Art is like a bird trying to escape from its cage, wanting to free itself from the restrictions of institutions and open up. Its rejection of the sterile comfort of museums changes the form of the works themselves, creating new qualitative aspects. This “going out into the world” establishes new rules for how the artist interacts with natural phenomenons. The tradition of mimesis fades into the background, and nature appears in the foreground as an equal, almost like a collaborator. And, as often happens between partners, the working process involves disagreement and disunity, even despair; but at the end, with a successful set of circumstances, a new aesthetic appears that is based largely on negotiation and mutual understanding. The quote from a poem by Pushkin was chosen as the title of the project because it points to the vector of human relations to nature – the monotonous rhythm of despair, winter, spring, summer, autumn, winter, spring, summer, autumn, despair – that remains unchanged. The rotation of the seasons continues in the background as revolutions and wars are fought and people wander, but no matter what happens, another cold spring will come. (Peter Belyi)
