Donbass Chocolate 1997

Editor: Arsen Savadov’s “Donbass Chocolate,” created in 1997 using mixed media... it's a peculiar sight, isn’t it? There's something so gritty and fantastical happening at once. I'm struck by this…staging, or what I perceive to be theatrical staging in a less than conventional setting... a mine, perhaps? The figures seem very deliberately arranged. How do you interpret this work? Curator: Well, aren’t we drawn to the raw theater of it all! Imagine, this could be a tableau vivant dragged from the depths of both the earth and the human soul. Savadov pulls us into a staged reality that reflects Donbass’s tough existence amidst a hunger for some ethereal beauty. Look at those coal-dusted faces, framed like actors awaiting their cue. Those strange figures in between; do they strike you as mythical beings guarding something precious? Or maybe a hallucination of these workers who seem very worn down? Editor: I see what you mean... the theatrical element transforms what could have been a straightforward portrait of laborers into something far more… allegorical. There’s almost a satirical edge to it, maybe commenting on the absurd relationship between labor, identity, and fantasy. Curator: Exactly! It's as if Savadov is saying, “Here is the raw truth, but even in the face of despair, there is this almost urgent yearning for some kind of surreal, imagined release." Editor: That tension makes it really powerful. It almost makes you forget it is staged at all. Thank you, I definitely have a new perspective now. Curator: It is my pleasure to have shared it with you, who knows where imagination will lead you next!