Gallery 21 presents the exhibition of Sergei Katran 1-30.
The exhibition presents unusual objects that combine sculpture and digital video. Objects look like bizarre natural forms, similar to woody mushroom parasites. The viewer sees in the real object the ground part of the fungus, and in the digital image - the underground part, the mycelium. The author examines natural systems as social models.
In this project, the fractal Mandelbrot theory and the negative social phenomenon were the inspiration for the artist. The parasitic fungal system, according to the artist, resembles corruption in society.
Like the mycelium, corruption tries to capture more space, penetrating into all layers of society. Just like the mushroom, it has a public part associated with corruption scandals and an underground one - a hidden one, which is not talked about. As a parasite fungus, corruption infects all participants in the system.
Sergei Katran: "In nature, weakened organism first becomes infected, with suppressed immunity. But growing, the same tinder can also capture healthy trees. In social practice, there are mechanisms that can withstand corruption. For example, the introduction of digital technologies: cameras instead of traffic cops, electronic reception rooms and so on. This is done, but in the minds of society, domestic corruption is not an obvious evil. This is what weakens public immunity. While in the public consciousness to collect money for the teacher for a gift is not corruption, corruption schemes in large structures connected with state orders will not disappear. As a special case, I, as an artist, are interested in, for example, how monuments are erected in Moscow. How are decisions made? Why are there no public open competitions, evaluation of works by the public and a professional jury, which necessarily represented by heterogeneous participants? Perhaps in this case we would have other, interesting projects, rather than reconstructing images of past centuries. "
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