Two Wishes

The exhibition title refers to a poem by the Silver Age poet Sasha Cherny, which turns out to be in tune with our time. This time inspires some to new achievements, while others are inspired by deep reflection and fading. The last lines of the poem with the poet's desire to "fall asleep, wake up in a hundred years" become prophetic for the mansion, which after a long break for a very short time again encounters art, but completely different in form and content. The artists presented reflections on the desires of today - their own and others - through painting, graphics, objects, audio and video installations.

Almost always, desires are connected with childhood, when you expect them to come true in the most miraculous way; then they become more and more illusory, and some haunt us all our lives. The artists discuss the impossibility of dreams, the fragility of life, beauty and fading, love and sadness, and, ultimately, the uselessness of wanting and doing something. Many of the works were made specifically for the project and enter into a dialogue with the mansion space and interiors, creating a clearly structured narrative about the dreams of our time - and dreams beyond time.

The narrative begins with something naive, sincere and childish. The first work at the exhibition is a painting by Yulia Virko called “House of the Rock Climber”. In her works, she balances on the edge of fantasy and reality, creating complex images based on a journey into the depths of her feelings. The plots of the artist’s paintings become symbolic for the exhibition — either a small hero tries to reach a house on a tree, or a confused person in front of the screen seems to have split in two in search of a path — and do not require interpretation, inviting the viewer to examine the details and search for meanings. At the same time as Virko, the “TOY” team offers its “game”.

An object from the series "Consumption", located in the center of the preserved marble staircase of the mansion - an unattainable candle. This is an understandable impulse: if a candle - you want to blow it out, if a magic wand - you need to wave it, if a glass - you want to finish it, if a match - you want to light it, if money - you want to possess it, if a bottle - you want to lure the Genie out of it. The viewer encounters these objects in the space of the Morozov mansion unexpectedly, as if they were accidentally forgotten things from another era, made deliberately naively.

When we talk about desires, we often transfer to childhood, when dreams are boundless and full of freedom. "Childhood" becomes the main theme of the new series of works by Rodion Kitaev. The artist asked different people about childhood dreams and based on their stories created small pictures: they became windows in the embroidered panel. "Satellites-memories", as Kitaev calls them, do not disappear, but stubbornly pursue us through the decades.

On the chamber mirrors from the series "Cherished Desires" appear images from fortune telling: rituals when the most secret aspirations are pronounced out loud. Fragments of the textile object "Seventh Petal" fly apart, as in Valentin Kataev's fairy tale "Flower with Seven Colors". In their place appear ceramic heads with clearly expressed emotions, like masks from the ancient theater - traces of ritual scars.

Childhood wishes may be forgotten, but the marks from them remain with us forever, and the torn petal continues to circle in search of a magical means of making a dream come true. And someone who is capable of waving a tail, a wing, a petal, sticking out of the bottle (or flask) of the "TOY" team or the canvas of Yulia Virka and saying: "I will fulfill all your wishes" must certainly appear. And of course, we would like this someone to stay with us further - even if the requests become more and more pragmatic.

Here, the golden antelope, which is referenced in Virko's painting "When to Stop," can come to the rescue. The artist does not change her principle and continues to work with canvases as puzzles, which makes the viewer dream, remember, feel nostalgic, find familiarity and think up.

Magic is magic, but miracles do not happen often. We all wander in the forest of our dreams, doubts, thoughts, shrouded in the fog of misunderstanding. "Lost in the forest, I will meet a blue fog" - this is how Anna Bystrova calls her work, for whom the mysterious forest becomes the main theme of her artistic practice.

One of Bystrova's paintings refers to the 1985 Soviet filmstrip "Tales of the Old Garden", where the overgrown garden is a place full of mysteries. The artist lives and works in a country house, surrounded by a forest that gives peace and inspiration.

In the routine cycle of days, we forget about our dreams, but sometimes we come face to face with them again - or eye to eye, as in the works of Rostan Tavasiev and Sasha Nesterkina. A series of seven paintings by Tavasiev invites us to reflect on time, which in our era has accelerated so much that all that remains is to count the days. These canvases are the result of seven days of watching the sunset in the artist's native Abramtsevo.

The sense of peace from the landscapes is disturbed by small furry eyes that are spying on the viewer. Or are you spying on yourself, trying to answer the question of who you are and what you really want? Water, sky and an attentive gaze become mirrors, and you need to take a good look at them to understand yourself.

Sasha Nesterkina offers a different way to think about time and dreams in her installation. Nesterkina's objects mimic historical ones, but in fact they are skillful traps that draw us into thinking about time, the fragility of life, beauty and decay, love and sadness. A piano covered in concrete and candle wax, a sconce made of branches that seems to have grown into the wall, and a mirror lost in the "Raphael" paintings remind us that a hundred years ago music sounded in these halls, candles burned, chandeliers sparkled with crystal, and glasses clinked.

Since then, much has changed in the mansion; and it is no longer possible to even walk through the halls as before: the historical floor is hidden behind the Soviet "herringbone", the chandeliers are lost, and some openings are sealed forever. For example, the one where the installation "...I am captivated in iridescent dreams, in curling circles..." is located, the title of which refers to the artist's favorite poem by Maximilian Voloshin.

It happens that our aspirations, plans and dreams suddenly collapse in one day. We are powerless to change anything and find ourselves surrounded by a viscous space from which we are looking for a way out, and sometimes it seems as if this is a battle with evil spirits. Mila Gushchina discusses the desire for life and the desire to keep this fire in oneself in her works. Her fiery hero from the Doubts series “jumps” from graphics to painting and embroidery. Gushchina has other images: someone lights this fire themselves and carries it to others, someone stands at a crossroads, wondering: should I fan it?

Or step aside and wait, as the hero of the large watercolor "Dreamer" does. The painting canvas "Keeper of Fire" gives a hint to another object of the "TOI" team about consumer desires - wooden money. The preserved tiled stove in the former dining room-refectory of Alexey Vikulovich Morozov is in fact a painted plaster safe, a hoax, as is the imitation of wooden carved decorations in pseudo-Russian style on the walls and ceiling of the hall.

The installation called "Hey, where are you going?" by Daria Kiseleva and Ulyana Podkorytova continues to reflect on the desired. The circle of running away plates is an unattainable holiday and feast. The shell dishes seem to have moved from the facade of the mansion.

Their formation is uneven: some of the shells have acquired zoomorphic limbs, while others have preferred anthropomorphic features. The dishes carry their gifts in a closed circle without stopping, their round dance is one, but their gaits are different. Each of the visitors can decide for himself which gift is closer to him and why the offerings are cyclical.

The theme of elusive desires is continued by Nikolai Onishchenko's audio installation "Love Has No End" (Amore Duré Sans Fin). The title refers to the work of the 16th-century Italian mannerist artist Agnolo Bronzino. His portrait of Lucrezia Panciatichi, now housed in the Uffizi Gallery, has a tiny detail - a barely noticeable inscription engraved on the girl's necklace and included by the artist in the title of the work. Such attention to detail is also important in the graphic sheet that precedes the entrance to the "party". The phrase "Amore Duré Sans Fin", at first glance complete, actually contains an error.

The first word is written in Italian, the rest in French. We find ourselves in an unstable situation that begins to fall apart upon closer inspection. In Morozov's former office, behind a fenced staircase, we hear loud music. Flashes of light pick out details, but it is impossible to see the entire room - as well as to get into this party. The entrance to the steps is blocked by a barrier tape. Thoughts are cut off by sound, our gaze clings to fragments of a fantastic interior that we are not allowed to examine in its entirety.

"Closed Party" takes us to a rococo boudoir, where a collection of 18th-century French tapestries with romantic themes has been preserved. Architect Fyodor Shekhtel came up with a special chandelier that gives diffuse matte light so that the colors on the tapestries do not fade. And of course, this room should always have heavy, thick curtains to protect from the sun's rays: the tapestries need darkness. Lyudmila Baronina created large-scale textile works for this room, called "A Midsummer Moan." Her focus is on the preserved historical tapestries with love motifs.

In Baronina's works, romantic young ladies and young men are reduced to skeletons, and desires once again prove unattainable and are shattered by invented phrases: "Today, like yesterday, you are not in love with me at all"; "I did not promise you a rose garden"; "I came to you, but you withdrew into yourself, the date did not take place again." The artist creates the illusion of deception. We find ourselves in a cloud of romanticism and "moans about love", but upon closer examination it turns out that it is impossible to possess what we desire. One of the works quotes a phrase from the previous "Gothic Cabinet", where a gnome sits on the steps of the stairs, and in his open book it is written: "Ars longa, vitа brevis" - "Art is eternal, life is short." This phrase becomes prophetic in the fate of the owner of the estate. For Baronina, it is a discussion of a broader perception of love.