"Archeology of Petliura" Automatic translate

The project “Archeology of Petliura” is a new creative intervention of a contemporary artist in the space of the historical exposition of the Moscow Museum. The artist, collector and enthusiast of Moscow Alexander Petlyura specially invented and embodied a large-scale installation in the museum halls - his own view of the history of the country, city and people through personal things and objects.

Alexander Petlyura is an urban legend, an outstanding figure of the Moscow art underground from the late 1980s - early 1990s, the author of projects in Russia and abroad, exploring human life through second-hand things: clothes, shoes, household items found in abandoned houses, thrift stores, flea markets. In his exhibitions and performances, things that preserve the energy of the previous owner and the circumstances in which they were found are transformed by the artist’s vision and imagination. Petlyura’s projects are a combination of the real fate of objects and the subjective view of the artist on her.

“History is not only memorable dates and acts of the great. The Moscow Museum creates a space for a story about urban identity. The collection of Alexander Petlyura has historical rarities and things of mass production. But it’s important for us how, thanks to the artist’s view, things with their own unique history interweave their voices and tell a global story that concerns everyone, ”says Alina Saprykina, director of the Moscow Museum.

With the help of costumes, shoes and other items from his collection, the artist draws the historical path of Russia through the 20th century: from the early years of Soviet power to our time. The main method of Alexander Petliura is to transform the energy of the previous owner of the object by the circumstances in which it was found, and the artist’s own energy and imagination. Therefore, the stylistic compositions of “Archeology of Petliura” equally belong to both the real history of Russia and the subjective view of the artist on this story.

“At first, like any artist, I collected objects to draw them, and then I realized that they are of some interest, that you can somehow organize and beat them. In my student days, I walked every evening and picked up things - one shoe or a torn suitcase… They told me: are you a fool? After all, all this was dragged into a student dormitory. But for me in these subjects there is some kind of poetry, literature, something from surrealism. These things are a reflection of life in time, ”explains artist Alexander Petlyura.