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Oleg Kulik
from the series The Russian
1999
Digital print
220 x 163 cm
© Oleg Kulik, Courtesy Trilistnik, Moskau |
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 leg Kulik is one of Russia's most famous contemporary artists. He won great international acclaim after the fall of the Soviet Union, together with other Russian artists such as Ilya Kabakov. Kulik was a protégé of Boris Orlov. His early performances originated directly from the brutal, criminal realities of Russia in the 1990's. Kulik questions the essence of what it means to be human and illustrates what it may be like to revert back to the state of being an 'original animal'. His performances such as 'Mad Dog', 'Reservoir Dog' and 'I Bite America and America Bites Me' have attracted attention from art critics and curators throughout the world. In these renowned performances he assumes the role of an 'artist-animal', such as a dog, a bird, a fish or a bull. The artist even founded an 'animal party' in Russia and announced himself a candidate in the general presidential election, disguised as a bull. Kulik was born 1961 in Kyjiw, Ukraine and lives in Moscow, Russia.
Art Interview: Could you tell us about your education?
Oleg Kulik: I always wanted to be a painter. Even in kindergarten I was good at drawing. I finished a specialized art school in Kiev and then moved to Moscow where I applied to the Stroganov Institute (Now the Moscow University of Design). I passed the entrance exams but decided not to study there. At that time there were raving articles about conceptualist painters, which included Boris Orlov. He was one of their main teachers but they threw him out of the Stroganov Institute for being a dissident. Because of this many of his students left and I decided not to go. Instead we went to Boris Orlov`s studio. There I met a circle of conceptualists like Tabakov, Andrei Monastirskiy, Brigov, Lebedev and Bulatov. I joined this large underground circle and we became friends. We received a much better education there and we analyzed Western art through magazines and catalogues that we received from people who came to the Soviet Union from across the border. We were very active for 5 years and then Thundered Perestroika came to the surface with us in the spotlight. (The transition between Soviet totalitarianism and contemporary Russia when Yegor Ligachev thundered against Yakovlev's allegedly perfidious role in influencing Gorbachev, hijacking what he referred to as the "healthy perestroika" and using it for malevolent, tenebrous purposes.)
Art Interview: Where and when did you have your first official exhibition?
Oleg Kulik: I had my first exhibition in 1988 with the help of my Ossetian friend Lazar Gadayev. My work wasn’t exhibited a lot in the beginning, even though I was a friend with all conceptualists. I was working with transparency and realism but this theme was not very popular. It had been passed a long time ago. So my first exhibition was in Sevastopolskis District Hall in Moscow and was called ´Paradox-There Are No Paradoxes`. It was done with glass and mirrors. I was working with two types of reflections: a full reflection from mirrors and a transparent half reflection from glass where you can see what is in front of you and behind you at the same time. I am actually still working with this theme.
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Oleg Kulik
painting during a performance
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Art Interview: So your first exhibition was already conceptual and by that time you had already found your way.
Oleg Kulik: Yes, of course.
Art Interview: Do you ever paint as well?
Oleg Kulik: Yes, I use everything including brushes and oils, but I do not like just working with canvas and oil. I’ve done stamps of photos on canvas. Sometimes I make graphic drawings with ink. I enjoy making sculptures, pasting, and geometrical constructions.
One of my main series of works is based on my drawings of man transforming from a two-legged creature to using all four limbs. I think walking on all fours is a more progressive biological development for man. In the future for convenience man will travel short distances on all fours and because of this city traveling will be revolutionized. Of course, for this to happen a little change will have to be made in the imperfect human skeletal structure. There are a lot of problems we are experience from standing straight for too long. The spinal cord should rest from time to time. When we all go down where we belong there will be less aggression and instead of visiting sex clubs we will work more with our bio energy. Some of my graphic works stem from these thoughts.
Art Interview: Do you think Russian conceptual art has its particularities compared to the conceptual art of the rest of the world?
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Oleg Kulik
From the 'Fears...' series
2000
color photo
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Oleg Kulik: Of course it has. It is deeply religious.
Art Interview: Religious?
Oleg Kulik: I am not talking about church here. This is about spirituality. It is always addressed to something incredibly inappropriate, like the godly figure of the western spectator, who we did not have in the Soviet underground. Russian conceptual art is directed toward an ideal spectator. It is like a dream, a utopia, and an illusion. It is always something inappropriate right here and now, something very difficult to understand. They are different forms of religious consciousness.
Art Interview: That shocks me a bit because I have never heard anything like it.
Oleg Kulik: Soon you will hear a lot about it. For the last 2 years I’ve been developing these ideas and a lot of people agree with them. I think about them carefully and from different perspectives when I talk. Russia is the country of atheism; they forced us to be atheists. But inside ourselves we are very religious. You can even see a cross in the background of a party membership card. This practice was common everywhere, probably even for Brezhnev.
Art Interview: That is a very interesting paradoxical fact. I’ll have to think more about that before I am ready to talk about it. Do you think there is a difference between art in Moscow, St. Petersburg and in the provinces?
Oleg Kulik: Of course, there is. The difference is like black and white, but it is not garish, it’s rather smooth. From this thick blackness of Oleg Kulick`s thoughts and feelings, to the dark greyness of Moscow and much further beyond toward the light of Irkutsk, where white as clean snow you find Baikal and its complete non-understanding of what contemporary art is. But by Vladivostock you already come closer to the Far East. In Japan it is getting darker and darker and in some places it is even getting black.
Art Interview: How do you think fine art will develop further? Conceptual art has existed for a long time, are new real revolutions expected to occur?
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About the Interviewer:
Dr. Ivan Koulakov PhD is famous for being both a Siberian scientist and artist. The symbiosis of his scientific and artistic careers has allowed Koulakov to exhibit his work worldwide.
Art Interview Online Magazine is proud to have Dr. Koulakov as a contributing author. |
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This oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Oleg Kulik on September 19, 2005. The interview took place over the telephone between Berlin, Germany and Moscow, Russia. It was originally conducted in Russian by Dr. Ivan Koulakov PhD for Art Interview Online Magazine and was translated to English by Ivan Manev.
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