Dmitrij Dihovichnij | Art

As a continuation of their activities around Art and Space Exploration, Max Grüter, Melanie Richter and Kay Kaul founded the art group SPARTNIC ‘Weightless Artistic Association’ Membership is granted exclusively to Artist who’s conviction has proved them worthy. The ‘Weightless Artists Association’ have conceptualised the presentation and the marketing of Editions of works made by the members of the Art Group SPARTNIC.

Dmitrij Dihovichnij and his colleagues Aljoscha and Oleg Yushko contributed to the Mission with their project "Einflüsse der mikroorganischen Lebewesen auf das Licht und das All" ("Influence of microorganisms on the light and the universe")

About Spartnic & Mission O'14

About Ostrale - Centre for Contemporary Art - Dresden: http://www.ostrale.de/en/

Teotihuacàn - the place where people become Gods. In 2nd century, a powerful centre of civilization developed in the Americas in parallel to the Roman civilization in Europe. It disappeared in 5th century at the peak of its glory due to - according to some versions - intrusion of extraterrestrial civilizations.

For Dmitrij's project in Malkasten, the largest wall was completely covered with plaster boards, about 10 m long x 4 m high. Before doing that, he put a wall made of 16 paintings on the original wall. The base for the paintings was polished wood.

After the wall made of plaster boards was ready and did not differ from the original wall, the artist made a hole in it and "opened" the painings hidden behind the wall.

This was Dihovichnij's only work presented at this exhibition because for the artist, "the destroyed wall and the whole room were one whole", and therefore, "no need to add or remove anything".   

About Malkasten

Gertrud Peters, curator of KIT in Düsseldorf, about Dihovichnij’s work:

When Dmitrij Dihovichnij visited the tunnel for the first time in October 2006, the place where he wanted to show his work was quickly found: the space at the beginning of KIT resembles a passage that leads from the shallow end of the exhibition room to its center. In this space, as visualized by the sculptor, his candleholders could be presented on a pedestal; another sculpture – “Midnight in Chealsea” was added afterwards.

An eloquent artwork that can be classified as something between rock romance and mannerism - a fantasy of skulls, gentleman hats, intertwined plants and pipe bowls. Yet, before his world of symbols, allegories, and riddles could be shown at KIT – Kunst im Tunnel, Dihovichnij had numerous weeks of hard work in the foundry ahead of him: he had to start working at half past six in the morning to win the recognition and thus the help of the foundry workers.

The somewhat medieval atmosphere in the foundry has left its mark on the round dance of the 24 bronze candelabra. Owing to the elaborateness with which they were made, the spirit of the material is dissolved and suddenly, it seems that two dozen elusive wood nymphs are dancing on the white pedestal. If it weren't for the case-hardened male heads at the four ends, the arms of the candleholders could intertwine like vines and form an earthy-green and golden wall. Yet, their melancholic swing ends at the pipe bowls, where you almost smell the scent of Mac Baren's "Black Ambrosia", and where you almost feel lost in the mists of imaginary masculine wads of smoke, as lost as the hope of the musician who pulled the vanished strings of "Midnight in Chelsea".

About K.I.T.