EXHIBITION AND CELEBRATION
Berthold centre, Saint Petersburg, 2018
Exhibitions and celebrations definitely have a very similar nature. They are impossible for a person without other people and he or she needs the presence of other viewers and participants who have the same empathy to the common action. Religious celebrations make a person closer to the supreme values and give us “the temporary exit to the utopian world” (Bakhtin). At the exhibitions, there are very sublime vibes and it is easy to go into some kind of trance. That is why exhibitions as well as different celebrations very often are accompanied by alcohol.
In celebrations, there is the play element that can be found in art not only in the form of different interactive and participatory projects, but also in the method of deferred communication between artwork and viewer. The artist hides extra meaning or allusion, and the viewer tries to find them, to solve the work like a puzzle.
Even the most serious artists have an entertaining function in society. It doesn’t matter if they scare, intrigue, cause the rage or entertain with their works. Without artists, life would be very systematized and boring. The artist brings the freshness of the holiday into our life, and becomes the toastmaster and party entertainer.
By the cannons of traditional celebration, the exhibition contains contests, games, puzzles, greetings and the ritual of attracting “likes”.
