The Velimir Khlebnikov House-Museum is pleased to announce the opening reception of the solo exhibition of the modern photo artist Vyacheslav Zhirov “Presence”, 20 November 2014, 6 P.M..  

The artist’s consciousness is formed by particular epoch and seems to be an artistic reaction to the current global system. The epoch of the “after” age: post-modernism, post-realism confronts us with the situation where we have to evaluate what has happened and search our own means of communicating with modern time. Vyacheslav Zhirov’s work is another possible way of relationship with a modern world where something has already happened and befallen and where the dialogue between man, nature and elements has already taken place. The exhibited photographs show us the result of this interaction or “conversation”. However one can’t see the participants of the dialogue on the pictures, the only thing to feel is their presence. It is a kind of evidence of a moment or some event. It is reproduced through the details; such as signs on dunes (left by an animal or wind), hand-made and human-like objects being left in the most unexpected places whether on purpose or accidentally: for instance a compass in the aerial roots of willows on the one of Astrakhan islands, children’s whirligig on the ice in Krasniy Yar village of Astrakhan oblast, a foundation for bathhouses in Tinaki-2 resort of Astrakhan oblast, chairs in front of the slope of the Elbrus Mountain and some other.   

Vyacheslav Zhirov’s formal education was biology, in 2007 he graduated from the department of Natural Science and Geography of Astrakhan State University. He took part in expeditions to Adygei, Crimea, Karachai-Cherkess, Kabardino-Balkaria, The Low Volga etc.). The real flair he felt for constant traveling, wandering, observations, unity with nature and silent visual dialogue he conducted with forests, steppes, mountains, water and sky have gradually formed Vyacheslav’s world view within and led him to the most important thing – synthesis and imprint of what he has seen by means of the photography.    

Artists have repeatedly addressed to the problem of relationships between man, object and nature. It was Velimir Khlebnikov who embodied one of the most brilliant solutions of this issue in his work. In 1914, more than 100 years ago his work “The objects riot” came out from printers. He worked out this topic in a great number of his oeuvres namely “The crane”, “Snake of a train”, “Little Devil”, “Marchioness Deses”. Khlebnikov’s world view there reduces to tragic rejection of present time when objects gain their power and authority while dominating progress of technology amounts to “objects riot” and the death of mankind. Vyacheslav Zhirov’s photographs express the world view of the 20-th century’s artists and goes back to this problem and suggests another author’s solution saying that time has balanced out everything: objects, details as an equivalent of somebody’s presence, nature, elements and thus sprouted with harmony.