Andrey Filippov

Public art refers to art in a public space. Each period requires its decorative style and cultural details. I am inspired by so many things, ranging from Nikola-Lenivets to Petergof. Petergof, in particular, changed with each passing epoch. In Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece, each artwork had a sacral or social role, be it a statue of an emperor, an obelisk dedicated to some victory, or Trajan’s Column. The segmented society that exists today requires democratic and bold images. That is why today we find ourselves in-between capsule, homey, comfortable items on one side and monumental pieces on the other. All these artworks have the right to exist, provided that they are fine pieces in terms of concept and execution.

Why did I refer to Nikola-Lenivets? Wonderful auteurs work there. Alexander Brodsky is a great example. Nikolay Polissky is an excellent painter who also became a fantastic sculptor. Moreover, Polissky took on a real social function: he provides artists with work and built an entire infrastructure around himself.

I also love Ian Hamilton Finlay. He was a renowned Scottish poet and artist in the 1960s and 1970s. He had an estate in Scotland. There one can discover rocks with poems. His art pieces include Little Sparta: slabs of marble are covered with various words in Latin. I saw his installation of large bronze guillotines at the Documenta Festival in Kassel. I was so much influenced by that piece that I created my own two wooden guillotines with double blades (for the two-headed eagle).

Public art must inspire and encourage people. It’s important for that kind of art not to be silly. Its beauty must ennoble the soul and invigorate the mind. Art must bring joy and lift the spirit. People should react to it: “My God! How wonderful! How happy I am to be living in this city.” Our cities must be alive, interesting, and constantly developing visually. Art must touch the internal world of people. Humanity is made in the image of God, so artworks must connect all elements into a single unified statement. We are talking here about whole artworks, a sort of Gesamtkunstwerk (total work of art – ed. note).

During the USSR period, in the 1970s, when I was still a young man, a public contest was organized to select a design for the monument at Poklonnaya Gora. My design featured a hill with a sword stuck on top – an image of the cross. I thought that it worked well. That was the first instance when I noted the possibility to work spatially. It’s a pity that my design was not accepted. But those were different times, after all.

I would say that the recently unveiled monument in Rzhev is much more in line with the times: a soldier stands amidst a whirlwind of cranes – that’s an excellent image (created by sculptor Andrey Korobtsov and architect Konstantin Fomin – ed. note). The piece was done with modern technologies and turned out very powerful and persuasive.

The mystic link between astronomy and history. To put it simply, all clocks and watches (except for digital clocks and watches) are connected to the sun. The very first clock – gnomon – was just a stick planted into the ground. People could measure the passage of time and the movement of the Sun by following the shadow cast by the stick. So that was no mere shadow but a sign of the heavenly bodies being in motion, the music of the Universe, Cosmos! While viewing this shadow we experience the Cosmos itself.

As my first step, I was interested in making sure that a single wing would combine with the shadow to create an image of the two-headed eagle: one head – metal, one head – evanescent. The next step was to construct the logical link: this is a sundial, the sundial is connected to the Cosmos, while the Cosmos represents the Universe, history, Orthodox Christianity, the Eastern Roman Empire – everything dear to me. Thinking in this way, we can view through the gnomon/stick the past, present, and future, reflected in the motions of the heavenly bodies.

Float around the various flows of meaning. This is something that I personally at times struggle with. However, there are people, most notably Pavel Pepperstein, who are able to always float with those flows. He is taken up and given flight by those flows. What a wonderful condition it is, to be constantly inspired. But such people are few. I don’t mean to say that Pasha experiences no troubles. But it is obvious that he is always in the flow. An artist must be able to ride the wave of inspiration without spinning out of control. Not all people are blessed with this talent.

The combination of words and images. Most artists work with parameters of plasticity: visual image, light, paint layers, size. Words do not play a significant role in all artworks. I am more of a poetic spirit, so, in general, the words come first, while the image accompanies them. Many of my pieces feature wordplay. Take, for example, Rome to Rome. I also write poetry. When I did the exhibition Lyres & Trumpets, small flags with poetry were tied to the trumpets. I am a stage designer by training. We – I, Konstantin Zvezdochetov, the Mironenko Bros. – graduated from the production faculty of Moscow Art Theatre Studio School. Perhaps, my theatrical education granted me a way of thinking in terms of installations.

Honesty. Feedback allows you to correct your course because we don’t necessarily see everything there is to see. Sometimes people interpret your work in a completely unexpected way. They see something that you did not initially envision, and that’s so interesting. A certain polyphonic effect arises from this. Critique expands your understanding of what you are doing. Once again, honesty – that’s my answer.

Rome, Constantinople, Moscow. I could name even more cities, but my personal mythology is crucially based around the divide between the Western and Eastern Roman Empires. Dichotomy, two-headed eagle, East-West, Catholics – Orthodox Christians. The point of the divide is still hemorrhaging blood.