The Salt
2014 - 2016
Graphics, objects, installations, video installations
– Solo Exhibition. Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Moscow. 2017
– Solo Exhibition. Cosmotheca exhibition hall. Saint Petersburg. 2016
The Moscow Museum of Modern Art and the School of Contemporary Art «Free Workshops» presented the solo exhibition by Anton Chumak «The Salt» featuring the artist’s works in various techniques from video-installations to graphics. The project, which is the fifth solo show by Anton Chumak, was held within the MMOMA young artists support program.
The exhibition encompasses three zones corresponding to three stages of the recreation of civilization. The history is cyclical: mankind has already experienced cultural decay because of global political changes. The crisis of civilization is inevitably followed by revival, the future of which is subject to uncertainty.
The exhibition is built around the Great Flood, which destroyed all life outside the ark, then the survived gave birth to a new civilization. In the project by Anton Chumak the new world is obscure, it is unreal and fantastic as we can only assume, what our civilization will become in hundreds of thousands of years.
The first section of the display, entitled «The Prolog», contains video installations and ready-made objects portraying the victory of nature over man and vice versa.
The second hall — «The Project. The Birth of an Image» — symbolizes the formation of the concept of a new civilization. The idea of what it will be is still unclear, it is prefigured in sketches and layouts. It is here that the image of the Ark appears, symbolizing the storage of the information required for survival of humankind.
The third hall focuses on the birth of a new utopian world, which embodies the inevitable thirst of the civilization for revival and growth. The painting «The Planet-City» portrayals a perfect realm for which mankind has always sought but never achieved.
