Video: Gunpowder miners. Portrait installation "1040 m underground" by Cai Guo-Qiang in Donetsk
2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55
The Ukrainian city of Donetsk is called the heart of Donbass and the city of a million roses. Coal is mined here and mines are blown up. The city is famous for giving Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych, football - the Shakhtar team and the Donbass Arena stadium. And in the last days of August, it was also marked by the fact that it was here that an exhibition of a famous Chinese artist took place Cai Guo-Qiangdedicated to the Donetsk miners, who showed the artist how to work at a depth of more than 1000 meters underground, and became part of his exposition under the same name: " 1040 m underground"Impressed by what he saw at the depths of coal and salt mines where Donetsk miners work, Cai Guoqiang held a presentation of the exhibition and a press conference for journalists and connoisseurs of contemporary art. He said that 27 miners posed for him and several local artists were told about their work, which is both dangerous and difficult, but the main thing is that Tsai Guoqiang's old dream finally came true, to work in one of the countries of the post-Soviet space, especially since at one time his teachers were precisely Soviet artists And socialist China is not entirely alien to the countries of the former USSR In addition, the artist was attracted by the specificity of the Donetsk region - coal, mines and miners - and the opportunity to plunge into this atmosphere, to feel what few people have ever felt, seen, heard.
Knowing Tsai Guoqiang from his "gunpowder" painting and exploding cars with fireworks, it is not surprising that he was attracted by the opportunity to visit the mine at a depth of "1040 meters underground." And the huge portraits of 27 miners were subsequently made in the "gunpowder" style, and exhibited on pedestals of coal and salt - it was in the coal and salt mines that Tsai Guoqiang visited when he got acquainted with the mining work. Of course, the miners and their families who posed for the portraits were the guests of honor at the presentation.
The culmination of the exhibition was an unexpected (for the audience, probably) turn of events: the author of the exposition "1040 m underground" set fire to portraits of miners sprinkled with gunpowder. The music of the brass band of the Zasyadka mine accompanied the events. The exhibition was held in Donetsk from 26 to 28 August, organized by the participants of the "IZOLYATSIA. Platform for Cultural Initiatives" foundation.
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