Vyacheslav Akhunov is a typical representative of a generation of artists from Central Asia who have experienced the stormy times of stagnation and disintegration in the Soviet Union, Perestroika, and the independence of post-soviet republics. He was born in a so-called „mixed“ family, his mother being Russian, his father Usbek. These circumstances determine all his artistic production, in which he is on the search for the threshold where Asian mentality and European stylistics meet.
Since the year 2000, Vyacheslav Akhunov has been investigating the possibilities of the new media, especially video art. Here he usually works with Sergey Tychina. The video-performances „Ascent“ and „Corner“, both 2004, are programmatic works from this period.
„Ascent“ is the direct transfer of the idea of a multi-layered evolution; the video-performance focusing the spiritual path of man enables us to participate in Sergey Tychina’s ascent of a medieval tower. Together with the artist, the viewer looks up but cannot see far, the visibility being blocked by the spiral construction of the stairs. We are right there with him when he goes up stair-by-stair, when his breath gets shorter, and when he rests, before relentlessly continuing the ascent. Whenever a narrow slot opens up in the brick wall, we get a short glance at the parched earth surrounding the tower, and then it goes on, further and further… Once on the platform at the top of the tower, we conclusively understand with the artist that even if we are right at the top, everything in this world is correlated in mutual support. The video demonstrates a mix of various cultural vectors – and existential motifs – from Akhunov’s artistic practice: Sufi meditation and medieval Eastern poetics. During the whole climb, we perceive not only the physical effort of Tychina, but also Akhunov’s heavy breathing, as he goes up the stairs together with his colleague, with the camera in hand. Once at the top of the tower, the ascent is shown again virtually on a laptop screen and one is reminded anew of the exertion and willpower. Then the image zooms back into the screen and the ascent in the “real” scenery begins once again from the start, just like in real life, where we are forced to go through difficulties over and over again.
The work „Corner“ is somewhat the inverse of this idea. Here, the ethic evaluation of the individual position, with the full specter of personal values and thoughts, dominates. The protagonist – Sergey Tychina, now wearing Muslim headdress, recites a namas (prayer) in various places. For this, he does not turn towards Mekka as required by the rules of Islam, but goes close up into various corners, thereby completely focusing on himself. The corner becomes an iconographical motif of a sacred place, where spiritual quest and reality cross. Should it be a mosque, a museum, or an office, the type of building or space makes no difference.
Both pieces include exotic elements from Central Asia: Muslim attributes, a Medresa (legal and theological place of education), a cupola, buildings made of clay bricks, an Usbek shirt and the protagonist’s headdress are merely attributes identifiying the authors. However local the color, the addressed themes and problems withhold their universal significance.
From a text by Julia Sorokina
(From the German: Helen Adkins)