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Oleg Tistol
М 1:2
In a country and society in its “sketch” stage, where everything exists on the level of unembodied idea, a project not brought to completion, what position can art occupy? What place can this country’s art occupy in the context of the world? The situation – of the incompatibility between aims, needs and opportunities, where the relationship between the desired and actual is obviously uneven, where an inferiority complex leads to the permanent projection of oneself in comparison to the other – can be briefly characterized in the following way: “everything is almost as one would want, how it should be, almost ‘civilized.’” Everything appears in the scale of 1:2.
Oleg Tistol is an artist who whose work over at least the past 25 years in some way or other models Ukrainian reality, capturing its inherent stereotypes and myths. Tistol’s works are reflections on our past and present, and at the same time – sketches of the great, bright potential future with accents properly placed, where history has been thought through, self-identification – acheieved, where art plays its appropriate role and the artist, as bearer of truths eternal and good, occupies a worthy position in the socio-historic-cultural hierarchy. These sketches eloquently testify to the need for their large-scale and epic realization, visualizing the quintessence of collective and individual national, geopolitical, cultural and artistic ambitions, tinged with a biting sliver of irony. In his “sketches” the artist touches upon key aspects of the existence of our society, the understanding of which is imperative for the formation of a full-scale and comprehensive picture of reality. The notions of ours and theirs, global and authentic, past and contemporary, internal and external, material and spiritual arise here. In fact, in response to the ubiquitous question, “so what is the exhibition aobut?” one can summarize: the exhibition “M 1:2” is about the place of the artist on the map of Ukraine and the world, about the place of art in the general coordinate system.
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