ARTiculAction Art Review - Special Issuue Aug. 2016 | Page 148

ICUL CTION
C o n t e m p o r a r y

A r t

Leonid Dutov

R e v i e w

Special Issue

I am always interested in looking at things
through different eyes. This is one of the
reasons why my works are as they are, and
have the effect that you point out. In this
context, with my works I create the
conditions for the viewer to interpret the
work, with no allowance being made for my
statement, which, of course, always exists.
Your work also inquires into the interstitial
space between personal and public
spheres, providing the spectatorship with
an immersive experience that forces such a
contamination the inner and the outside:
how do you see the relationship between
public sphere and the role of art in public
space?

I can only say that by all means art is a very
important and an essential part. And if I
start developing my idea, if I go further and
start talking about the role of art in general,
I will inevitably touch upon the role of my
art and the idea, which I follow when I
create my works (apart from that one I
mentioned earlier), and in this way I will
create certain frames of interpretation and
perception of my works for the audience. So
my words will be “moulded in stone” as
once ex-President Mr. Dmitry Medvedev
said. And at that point my artistic story will
be finished because I will not be able to go
around this stone.
As you have remarked in your artist's
statement about your video, "you see it can
be anything - it doesn't have to be good" As
the late Franz West did in his installations,
your artistic production unconventional
features in the way it urges the viewers to a
process of self-reflection. Artists are always
interested in probing to see what is
beneath the surface: maybe one of the
roles of an artist could be to reveal
unexpected sides of Nature, especially of

28

our inner Nature... what's your view
about this?

When we formulate and discuss the idea
of the role of an artist we fixate and limit
it, and thus create a one-track
perception. If I were an art expert or an