Gosha Ostretsov was famous even during perestroika. Still a novice, he worked at the junction between contemporary art and the avant-garde fashion inspired by the aesthetics of constructivism and the revolutionary avant-garde movement that the broader public was rediscovering. From 1988 to 1998 the artist lived in Paris, where he continued working on avant-garde fashion in its most extreme form as costume-object, as well as pursuing his fascination with comic-strip culture. By all accounts it was the interaction of these two interests that originally gave Ostretsov the idea of creating latex masks, a project lasting many years. Still in Paris, he devised a performance for a conglomerate of new galleries opening in the  13th arrondissement where he dressed the gallery owners in comic-book superhero masks. This action can be seen as the starting point for Ostretsov's most longstanding project, the 'New Government': an (anti-) utopian story about a government whose rulers never appear in public without cover-all black latex masks, an ongoing story the artist tells in many different exhibitions and performances. He even instituted a medal awarded on behalf of the New Government, for which recipients are selected by the Moscow artistic community. Despite its apparent ambiguity, the New Government (the artist alternates between praising it and calling for it to be deposed) represents above all a power structure of artists. And the masks, which imperceptibly pass from one set of appointed leaders to another (since according to Ostretsov's concept their subjects never notice when power is transferred) not only save them from the dangers of the 'personality cult', but also confer immortality on the New Government in the same way as works of art outlive their creator. This vision of art and the means to acquire immortality,  even if it involves relinquishing the mortal body, is also presented in Ostretsov's ironic installation for 'Victory over the Future' – you can travel to the future, even if you can't see it. The artist turns into a mechanical mannequin with a never-ending ability to manufacture art. And the face of Ostretsov himself, put on the dummy, is reminiscent of the New Government mask but even more terrifying, since nothing hides behind it.
Irina Kulik |
