Methods of Art – Archive of Artists Interviews

In different years I would answer it differently, but now I would answer that an artwork is a sum of an
artist’s thought, will and skill that results being expressed in an object, an action or a gesture. It is
something that an artist does, so to say, to establish a contact with a spectator. My art for me is not
just an object, but an example of communication with the viewer, or not a viewer, but with certain
person, like, for example, the elderly-lady museum keepers. It is an excuse to address the people
who are inside of art, but at the same time nobody ever asks their opinion on this art, what they see,
what do they call art. Or another example is my installation “Metropolis”. When I arrive to a city, I
make an installation from trash. I create a city from trash, but there is a trick with a special paint, that
accumulates light. When the light is on, you see trash, when the light is off – you see a city. The
people from this city recognize the places. They always feel flattered when they realize that this
installation is about their city. Some people say that it is exactly as the reality: a trash whole during
the day and a beauty at night. A lot of people agree. Some people see it as a miracle. In my opinion,
it is a multi-level work that can be understood by people with different background. Someone sees it
as a beautiful trick; someone sees the philosophical layers that the artwork contains. I always try to
make my artworks understood by all the different types of viewers, with different backgrounds and
esthetic preferences.Actually it is the first artwork in the style or genre of video art. Back then we
were students and it was a part of our graduation project. The video is the following: there are three
images, three passport photos, the faces of the three members of the group “Zer Gut”, on the
snow.The birds come and pick away gradually the images. The meaning that we put into it– actually
we realized it back then when we were students – is that art is another product that can be
consumed and we wanted to visualize this process, by making an artwork that will be really
consumed by birds. Later on I found out that Dieter Rott made his image from chocolate and
sunflower seeds, and birds also ate it, but we did not know about it at that time. Visualization of
domestication, or an anecdote on modern ornithology.

Vladimir Seleznev / Artwork

Bio

*1973 in Nizhny Tagil, Ural region. Vladimir works as an artist and a curator. He graduated from the Art and Graphics Department of the Nizhniy Tagil Pedagogical Academy (2002). He was a member of the “Zer Gut” art group (2001-2005), was nominated for several art prizes, took part Moscow and Krasnoyarsk Biennials and exhibitions in Poland, Germany and USA. He also acts as a curator of art programs in the Ural Branch of the National Center for Contemporary Art since November 2006. Media: painting, graphic, photo, video, installation. Vladimir lives and works in Ekaterinburg.

http://www.kandinsky-prize.ru/vladimir-seleznev/?lang=en

Credits

The interview was conducted on August 18 2015 at the artist’s studio in 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