"Vladimir Migachev. Cold Front" Automatic translate

Exhibition project “Vladimir Migachev. Cold Front” will be held at the ARTSTORY Gallery from January 27 to March 27, 2022. The exhibition will feature new works created in 2021 specifically for this exhibition, as well as a number of earlier works. All works are part of a single series "Cold Front". A special worldview, disturbing and, obviously, prophetic worldview of the artist is embodied in large-scale canvases that carry incredible color energy.

It is worth mentioning that the “cold front” is not an abstract phrase, but a real climatic phenomenon. The process by which cold air in a region displaces warm air; harbinger of a significant drop in temperature. Such a conceptual generalization of the artist’s works not only seems to be very accurate, but is consistent with the ideas of enlightened catastrophism. The latter is especially important, given that the essay "Small Metaphysics of the Tsunami", written by the founder of this philosophical trend, Jean-Pierre Dupuy, had a significant impact on Vladimir Migachev. The essence of enlightened catastrophism can be reduced to the thesis of Dupuy himself: "The Apocalypse, like fate, is inscribed in our future, and the best thing we can do is postpone it for an indefinite time." Vladimir Migachev also speaks about this in his works.

“I remember a time when nature didn’t have bad weather. Now almost every weather forecast is a yellow, orange, red danger level, a cold front. A time of catastrophes, rescuers, climate change, pandemics, political tensions… When I started this project, I literally illustrated weather phenomena. And then I read a book by Jean-Pierre Dupuy…”, the artist recalls and emphasizes: “Evil is not outside, it is inside civilization itself. The cold front is not only a natural phenomenon, it is in the human head.”

One gets the impression that the landscapes of Vladimir Migachev are initially monochrome. The artist very accurately captures the main features of the Russian realistic landscape of the 21st century, its boundlessness and gloom. In this project, however, the author seems to add a contrast agent to them, which stands out brightly against the background of the main image, without giving the viewer a chance to abstract from it. This substance evokes a strong sense of recognition - coloristically it resembles a glow with its disturbing charm, frightens with the unknown, but gives hope that it will soon be replaced by the familiar and soft light of the sun.

Vladimir Migachev creates complex paintings, in which, of course, there is a lot from the symbolist landscape. The artist refers to space not as a scenery against which the action unfolds, but as a full-fledged hero of the picture. To the hero, who often displaces animated characters, is one of the parties to the conflict, broadcasts much more experiences than expected from him. In the ancient Greek language there is a term that is applicable to Migachev’s landscape - pleroma. In literal translation, it means “filling, fullness, multitude” and better than many modern terms describes the sacredness and ambiguity of an absolutely spiritualized space in the author’s works.

This is what makes it possible to talk about the premonition of catastrophes, referring to different time points: not only the present is reflected in the paintings of Vladimir Migachev, but also the future and the past. The latter will be presented, among other things, in a non-obvious way. Two works from the "Spring 20/20" series, which depict flowering trees in backlight, are not only a hymn to the beginning of a new life and hope, but carry a symbolic reflection of the disturbing events of that time. The beginning of a pandemic, general isolation and a step into the unknown - the pictures are literally saturated with all this.

A more understandable and readable expression of a look into the past is the work "Mansion 1, 2 and 3". Each of these three paintings is an image of a dark, gloomy, conventionally solved landscape, in the central part of which a house is depicted. Next to it (behind or in front), the author paints skulls, which are perceived by the viewer as ghosts of the past, coexisting with modern reality. So the author addresses the theme of memory - an important and significant part of the culture of the present. The memory of an individual and the general, the phenomenon of "forgetting" and the importance of preserving history. After all, as William Faulkner wrote, a person is the sum of his past.

Following Dupuis, who considers global catastrophes as a determining factor in the current state of society, Migachev asks questions: is a person always responsible for evil, and is it accidental in nature? Is it possible to withstand catastrophes in the future? The exhibition project "Cold Front" will be an occasion for the viewer to think about the answers to these questions.