Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

Alexander: My name is Alexander. I position myself mainly as a painter, but I am also a designer. I
work with installations, paint on canvas, work in the street as well. I’ve been looking for the new
forms of interaction recently, in order to organize a new form of presentation.
Stanislav: My name is Stas, Stanislav Rikshkovovets. I do not position myself as a painter, I am a
painter, because I live like this, only like this. I am a representative of the art-group “Zlye” (Evil, Mean).
We are four people, who are based in this city. Unfortunately all four cannot be here, but there are
two of us. From old Slavic, I am not very good in it, but I have information, that the people here used
to have a different alphabet – “bukvitsa”, where the letters were called “az”, “buki”, “vedi”, “glagol”..
They were not only letters, but also images, that’s really important. Each letter had a letter. “Az” for
example, if I am not mistaken, meant ‘the god on the earth”, “the living water – the dead water”,
everything that we know from the fairytales. There was a letter “zelo”. Then, when Russia got
baptized, when different people started to rule in the country, they changed “zelo” into “zemlya”
(earth), because “zelo” meant “evil”. But evil at that times was understood like “something by no one
understood, by no one studied”. Our people didn’t have the notions “good-bad”, “kind-evil”. Nothing
like that existed. The evil was something that was not understood yet. That is how it started. “Zlye” is
the initial letter that was written like that.
Alexander: The group has an impartial judgment. You present an idea and get clear response. It’s
like a critical society. If we do a collective work, we reach a collective result, and everyone
participates in it. Everyone does his part, according to his abilities. At the same time, the canvas are
done individually. We have people in the group who do photography, video, therefore they have
different forms of presentation. They find a suitable place for them, not only the galleries. This part of
life requires you to have everything well, in order to be able to do your favorite thing. Firstly, it seems
to that the group helps to realize your place in the world.

ZLYE / Artist

Bio

The Street art group „Zlye“ is a creative association consisting of an unspecified number of artists. It exists since the mid-2000s. Previously works by this art-group appeared only in the streets and were very provocative. Recently works can be also seen in exhibition halls and galleries of contemporary art centers. The main motive for creativity of „Zlye“ is a reflection of reality, by artistic allegories.

http://zeart.ru/en/ze

Transcript

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Credits

The interview was conducted on August 19 2015 with Alexander and Stanislav from ZLYE at the NCCA building in Ekaterinburg.

Interviewed by: Johannes M. Hedinger

Filmed and recorded by: Alexander Kiryutin, Alexander Petkov

Edited by: Alexander Kiryutin, Alexander Petkov

Transkript by: Daria Koltushkina

Set producer: Anna Litovskikh

Produced by: 3rd Ural Industrial Biennial Of Contemporary Art Ekaterinburg, Russia

Special thanks to: NCCA, Pro Helvetia, Com&Com