Vladimir Mishukov: The stupid mission has been accomplished!

Slava Durak’s “foolish” 5D exhibition, dedicated to the presentation of the album of the same name by photographer Vladimir Mishukov at the Central House of Artists, drew attention with its unusual exposition. The visitors “hung out” there for a whole day. They felt good. According to their feedback, all the senses were awakened and sharpened in them. Detached, cozy, darkened black and white space, airy architecture of the exhibition, very accurately placed photographs, unobtrusive and subtle music, the smell of flowers and bread, unusual taste of tea and ice cream – everything created an atmosphere of a separate planet and a holiday in a cold and gray New York.

An album of the same name was on sale in France even before the exhibition opened in New York and was one of the ten best Christmas presents.

On the last day of the exhibition, we met Vladimir Mishukov, who, as it turned out during a short interview, played different roles in this project: as a photographer, curator, scriptwriter and director.

– Who made you such a beauty??

– I had the idea right from the start of the project to make an unusual exhibition. It’s an idea, but you need a team to do it. Like in a movie. Then I got a partner, Marina Glukhova, and we began to move the project forward. On January 6, I had no financial support. We started to work and gradually everything came together. We were supported by Dobro. We designed the space together with professional architects. This is how I imagined the exhibit: The viewer walks down a long corridor to each photo. The corridor glowed from within. We found architects who know how to work with biflex. Until the space was ready, I didn’t know how the works would hang.

It was fast and creative. To tell the truth, the biflex material we used in the construction did not expect it to sag and we decided to lift everything up. The last pictures were hung in the last seconds before the opening.

The press was already there, Polunin was already there and we were still finishing the exposition. Originally, we wanted to recreate the space around the tree of Avatar. But we got another planet. The viewer is drawn into the game that’s offered to them, they remember the film and come to understand that this is our planet.

– How Polunin reacted when he came to the opening?

– Slava responded well. He was inside that story. He saw the album. He was an active protagonist. This is his world, he builds his performances and festivals in the same way, he lives in it.

– Why 5D?

– It’s an irony of today’s time. Over the endless arguments of the filmmakers: 2 DE or 3 DE? When I hear them, I tell them: shoot it in six-Devre, and then all five senses will be involved, all the subtle settings – inside the viewer. People were used to communicating in the three-dimensional world and in person. They need an introduction to the perception of art.

You can hear the general music. In fact, the soundtrack is matched to each picture-it’s not literal, it’s figurative.

The overall musical accompaniment is very tactfully encoded with music by Alfred Schnittke – a tango from the opera “Life with the Idiot”. Hello Fools! More music by Nino Rota, from films by Fellini, the whole track of 26 minutes, which works on the receptors of hearing and brings the viewer to a visual perception, he awakens Sympathy, Empathy, and immerses himself in the image and its atmosphere.

Nowadays, people go to exhibitions to get somewhere and get individual treatment. It often happens that the exposure does not consider the viewer, and he feels like he is in a stall: no warmth, no joy, no discovery is shared with him. All of our senses are attuned to harmony and we have taken this into account in our exhibition. The viewer is offered a pleasant atmosphere, pleasant but not silly music, pleasant smells, understandable images, and he finds himself in good spirits and in harmony with himself. People who came to the exhibition said that they felt as if they had gone somewhere, had had a pleasant journey, had gained pleasant impressions … We created an individual appeal to the viewer. Thanks to the special architecture, he is alone with the photo, alone with the main character. Photography remains photography. We are three-dimensional. We need three-dimensional impressions.

– You worked in Slava Polunin’s space near Paris. As it happened? What did you shoot on??

– The photos are shot the classic way, long exposure, short exposure… No editing. I was shooting “on the heart”.

Polunin is an actor, I’m an actor, it’s easy for us. We exist in the mise-en-scene of the theater. Reality is the scenery. It was important for me to shoot Slava where he lives, he is relaxed and organic there. But it doesn’t happen that often. I’d find out when he was going to be home and I’d go and see him. I made storyboards on the plane. He came, we discuss, it is clear-not clear what should be added, the choice of location, then shoot and improvise in a given situation.

For instance, Vanya, Slava’s younger son, came up with the idea of this biomorphic-shaped white room. Andrey Bartenev and his team brought the idea to life. Slavin’s house is a peculiar work of art. In this space, and around it, we’ve been working with him for two and a half years. Everything in the house is geared to work: the lines between the everyday and the creative have been blurred.

Need a foam machine – please, need smoke – please, there’s a costume store where you can get costumes, in short, there are always ingredients to bring to the shoot and make it more delicious. Everything was a hit-and-run. Sometimes I would arrive and there wouldn’t be a shoot: there would be something that “didn’t go well”, we would just chat. When it worked, the creative process began, and it was always enchanting, dynamic, spontaneous, fun! A real actor always improvises in the frame and adds something to it.

– All filmed in France?

– Almost all. The winter scene was taken in America, in New York, on the roof of the Natalya Sats Theater in severe frost.

– It turns out that today it is not enough just to have an image or a photograph: the viewer needs three-dimensional impressions, touching all the senses?

– I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate, but today it’s very important for a photograph to be self-sufficient. If not, no matter how much you decorate it, nothing will work.

– Will there be a development of the project, its continuation?

– Next, it’s movie territory, everything has to start moving..