ITINERARIES

Language, path, communication, understanding. Words turned into notions by the artists of the exhibition. Metaphors for the infrastructure upon which we build our communication and journey through life's reality. A reality filled with bipolar states, both within us and outside of us. Direction and randomness, movement and stillness, presence and absence – motifs capable of describing with equal confidence both the world of matter and the state of the spirit.

In this abstract-visual atmosphere, the works of Alexander Lazarkov and Peter Chinovsky gradually reveal their conceptual essence. Pieces of carefully recreated road surface, seen in cross-section, with all their layers – like a fragment of contemporary archaeology; the road infrastructure as a planetary neural network, simultaneously defining the feeling of freedom and limitation or dependence. The path as layers of personal experiences, strengthening or destroying character, shaping our subjective perception of reality, truth, deceptiveness. The aspiration to reach a final point within or outside of ourselves, where there is no sense of contradiction.

Regardless of direction and purpose, every journey is accompanied by unpredictability and chaos. Accidental occurrences, imperfections, unexamined or unexaminable intrusions in our "field of view," noticed or simply bypassed. These "imperfections," disempowering our desire for complete control, manifest in various forms. Their meaning is drastically altered if we observe them as isolated phenomena or as elements of the surrounding context. They are present, almost invariably, in art, language, everyday life.

Peter Chinovsky explores these phenomena through works focusing on the unintentional presence of people and objects in photographic images, as well as the unintended intrusion of words and phrases into our language – sometimes antilogical and paradoxical, unrelated in their literal reading, yet still conveying something to us in the process of forming meaning in communication. "Mistakes," reproduced by the impulse of intention, wandering like curious intruders in the visual or linguistic landscape of each of us. What is the nature of unintentionality? "That which can only be said if you don't try to say it, or only when trying to say something else," the artist would respond. What is the role of unintentionality in achieving "understanding" in communication? This is a question open to multiple possible answers.

In a strange way, Alexander Lazarkov and Peter Chinovsky create an exhibition that is both radical and poetic, exciting and melancholic. The visual environment is eloquent, the questions posed are far from typical, ones that seem to be asked for the first time, while culture is perceived on a grand scale.