Illustration

"Donbas-Chocolate"

1997, digital printing on aluminium, plexiglass (Dibond)120 x 160cm

In his art, Arsen Savadov builds a complex composition, which mixes European and Ukrainian myths. Savadov creates his projects with the help of time-consuming full-scale props, without the use of computer production. Thus, in 1997 the artist made a series of photographs combined into the project "Donbas-Chocolate", which depicts miners in eastern Ukraine.

Anatoly Kryvolap

About the artist

Arsen Savadov (b. 1962) – Ukrainian artist, currently based in his hometown Kyiv, Ukraine, and in New York, USA. One of the most active representatives of the Ukrainian New Wave and trans-avant-garde art, Ukraine’s representative at the 49th Venice Biennale (2001).

Thus, in one of his series "Commedia Dell'arte In Crimea", Arsen Savadov transfers the folk theater of XVI century to Crimean landscape, which is so similar to Italian landscape. Historically, Comedy dell'Arte, or "comedy of masks" - a type of Italian square theater, the performances of which were created by improvisation, based on a script containing a short plot scheme of the play, with actors dressed in masks.

"I am one of those artists who work with such rigid conventions of contemporary art as the new mythology. I make works from different fragments of consciousness." – Arsen Savadov

Savadov’s works have been repeatedly exhibited at auctions and major national and international exhibitions, including the Sotheby's (London, New York), Phillips De Pury (London), Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (Marseille), Maison Européenne de la Photographie (Paris), Moderna Museet (Stockholm), to name just a few.