Alexandra Andreewa
Pereslavl-Zalessky Historical, Architectural and Art Museum-reserve, Russia
The exhibition project “БЛАГОВЕСТNOW” lasted from 22 August 2014 to 22 October 2014. For the first time Pereslavl Museum-reserve has presented a large-scale art project in the format of synthesis of the museum’s permanent exhibition and a conceptual authorial exhibition system.
The exhibition was not just an abbreviated retrospective of the work of a famous Moscow sculptor Alexei Blagovestnov, but also contemplation on the role of art as a spiritual source for the modern man.
Alexey Blagovestnov is a rare, perhaps the only nonconformist artist in his generation. He was born in Moscow in 1974 to a family of sculptors. As early as in his early years at art school and later at the Institute, he was determined and completely indifferent to public recognition. Nonetheless, Alexey Blagovestnov is an author of many monuments located in public space (a monument to the graduates of VGIK, a monument to Vyacheslav Tikhonov on the Novodevichy cemetery in Moscow and to Alexander Abdulov in Khanty-Mansiysk). Coexistance of these two facetes of his creative personality seems paradoxical, but it is perfectly natural for the artist. The exhibition in Pereslavl Museum-reserve was unusual both for the artist and the museum: almost all exhibition grounds of the museum became a place of experiment, thus eliciting logical, though unexpected comparisons. Exhibition “Blagovestnov” became a binder, general plot and route of most of the displays, inviting a viewer to inspect all parts of the museum — from the Department of nature, located in the Gate Church of St. Nicolas and ending with the Assumption Cathedral.
In the process of devising and installation of exhibition “БЛАГОВЕСТNOW” of special interest was fitting modern sculptures by Alexei Blagovestnov complex in their shape, composition and fabulas in active cultic space of the architectural ensemble of the Dormition Goritsky monastery, which now houses the Pereslavl Museum reserve. The sculptures were placed in exhibition spaces and each space had its own concept revealed in accompanying texts written by a renowned art historian N. V. Tolstaya and exhibition curator from Pereslavl Museum A. Y. Andreewa.