Dasha Fursei
Oil on canvas
25x30cm
"If you were to look at art as some form of bacteria then the environment here is perfect for its thriving"
Dasha Fursei
"Saint Petersburg is a very mysterious city. The actual city has been built on a bog. If you were to look at art as some form of bacteria then the environment here is perfect for its thriving.
Last year I finished my studies at The Saint Petersburg Academy of Arts (fortunately, the Classical Art training has been preserved there). It’s a very bizarre building with a round courtyard – like in a prison. The entire atmosphere of the building reminds me of Kafka’s Castle. It would be enough just to mention the fact that Kokorinov, the architect of the building, hung himself in the Academy on the day of its opening ceremony.
Despite the strict, suppressing atmosphere of our training, I think it was good to undergo such an experience, so one can truly appreciate freedom and vivid creativity. The city itself evokes creativity. Despite the imperialist splendor of palaces and canals it is the atmosphere of decadence that prevails in Saint Petersburg. It may be surprising but here the new phase in the development of art is being born. Recently a new union appeared here, an association of young creative people called “Art Machine”.
Amongst them there are artists, producers, musicians, designers, poets and actors. What united us was the genuine aspiration for creative search, real, flourishing interest in art. We did not want to exploit the old (albeit established) obsolete ideas in order to fit commercial and degraded interests, but strive to create brave and varied experiments in art.
As for myself, I am finishing shooting a film, Autadafe, about the burning of many beautiful women during the inquisition in the middle ages. It deals with issues of beauty, death and cruelty. The premier of the film will be at the club “Par” and will be followed by a fire show.
As a part of other experiments I’m having a show dedicated to Virgin in the Capella. It’s a painting surface of which is covered with a layer of ice. The idea behind it is of a straight-forward combination of a fragile, sublime romance, and hard, brutal, physiology. Well I wish you luck and let you creativity take a free flight, and ”Alles ist möglich” (everything is possible).