The circle of times and a crack in the sky

Russian poet and novelist Velimir Khlebnikov (real name – Viktor) is one of the greatest figures of the Russian avant—garde. He was one of the founders of Russian futurism, a reformer of poetic language, an experimenter in the field of word-making, “chairman of the globe”. The highest assessment of Khlebnikov was given by Roman Yakobson, who knew him personally: “He was, in short, the greatest poet of the current twentieth century…”

The poet’s sister, the famous artist Vera Khlebnikova, studied painting in Kiev, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Paris and the Florentine Academy of Arts in Italy.

Khlebnikov wrote about the place of his birth: “I was born in the camp of Mongolian nomads who believe in Buddha… in the steppe — the dried-up bottom of the disappearing Caspian Sea.”

That’s where we’re going.

We will rapidly move from the city of Volgograd to an extremely deurbanized space (the steppe only, there are a lot of forms, colors and color nuances, but they are not self-evident for anybody who living among the city walls – both external and internal). By immersing in the context of the Khlebnikov theme, we will fill an unusual for artists emptiness with a mass of meanings that will require them to visualize non-obvious things. All this is a bit of an unusual experiment.

We are very pleased that artists from different cities (St. Petersburg, Moscow, Volgograd) and art historians of the Saratov Radishchev Museum will take part in our expedition.

Our plans include several consecutive plein-air locations in the south of the Volgograd region, in Small Derbets, Arshan-Zelmen, Elista and the surrounding area, a meeting with the author of the monument to Khlebnikov Stepan Kimovich Botiev, meetings with our colleagues and a with lot of interesting people.

UPD. The first stage of this project is completed

The press conference in Elista took place on May 26, 2022 at RIA Kalmykia, the preliminary results of our creative expedition were presented on May 28, 2022 at special event in the creative business space LOFT1890 (Volgograd).

We will inform you about the next stages of the project and dates / locations of events.

UPD. The second stage of this project is completed

On August 12, at the House-Museum of Pavel Kuznetsov (a branch of the Saratov Radishchev Museum of Fine Arts), an exhibition of works by participants in the project “Circle of Times and a Crack in the Sky” was opened. The exhibition will run until September 18.

UPD. The third stage of the project is completed

The album of the project “The Circle of Times and a Crack in the Sky” (ISBN 978-5-00204-430-6) has been released.