Art project "The Secret of the Minotaur"
The Art Gallery of Mikhail Savitsky will host a presentation of the joint art project of the Museum of the History of the City of Minsk and the ArtPort Gallery — "The Secret of the Minotaur". As part of the art exhibition, the audience will be shown a new series of works by the famous Belarusian artist Andrei Ostashov. The world presentation of sculptures from this series was successfully launched in the spring of 2019 in Moscow and Monte Carlo.
About the author
Andrey Ostashov — one of the most successful and popular Belarusian sculptors — has been conducting a fruitful dialogue with mythology for several decades. Indeed, the internal, initially set, starting point of the artist’s work is a "myth", both as such, and as a genre, and as a personal philosophy.
About the project
In the new exhibition project, the image of the bull-man — Minotaur, the son of the young Pasiphae, born from a connection with the god Poseidon, became the central one. The choice of this character is absolutely not accidental. The physical hybridity and philosophical duality of the Minotaur’s essence intersect with the synthetic imagery of the master himself, who interweaves together the "elements" of different artistic languages, cultural epochs and geographical spaces. It was more interesting for the author to express the idea of the inseparability of the animal and the human, the instinctive and the intellectual, the carnal and the spiritual, the realization of which he turned into a fascinating plastic experiment.
The author’s interpretation of the myth of the Minotaur does not claim to be encyclopedic, there is no verbatim interpretation of the plot. He creates in a special metaphorical field, in a certain intermediate space, surprisingly combining the plot of the myth with the individual author’s story. You will not see in his works a bloodthirsty monster, a wild animal, a villain demanding tribute-beautiful young maidens. The image of the Minotaur in the new series is mediated, blurred, dissolved in the details of the headdresses and armor of elegant female figures who are in a meditative oblivion. Andrey Ostashov with unprecedented freedom creates his own author’s metamorphosis, complementing his "outfit " of a modern child-bears, the head of a Gorgon Medusa, oriental symbols of wisdom and prosperity-a turtle and an elephant. Is that why Ostashov manages to turn the myth of the past into a modern one, to breathe into it the sensations of the present time, to create a truly magical world of the game?
The viewer can only join her, feel like Theseus visiting Minos, wandering in the labyrinth of Knossos. Just do not forget the guiding thread — your inner voice, the bins of feelings and emotions, dreams and fantasies. After all, the main impression from the works of Andrey Ostashov is not only what you see, but also what you feel while your eyes contemplate the sculpture.
The artistic reality of each composition and, in general, the exhibition is open to the audience, it will turn everyone into a participant in the creative event, will allow you to literally physically immerse yourself in the work and find the key to the "secret" of Ostashov’s work…
The age limit is 12+
Project partners
• ArtPort Gallery.
• Museum of the History of the city of Minsk.
• Vino&Vino Premium beverage chain.
• John Dory chain of chilled fish and seafood stores.
• Fashion Stars modeling agency.
• Belarus 3 TV channel.
• Internet portal Relax.by.
Address
Freedom Square, 15. Mikhail Savitsky Art Gallery.
Ticket price
3.00 rubles — for adults.
2.50 rubles — for students.
2.00 rubles — for schoolchildren.
Operating mode
Wednesday-Sunday from 11: 00 to 19: 00
days off: Monday, Tuesday.
Opening of the exhibition
September 26 at 18: 00
Exhibition period
From September 26 to October 13, 2019
Contacts
+375 17 337−24−30
minskmuseum.by
About the author
Andrey Ostashov — one of the most successful and popular Belarusian sculptors — has been conducting a fruitful dialogue with mythology for several decades. Indeed, the internal, initially set, starting point of the artist’s work is a "myth", both as such, and as a genre, and as a personal philosophy.
About the project
In the new exhibition project, the image of the bull-man — Minotaur, the son of the young Pasiphae, born from a connection with the god Poseidon, became the central one. The choice of this character is absolutely not accidental. The physical hybridity and philosophical duality of the Minotaur’s essence intersect with the synthetic imagery of the master himself, who interweaves together the "elements" of different artistic languages, cultural epochs and geographical spaces. It was more interesting for the author to express the idea of the inseparability of the animal and the human, the instinctive and the intellectual, the carnal and the spiritual, the realization of which he turned into a fascinating plastic experiment.
The author’s interpretation of the myth of the Minotaur does not claim to be encyclopedic, there is no verbatim interpretation of the plot. He creates in a special metaphorical field, in a certain intermediate space, surprisingly combining the plot of the myth with the individual author’s story. You will not see in his works a bloodthirsty monster, a wild animal, a villain demanding tribute-beautiful young maidens. The image of the Minotaur in the new series is mediated, blurred, dissolved in the details of the headdresses and armor of elegant female figures who are in a meditative oblivion. Andrey Ostashov with unprecedented freedom creates his own author’s metamorphosis, complementing his "outfit " of a modern child-bears, the head of a Gorgon Medusa, oriental symbols of wisdom and prosperity-a turtle and an elephant. Is that why Ostashov manages to turn the myth of the past into a modern one, to breathe into it the sensations of the present time, to create a truly magical world of the game?
The viewer can only join her, feel like Theseus visiting Minos, wandering in the labyrinth of Knossos. Just do not forget the guiding thread — your inner voice, the bins of feelings and emotions, dreams and fantasies. After all, the main impression from the works of Andrey Ostashov is not only what you see, but also what you feel while your eyes contemplate the sculpture.
The artistic reality of each composition and, in general, the exhibition is open to the audience, it will turn everyone into a participant in the creative event, will allow you to literally physically immerse yourself in the work and find the key to the "secret" of Ostashov’s work…
The age limit is 12+
Project partners
• ArtPort Gallery.
• Museum of the History of the city of Minsk.
• Vino&Vino Premium beverage chain.
• John Dory chain of chilled fish and seafood stores.
• Fashion Stars modeling agency.
• Belarus 3 TV channel.
• Internet portal Relax.by.
Address
Freedom Square, 15. Mikhail Savitsky Art Gallery.
Ticket price
3.00 rubles — for adults.
2.50 rubles — for students.
2.00 rubles — for schoolchildren.
Operating mode
Wednesday-Sunday from 11: 00 to 19: 00
days off: Monday, Tuesday.
Opening of the exhibition
September 26 at 18: 00
Exhibition period
From September 26 to October 13, 2019
Contacts
+375 17 337−24−30
minskmuseum.by