ON THE OTHER SIDE
Laziza Tulaganova, Nigina Mirzadzhanova, Jama Adilov & Alex Kadirov

"On the other side" is the first exhibition project by Flor et Lavr Gallery in St. Petersburg. Frol Burimsky presents paintings and graphics by several young Uzbek artists: Laziza Tulaganova, Nigina Mirzadzhanova, Jama Adilov, as well as several graphic sheets and batik by Alexey Kadirov, who is participating in gallery projects for the first time.

Compared to last year's Moscow exhibitions, this is a completely different story. The world turned upside down in an instant, and it is unlikely to become the same and familiar again. There was an impression that one of the most relevant ways of behaviour was becoming a popular classification of the American psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance. But is it? Is there a way out of the situation that has developed all over the world? Broken ties, distrust, panic, fear, the collapse of hopes, the awareness of the nearness of death - is it possible to live with such a burden, is any thinking, creative person able to live and work in such conditions? Frol Burimsky finds an emotional response to these questions in the works of Tashkent-based artists created over the past fifteen years.

The phantasmagoric painting of Jama Adilov became the highlight of the exhibition. The first sensation from large canvases and cardboards is existential horror. A monster that devours a small person - or a piano that a musician cannot play in a world that instantly lost harmony, in a world where the muses must be silent? However, just as tragedy is born from the spirit of music, so those creatures that have already been captured by death are clearly not going to give up. And the creator, already almost ready to give up, is able to find a way out and tell the viewer about it.

The graphic series on black paper by Nigina Mirzadzhanova consists of sketches conveying certain emotional states, statements that can be assembled like a puzzle. A crumbling, upside down world - and a person who is trying to find a new foothold and place in it. Nigina claims: “Home is where you are, home is in our heart, as long as your heart is beating, you have a home. No one will forbid thoughts, no one will forbid the freedom that lives in our soul.”

The red and blue color in Laziza Tulaganova's painting is traditionally symbolic - today it sounds like Anxiety and Peace. “Every person has such moments when he stares straight before him and does not think about anything. No phone, no people nearby, nothing that could disturb this peace. A few minutes or even seconds of silence. Like a reboot. And then the person returns to life again, continues to think again and, therefore, to exist,” says the artist.

The quadriptych "Flock" by Alexei Kadirov in hot batik technique was made almost ten years ago. The technique involves step-by-step dyeing of silk fabric with hot wax drawing over layers dyed in different colors. Wax is a reserve, which is washed off at the end of the work, and you can see the color composition conceived by the author. Against an alarming iridescent fiery red background, there are contrasting silhouettes of dogs and a man on all fours. The artist comments about the idea of ​​the work as follows: “How animal are we? We follow instincts, we gather in flocks, we run along the trail (or in a circle?). We’re the same blood? - the crowns of creation or ordinary animals?”

Alex's silhouette graphics sound different. It rather reminds of classical Renaissance figures or characters of Petrov-Vodkin, ideal, calm - and therefore suddenly dissonant with what is happening around.

Each artist in this project, as well as the viewer, who certainly enters into a dialogue with the works of art, has his own language, his own way. It is important to remain human, to work, to create, not to lose the will to live and love, no matter how difficult or impossible it may seem.

Come what may - and do what you must. Look, feel, think - and therefore live.