Part II: The New Cynicism or Nailed-up Video | <<<
This cinema-opera is about the painful changeover from one generation
of artists to the next. The video was made especially for the exhibition
Absolute Generations that took place in Palazzo Zenobio during the 50th
Venice Biennale. Artist Oleg Kulik, who plays the role of daddy, invites
two "youngsters", Mizin and Shaburov, to the biennale, where
they proceed to swindle "daddy" out of his position in the art
world.
Synopsis. Moscow, 2006. Under the Bolshoi Kremlyovski Bridge, the homeless
give their best articles of clothing to one of their comrades, the down-and-out
artist Kulik. Now, more or less decently dressed, Kulik goes to a restaurant,
quickly devours a lot of food and runs off in order to vomit up everything
he has just eaten to share with his fellows in suffering. Kulik is used
to better days. He remembers how 3 years ago he brought two young scoundrels,
Mizin and Shaburov, to the Venice Biennale. How they cynically availed
themselves of his connections and dealers and then betrayed their benefactor.
They ascended the ladder of success and on their way trampled not only
Kulik but also Hirst and Cattellan. Now, Mizin and Shaburov imitate dogs
themselves and perform acts of zoophilia in a much more talented and amusing
manner. Kulik is left with nothing but illness and jail while money, success,
stars on the Walk of Fame, and photo opportunities with Monica Lewinsky
and the Dalai Lama fall to his former proteges. Kulik plots his revenge
on the offenders: he wants to saw them in half, hang them, set fire to
them or run them over with a bus. But each time Fate intercedes to preserve
the villains while famous curators and super-models become their unwitting
victims. Kulik weeps soundlessly, but in the end justice is served in
the form of a meteorite, which falls on the heroes as they drive off into
the sunset in a pink Cadillac.
