On December 09, the a—s—t—r—a gallery opens the exhibition of Sergei Sonin and Elena Samorodova-Sonina "Paradoxical Paradise", which has become a new link in the chain of universes created by artists. The fictional genre of "Russian provincial orientalism", presented earlier in "Utopia and Irony", here shows its forerunner – "Chthonic Baroque". To build a large-scale earthly paradise, you have to overcome the forces of the earth, fight against chthonic forces and the unbridled power of nature.
Visitors are not only faced with the question: at what price is this victory over chthon, but also various intellectual response strategies are implemented in the created works.

"Sergei Sonin and Elena Samorodova do not turn to the iconographic, medial, and stylistic legacy of Peter the Great's Baroque in order to "tell a story" or "tell a story in an original way" or "place themselves in history." Peter the Great Baroque for them is not an end in itself, not a fetish, not a subject of cultural parasitism or deconstruction. It is necessary to create the optics with which they want to look at Russia and its history in their potential. The artists cast the nets of their art not into the western seas, as Peter did, but into the eastern ones. As if he had done it. Among other exhibits, the exhibition features a series of wall and corner ceramic vases with floral and mythological ornaments and paintings with interpretations of the Chinese spirit. They seem to the author of these lines to be amazing floats of a huge Russian cultural seine, thrown into Chinese spiritual and historical waters: and now Elena and Sergey are among those who choose nets when meanings come together, and these are historical meanings. How historical meanings are needed in our time! It looks like the end of history, when the sky turns into a point and a continuous historical Zugzwang begins. Therefore, what Sonin and Samorodova have obtained through the nets of their art is worth a lot. As Pechorin's "honest smugglers," they smuggled this most scarce type of product – historical meanings of Russian origin. What do these meanings remind you of? That the potential of Russian history may not be obvious until the last moment. What will happen? Is unknown. Let the fortune tellers cry. But someone who looks into the past may be ready."

Alexander Valeryevich Korolev, Ph.D., Senior Researcher at the Russian Institute of Art History (Zubovsky), Associate Professor at the Higher School of Economics-St. Petersburg

About the exhibition:

"The scenic form of the exhibition resembles a Chinese jewelry box: elegant and colorful, with a double and triple bottom, a lot of secret drawers, that is, meanings. Stories branch out like branches on an oak tree. The exhibition breaks down the well-established ideas about history and historical characters, learned in school. The transition from the reflected image of the sovereign Emperor Paul the First (revealed in the previously implemented project of the authors of Utopia and Irony) to the person of Peter the Great is
natural. "Great–grandfather's great-grandson." Just as Rastrelli's work is inscribed on the pedestal of the monument, so they (the artists) are commanded. Direct transmission. Paradox in Greek means "contrary to opinion", "against expectations". Works that seem to challenge common sense are a challenge that makes you wonder if everything is as it seems.

The questions we ask in our writings do not require answers. They are paradoxical, which means they break down patterns and take our thinking to a new level. They reveal the boundaries of our understanding. Why, when going West, should one focus on the East? Why are vases, in which nothing can be put or poured, only a form in which all the contents are on the surface? Why is Peter an oak and not a stone? And a lot of such unexpected questions."

Sergey Sonin and Elena Samorodova-Sonina

About artists

Sergey Sonin and Elena Samorodova-Sonina are modern multimedia artists, creators of mockumentary genre in Russian, directors of large–scale hoaxes and founders of such artistic associations as the "Lead and Cobalt" Partnership,
the "Apollo Committee", the "Wolf Berry" workshop. Artists who create their works in creative tandem work in two capitals: Moscow and St. Petersburg. The artists' works are in the collections of the Moscow Museum of Fine Arts, the Multimedia Art Museum, and the Museum of Moscow.,
The State Museum of Urban Sculpture of St. Petersburg, the Krasnoyarsk Museum Center "Mira Square", as well as in private collections.