Larion Lozovyi

Larion Lozovyi pays particular attention to ties between artistic and historical phenomena. In his Beetroot Revolution, he continues to develop his methodology of artistic study. He engages with the materials connected to the revolutionary processes of 1917 to construct an archive of an imaginary event. Long before the Bolshevik Revolution, the February Democratic Revolution culminated from the hopes of millions citizens. And yet, it also demonstrated that the product of a revolutionary act can be appropriated by the forces inimical to the original emancipatory agenda. It provided examples of mass consumption of the revolutionary image commissioned by the new authority (the Temporary Government). The commission was to be met by art communities trying to adapt to the changes. Under the conditions, the artistic avant-garde proved dependent on the goodwill of politicians and the big capital, and all criticism was defused by the context that produced it. Lozovyi’s fictitious Beetroot Revolution is a metaphor of the phenomena defining our era, namely, the cultural industry and political populism. We can take a closer look at them by examining archival objects, edited video footage and audio guides to the hall.