For the artist that will that bondage – all the same. And decarating the era of the artists was sitting at the workshops and worked. So the forced self-isolation, few changed their regime, and yet the world turned upside down and the artists mental feel it stronger than others. This time in the framework of the project “Art of Life” (curators: Maria Moskvicheva and Dmitry Grasevich) “MK” made online journey to the workshop Bayna (aka Alexander Gnutova, it – Sasha-the jester, the Raven Fire and No one even). Sasha is more than an artist, he is a magician, possessing secret knowledge, which he captures in a mysterious manuscripts, sometimes in the ordinary bathroom. So, his Studio itself is a work.
help-MK: Gnutoo Alexander (Gnutoo-Baiyun, Sasha-the jester, the artist Sanechek, Raven-Fire, None) Painter, graphic artist, author of art objects, performances and video art. Born in 1976 in Saratov. In 1998, lived in an art commune “Garden”. The organizer of exhibitions of young artists in the duodenum (“not Yet summer”, “Beginning and end”). The ideologist of group “Volga Drive”. For some time he lived in Moscow, he returned to Saratov. Creativity consistently connected with the study and re-interpretation of marginal and teenage gang culture of the 90s, martial arts, pagan mythology (European, Slavic, East, totemism) and Orthodoxy. The author of several personal exhibitions “Dreams prophetic mushrooms, or Ornament for a hero” SGHM (2010), “near-market fusion No. 1” (curated by Denis Mustafin), bookshop “Tsiolkovsky”, Moscow (2011), “the prophetic Dreams of cats, or the Main secret of the Russian forest”, DPK (2016). Participated in the festival of contemporary art “I Want to the Volga!” Saratov (2002), festival and MINCED gala jam session “All star” (curated by Denis Mustafin), Moscow (2010), the exhibition “Kitties at the Manezh”, Moscow (2015). The participant of several exhibitions of the gallery IMHO. The artist’s work, “the Grimoire” (objects and videos, 2016) entered into the category of “More mythology” the main project of the First Russian triennial of contemporary art in ISI “Garage” (2017). Member of the project “the Tragedy in the corner,” Moscow – Izhevsk (2018). Lives and works in Saratov.
– What is your personal creativity zone? What a space, its mood, the drink? Does it matter the size, wall color, window view, the absence (or presence of) extended attributes (maybe books)?
Well, my area of creativity is extremely mobile, this is the benches in the square at the Pushkin in St. Petersburg, the cuisine in the area Glebychevo of the ravine (part of the old Saratov, near the town centre in line with a broad ravine, from the 18th century built the old one – story housing. M.). and dozens of such places. But it is almost always a table or chair, to draw comfortably on a solid and flat surface, who would not say that. Drinks coffee, tea, mate, but I plan to give up, for health ��no little positiveat. Room settings do not matter, but large Windows are welcome, preferably with a view of the Park or forest. Of additional attributes, I think I would hand wolf.
is it Important for you loneliness while working in the Studio? Or they can be witnesses (except nature)? Can you work, if there is someone else?
– I prefer to work alone, as muses and spirits do not like the presence of strangers, only to find the room beyond.
How long can you stay in the Studio alone? A few days, weeks, months and not go in white light?
– White light in Russian folk tales is a metaphor of the world as a whole, the universe. On the whole world – it means the entire cosmos. So go me no need, I’m always in it.
– How important is it for you food, when inspiration strikes? Do you have your recipes to fuel creative activity.
– Yes, of course, a very important PU’er, it creates the atmosphere of Russian secret space, it is, in fact, chthonic tea, the favorite drink of Russian Magi.
– it is said that many artists work in “altered state”? Is it for you? What helps you sink into it?
– Yes, I do not go out from it practically, so to take not necessary. But sometimes it helps to get in the right state of a simulation of the movements of a wolf or a crow, a kind of dance such a totem.
People in order to live in the apartment for a few months needs to buy food. And what should be in your workshop for two months in addition to the products? Specifically – how many liters of the solvent as the oil, canvases, etc.?
– Girlfriend – I call her the babysitter, the Internet, Sunny St. John’s wort is to fumigate the room from evil spirits, three packs of Yerba mate Argentinian, twenty black gel pens, ten albums, a large portrait of my nagual Carlos Castaneda on the wall.
Why do you need enclosed space? I want after a long stay in the workshop to work in open space, in nature?
– In nature and want to relax, to merge with the spirits of the forest, with Velez, with the Wild Hunt, with mermaids playing hide and seek. And let the workers work.
– what, in your opinion, mass self-isolation will change our reality? How to affect the culture? What could be a new form of art the new reality?
– If you still do not understand the New World of the Chinese triads will decide who is the artist and who is not ! And successful in the art industry can become, only having friends of mutants, or being able to turn the Raven on even numbers and a wolf – on the odd.
How the perception of the person, in particular, of the artist after a long period of isolation?
– Surprisingly, I not only tolerate the reduction of communication and relative isolation, but also feel its obvious therapeutic effect. In particular, all the more clearly feel part of the Russian Space, ready for his active development and recognition, we can say that for the last time, I nurtured my inner Gagarin. Suddenly aware of himself enough perfect master of darkness and imaging applications, in one word, had become spiritually realized guru and prophet of the Russian Htone.
– What is your most important/unexpected/ridiculous/random opening personally in quarantine?
I realized that looking forward to the onset of a police state, I hope, will be very popular, as the Creator and designer of its visual component. The future, as the artist, in a democratic society, obviously, I was not.
