“Mythology of Tomorrow”, a public program. Topic of the Session: Media Narcosis. The Art Between the Mystical Mindset and the Fractures of Reality

The Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts will host a discussion on modern mystical thinking with Clément Cogitore (France). For the first time in Russia, this artist and film director will present his movie “The Evil Eye” (2018), which received the 2018 Marcel Duchamp Prize, one of the highest awards in contemporary art.

“Mythology of Tomorrow” is a series of public events that are part of the “Pushkin Museum XXI” initiative, where professionals with various areas of expertise discuss how technologies become artistic tools and what kind of future can thereby emerge. The new discussion will focus on works by Clément Cogitore, who is a participant in the Cannes and Locarno film festivals, a nominee for the César Award, and winner of the Marcel Duchamp Prize. Solo exhibitions of his video-installations and photos have been held in many European countries. In his videos the artist shows the contradictions of the modern world, where archaic traditions can exist concurrently with the consumer society trends entangled in the hi-tech web. Cogitore depicts rave as a modern ritual dance, subculture as a new type of tribal lifestyle, hypnosis produced by media images as idolization, and smartphone screens as a source of new myths. Some of his films are based on Russian realities, such as “Bielutin” (2011) about the artist Ely Bielutin and “Braguino” (2017), which tells about the life of two warring families of Old Believers in the Siberian taiga.

In the course of the event, sociologists, artists, media theorists, and philosophers will discuss how modern mystical thinking is emerging, what kind of universes it is creating, and how contemporary and classical art can support or transform this thinking. Along with the Russian premiere of “The Evil Eye” video-installation, where Cogitore explores the role and power of digital images in the modern information-saturated age, his earlier works “An Archipelago” (2011) and “Elegies” (2014) will also be presented.

Participants: Clément Cogitore (artist), Viktor Vakhshtayn (sociologist), Natalya Tamruchi (curator, gallerist)

Experts: Karina Karaeva (curator), Dmitriy Oparin (ethnologist)

Moderators: Julia Grachikova (curator, Department of Cinematic and Media Arts of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts), Andrey Parshikov (curator).

The session will be supported by the French Institute in Russia.

You must purchase a museum ticket and register in advance in order to attend the event.

The “Mythology of Tomorrow” program also comprises public discussions with Michael Govan (Director of LACMA museum, USA), Christiane Paul (Director and Chief Curator of Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons/The New School, USA), Cristina Lucas (artist, France), and Haro Cümbüşyan (founder of the Collectorspace platform, Turkey/USA).