Fear brands and advertisements. Triptych "NEW RELIGIONS" by the creative duet of Pavel Nikiforov and Anastasia Shelbakh

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

In the gallery "Kitchen" in St. Petersburg, the exhibition "Mani, Bullet" was held. Lovers and creators of contemporary art reflected on the painful - who and what forms the public taste and new spirituality.

The curators of the St. Petersburg exhibition take the problem seriously and, as befits contemporary connoisseurs of contemporary art, diagnose the consumer society. "Consciousness becomes massive, the personality is leveled and dissolves in the sea of insignificant symbols and fetishes that determine the value and role of each of us."

The dominant feature of the exposition was the triptych "New Religions" performed by the famous creative duet Pavel Nikiforov and Anastasia Shelbakh. The gilded canvases, made in the author's technique from plastic with the use of silicone, resemble icons framed in a setting. Instead of a halo, there is a black square symbolizing the TV screen. Instead of natural materials, artificial ones.

The idea of the triptych is based on exposing false moral values through vivid images of symbols of our era. The authors are concerned about the massive substitution of concepts fabricated by the efforts of the media.

The TV controlled by the priests of the religion of money has become an intermediary between man and the rest of the world, in fact, a glass box with invented knowledge has become the true reality of modern man. The TV picture is a ready-made image that is directly loaded into the brain and does not require imagination, analysis or deliberation. Some believe that the Internet will save them from being zombified … and they stick around for days on the global network …

In traditional religions, the concepts of the goal of life and happiness are very complex and multifaceted. In the religion of money, everything is simple - it is the seizure of goods and money into private property.

Many people dream of simply accumulating a certain amount in a bank account - "making" a million, two, ten, billion, getting on the coveted list … This is purely a religious pleasure - a person simply thinks that his name corresponds to a certain number with a bunch of zeros, and one this "thought" gives him happiness and is the goal of his whole life.

The religion of money has created entire "industries" for the production of desires - advertising, marketing, PR. Corporations strive to firmly and forever tie the consciousness of the consumer to the goods and services produced by these corporations, as well as to their brands. A person programmed by the daily imposition of a brand can be forced to do whatever they want. Coca-Cola took the first place in the ranking of the 100 most expensive brands in the world in 2010 according to Interbrand …

Corporations are constantly trying to oust traditional, national traditions and customs from the minds of people and replace them with those controlled by corporations - technical innovations, imported goods, entertainment, symbols of a sweet life.

"It is known that at one time Peter I issued a decree on a thorough investigation of" miracles ", - says Pavel Nikiforov. - And the identified falsifiers of "crying" icons, etc. ordered to punish with a whip. And, as historians write, after that the number of "miracles" has noticeably decreased. " What should be done by modern society to withstand the onslaught of modern "miracles"? The question remains open.