“Living Sculptures”, the second exhibition of the “Systems of Mimicry” project at the Az/Art space, curated by Alexander Dashevsky, has gathered works by Igor Shelkovsky, Vladimir Yankilevsky, Vadim Sidur, Pyotr Dyakov, Alexander Ney, Elena…

The exhibition makes one attend to the place of the body in artistic language, to the interpretations of the body in different media, and to the influence that perceptions of corporeality exert on art. It opens with a sketch from a beach in besieged Leningrad, one that, according to the curator, was impressed by the sight of unburied bodies. Then come the time-worn bodies of Soviet park sculpture, which go on living in new circumstances: a half-ruined statue of a pioneer, for instance, tenderly wrapped in seasonal clothing by the housing office workers. Here too are beautiful painted Venuses, in essence rendered as mutilated bodies. Here are separate legs and arms, empty heads, and antique fragments that for some reason have melted and spread.

The exhibition provides a tablet with a guided tour by the curator, and admission is free. I recommend a visit.