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[Works] |
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Syntopielabor
Featured works:
• System of Coordinates
• The inner Observatory
• Banderole 4000
• Lost Connection
• Networks
• Koenigsbergertafel
• The inner Crucifixion
Diamond-Graphite |
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System of Coordinates, 1976, metal, wood, felt, mirror system, elements from holography and electronics, materials from genetic research and biochemistry, 400cm x 380cm x 240cm
installation view Ordschonikidze-Palace of Culture, Leningrad/St. Petersburg 1976 |
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"The first histories of unofficial Soviet art are now being written – albeit somewhat hurriedly and opportunistically.
The absence in them of references to Sacharow-Ross looks like an annoying oversight. This
young man from the far end of Russia was at the forefront of the artistic quests of the 1970s. This is linked,
above all, to two circumstances. He was one of the first – virtually in parallel to Vitaly Komar and Alexander
Melamid (Pravda Cutlets performance) and Andrei Monastyrsky’s Collective Actions group (1976), all from
Moscow – to engage in performances in [I Want to Go to America (1975)]. I do not know whether the artist
had heard of Joseph Beuys’ I Love America and America Loves Me action, held in New York a year earlier,
but he was clearly at the cutting thrust of the attack.
The same applies to the creation of objects. Shown at the legendary exhibition in the Ordzhonikidze
Palace of Culture in Leningrad in 1976, [System of Coordinates] was, undoubtedly, the first object in the
history of the Leningrad underground, reflected in the media aspect. In its scale and consistency of strategy,
it was without equal in the Moscow context."
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I Want to Go to America, action
Lachtinskaja Ulica 19, Leningrad/St. Petersburg 1975
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-Alexander Borovsky, State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg.
[click here to read the whole article.]
at the top: concept of visual-informative space arrangement, 1977, mixed technique on cardboard, 32cm x 32cm
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The Enclosure, action
Gatchina, Leningrad/St. Petersburg 1977 |
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"The atmosphere of the political, however, began to
gradually grow around the artist. This could be directly seen in the action [The Enclosure (1977)], acted out in
the woods near Gatchina. A paper ribbon on the square meadow fenced off a second square; a third
square was marked out by dry leaves. The people entering this enclosure were separated from the rest of
the world. The subsequent development of the ritual demanded the packing and pressing of the participants
into an even tighter group, which was then herded into a special paper tent. Gradually eating away at the
paper ribbons, fire stole up to the tent. It flared up, leaving the frightened and stunned mass on the ground.
The action acquired biographical and symbolical meaning. Vladimir Vysotsky, the popular poet and performer
of that time, had a song called Hunting Wolves. The wolf was surrounded by flags, but it broke out
of its enclosure. “They have me cornered” – Vysotsky’s raucous voice hung in the air at that time. Both
dissidents and “herders” – the guardians of the regime – felt trapped and surrounded by flags. The herding
action became symbolically biographical. Soon, feeling the pressure of the KGB, Sacharow-Ross was
squeezed “outside the flags” and forced to emigrate."
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"With The Enclosure, Sacharow-Ross inscribed
his name in art history as a leading exponent of
action art.
The abandonment of the conventional
concept of art was characterized by the use of the
body, improvisation, unpredictable experience, the
element of surprise, and the often shocking turn of
events, all of which underpin action art. But a narrow
art historical labeling of Sacharow-Ross as an action
artist is not justified, for his oeuvre is much too complex
to be summed up by just one category."
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-Anna Karina Hofbauer, Curator and Art critic. Vienna/Copenhagen. |
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Concept of visual-informative space arrangement, 1977, mixed technique on cardboard, 45cm x 61cm |
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Road Sign, 1978, oil, acrylic on photograph, 180cm x 248cm |
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