ICUL CTION
C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t R e v i e w
Dalia Smayze
L eonid Dutov
Lives and works in Moskow, Russia
An artist ' s statement
Y
ou have made a video and the video gives a message. This message is clear. Do you like
the message? Is it a beautiful message? Or is it a dark message? A horrible message? You see it can be anything- it doesn ' t have to be good. Even a dark or horrible message can be beautiful- in a way. What the film is really trying to do is to engage with the viewer- to get the viewer to face something- to feel something- which they may or may not like. Here- look at this- feel this- how do you feel about feeling this? How do you feel about watching this? Does it make you feel good? Did you realise it ' s art? It has a message. It tells you something... can you accept its message or do you prefer to ignore it, to deny it, to...
So the only way you can know what I feel or think is by writing what you feel or think- because the more you learn about your own contradictory, different feelings and reactions to this film, the more you ' ll be able to tune into and know my own. It ' s work. We prefer not to look to deeply, to feel too deeply. We prefer to tell ourself that we understand its message, perhaps better than other people do- yet what is there to understand? What is the deeper isness of this video- beneath the surface layer of " art "? So yes, it ' s interesting to know what I think- but to know it you need to strip away the barriers to knowing- which are barriers we put in place to avoid knowing our Self.
Leonid Dutov
16