VASYL BAZHAJ
PROJECT "DE-TERMINO / antithesis"
THE CONCEPT.
The global commercialization and informatization of society and art environment, fashion and scandals of the new types of art (pornography in photo- and video-art, strangeness in performances and happenings, grandiosity of installation, ugliness and poverty of Arte-povera) ousted the painting. The auditorium of its admirers also changed. From now, abstract painting - is luxury and prestige for millionaires, whereas middle class still call for "circumses and panem" of new media in art.
One of the main particularities of conceptual art in 70's was an active theoretic and historic investigations in the field of art and painting... Thence we have an interest in theoretical texts on painting... Texts replace painted canvas.
There is nothing extraordinal in this. Different media always were replaced one by another. Thus, painting changed sculpture on early-christian Europe and Arabic East, the same is with painting which changes now under the pressure of new dynamic media of Ars Electronica. Inter-medial replacements never considered as the death of one of the arts. Painting is de-terminizing, it becomes casual under the influence of new media development.
There is amazing parity between opposition media, which has been established in the core of triad. The essence of each element of triad was partly emphasized by Plato as "eidos - demiurg - matter", which was equal to three types of existence in later neo-platonic philosophy - "nous - psyche - kosmos". This statement was soon transformed in Hegelian triad of "thesis - synthesis - antithesis". Each object, each process and phenomenon, as in our case painting, has its basic principle, source moment (thesis), its opposition and disclaimer (antithesis) and unity of oppositions in one (synthesis).
In our case Vasyl Bazhay's exhibition is clearly located in the frames of worldwide triad. Its elements emerge in texts (thesises) - determinations of painting as type of art, paintings (antithesises) and in exhibition itself (syntheses of oppositions)... De-termino brings us to the conclusion of certain im-plication, makes determinists from us, i.e. representatives of philosophical trend on legitimate relationship between the phenomena of material and spiritual world. The position on causality which, first or last brings us to the consequences is the central position of determinism. Other reference of painting's im-plication on Bazhay's exhibition we will find in semantic side. There are two interdependent elements before us - signified (texts) and that what is signify (paintings). Such variable dichotomy is a base of significance and a mechanism which allows us to classify the painting, as semiotic structure. Due to semiotics of exhibition space one can perceive elements of given dichotomy as simple signs. For the method of origin on the exhibition we distinguish two their types - instrumental (paintings) and organic (quoting, as a source of paintings' comprehension).
As in previous exhibitions the problems of dichotomy, opposition, antilogy and collision of different elements are the main principles of artist's creation. But what is opposition, antilogy and collision; they are only one of variable aspects of harmony which was already described by Plato and Aristotle.
In all artist's exhibitions we are impressed by those purity, harmony and consistency which he uses during the work with his paintings. The idea about the exhibition as self-sufficient work of art creates premises of intellectual action. Not only artists but also art critics and theorists are enforced to think about Vasyl Bazhay's exhibitions. All these people have unique chance to create a definite art theory at the ground of presented material.
