of its constituents which deserves to be immortalized in the art.
 
Olexandra Filonenko