A. Polukord, an artist who criticizes capitalism: “Why are people crazy about money?” | Culture

We met the artist on the eve of the exhibition opening. Exhibits are already being installed in the NDG hall on the third floor. Before poking your nose into the exhibition itself, A. Polukord suggests putting on a black jacket and only then entering the exhibition, which displays swords, office chairs, unknown mushrooms and… a black leather massage chair, in which you had to spend a minute. If not mild confusion, then at least it raised questions. And the most important of them – why is capitalism so annoying to A. Polukord? What are unknown mushrooms? What is the function of black jackets?

This is what we talk about in this interview.

– In an interview with Marius Eidukonis on LRT Radio, you questioned your role as an artist. You said you might be an entrepreneur. After visiting the exhibition, one gets the impression that the office culture with suit jackets and chairs on wheels is mocked, and where else is the massage chair crowning the exhibition. What is it really like – are you an artist or an entrepreneur? How are these two roles related? What are you criticizing?

– This is a criticism of the very system in which we were born as soon as we were born. What you see in the exhibition are details from circa 1997 of the businessman, office worker style. Our company Galerie Uberall, of which I am the director and founder, is precisely from those times.

We currently live in a capitalist system, so I suggest you wake up. Our politicians and businessmen wear those jackets. It is their image that demonstrates a person’s value based on the amount of money. This is so funny. Why do you have to wear jackets? Why are people crazy about money? Are we moving towards evolution or involution?

Paulius Peleckis/BNS photo/Andrejas Polukords exhibition “Unknown Mushrooms”

– Why are you so annoyed by money? After all, it can be counterargued that this is a kind of expression of freedom – we have the opportunity to earn them and buy what we need or want.

– That is also true. I do not want to say that I myself am not influenced by capitalism and that I do not worship this system. I am also a creator of capital and part of the system. It’s just that my attitude towards it is ironic.

– What is funny about money to you?

– It’s very funny that they are devalued, because in real life we ​​work hard and don’t have time to live. We make sacrifices so that we can have a better life someday when we “make it,” but that doesn’t happen in the end because inflation eats away at the accumulated capital. And we either mature or grow old and the needs become completely different than at the moment when we were working and dreaming about the future. Absurd. This exhibition looks at it from a similar angle, here we have unknown mushrooms sprouting in the forest because this is how the system of “consumerism” works.

– What are unknown mushrooms?

– These are various unknown mushrooms. They can be clay, rubber, plastic, for example, a plastic chair wheel, an office chair back adjuster, unexpectedly found or grown in the forest. It is them that we see in the film exhibited at the exhibition.

– Who do you think is the narrator of this exhibition – a businessman or an artist?

– The exhibition itself and the situation. When a person comes to it, he looks around, meditates while looking at unknown mushrooms, before leaving in the massage chair, he crumples his jacket a little. It remains unclear whether the viewer leaves the room rested or “crumpled up”. Perhaps this exhibition will change the way people think about capital and consumption.

– The curator wrote in the annotation of the exhibition that the exhibition will be like a forest, a dystopia. Where is the hidden forest?

– In each chair of the exhibition, you can view the forest from different perspectives, as the mats move. The forest is a mushroom flora, mushrooms grow in this environment, so it is impossible to say that there is no forest in the exhibition. After all, the name suggests it.

Paulius Peleckis/BNS photo/Andrejas Polukords exhibition “Unknown Mushrooms”

– What does the forest mean to you?

– For me, the forest is a place to gather for food and meditation. This is a very important part of my life where I regain my strength. It can also be used for hunting (that’s what I call mushroom hunting), during which I gather mushrooms and berries. I also find unexpected, almost magical things, such as white squirrels. Sometimes I think I’m more of a hunter than a gallerist, artist or entrepreneur.

“You said you were a hunter.” Here you cut known and unknown mushrooms with a sword, which are also exhibited at the exhibition.

– With a sword or just a knife. I don’t always have a sword handy when I’m out in the woods, especially when they’re integrated into the show. However, I prefer to cut unknown mushrooms with a sword, and I gather the known ones, which are more close to my heart, with my hand.

– What is the symbolic meaning of the sword in the life cycle of unknown mushrooms?

– With swords, we just dig them out, dig them out of the forest! This is how the fight against unknown mushrooms goes. Instead of cutting down trees, we can cut down the latter.

– In the world of biology, fungi have their own separate kingdom. They are also associated with the chthonic and divine world. You have mentioned that money is associated with the devil for you. What made you so interested in this aspect?

– I was interested in the mushroom system itself. On the one hand, it is very bright and beautiful, on the other hand, it is dark and scary. This ambiguity is self-contradictory. In this exhibition, the only person who enters puts on the attribute of the devil – a jacket, and we leave the exhibition crumpled. It’s easy to get lost here, because it’s hard to understand where the devil is hidden, because we tend to forget and not notice that terrible things are happening.

Paulius Peleckis/BNS photo/Andrejas Polukords exhibition “Unknown Mushrooms”

– Is there activism in your work as an artist?

– I don’t know, I would rather classify my gallery activities as activism, because we push (sell and physically push) art all over the world. It is a triangle built on wheels, similar to a sculpture, and the two of us push it with a companion. Maybe a passer-by met on the street will get a triple impression – maybe someone will think that this is activism, or maybe they will support it as just advertising. I am neither warm nor cold, but it is our duty as gallery directors to push art.

– With your gallery, you participated in one of the world’s most important exhibitions, Documenta14. Did you introduce something new or push the art as well?

– There we presented two artists Ana Khodorkovskaja and Anthia Loizou, who showed two works. We gave them complete freedom, so they did what they wanted. The title of the show was We Saw the Light and Here We Came. The works themselves were abstract, such as one involving light elements resembling lightning. The exhibition itself was not officially announced by the organizers of Documenta14. Maybe that’s why the concept chosen by the artists and the title of the exhibition was about arrival – intervention. But there was a pretext for that – the light that the artists saw.

– Returning to the criticism of capitalism – what would you change this system to?

– I don’t know if I would change. That’s fine with me, especially since I’m not a politician or an inventor, so I don’t have the power to make changes. As an artist, I observe where we are moving – towards evolution or involution. It is sad that some people are asleep in this system and do not see the need to change anything. So if I notice that we are not moving in the right direction, I draw attention to it, I make fun of it. In the end, it doesn’t really matter because we are only temporary on this earth.

– What are the signs of involution?

– The same unknown mushrooms, conflicts, etc

– Ar Does what is written in the media influence your work?

– I don’t read it much, so I don’t know if it does. In general, the media now only sees one side. It kind of “influences” everyone who reads it. However, I am probably influenced by the wave of ecology, many even identify my work as raising environmental issues. It’s nice when I can create art without harming the environment, look for beauty in simplicity, make something big out of something small. I am a capitalist just like everyone else, I drive a car, I use an airplane.

Paulius Peleckis/BNS photo/Andrejas Polukords exhibition “Unknown Mushrooms”

– Do you see the climate crisis as inevitable?

– There are signs that the climate is changing. Maybe it’s warm, maybe it’s cold. However, I see changes in everyday life. I honestly don’t know if it scares me because I don’t have kids yet so I have nothing to fear. For now, I am only responsible for myself, somewhat for my parents. In the past, everyone was worried about the ozone hole, but this topic is no longer in the media, why? Now, the transition to electric cars and solar power plants is receiving a lot of attention. But to create electric cars, three times as much energy is needed as for a simple one, and what can we say about the possibilities of recycling such cars, especially their batteries?

“Don’t you think that’s funny?”

– I don’t know, I’ve heard rumors that making a solar panel and disposing of it requires a lot of resources. I wonder if it pays off at all and if we are not wasting even more resources than if we are not creating an absurdity by further improving fuel combustion systems. By the way, one curator, Kotryna Markevičiūtė, was now traveling around America and driving a car that “eats” about 20 liters of fuel, in other words, she presses the gas, and the tank moves towards zero instantly. And there it is normal. A natural question arises, where is the logic? Europeans and everyone else are encouraged to save, while Americans continue to consume as much as they can. Why are there such double standards?

– Currently, the prevailing trend is to hold the exhibitions themselves as sustainably as possible. Did you care?

– He cared. Of course, the architects tried to make it all look aesthetic, clean, but we used many things from second hand. We didn’t want waste, unused items to remain after the exhibition. Even the swords on display are cut from waste, and some are simply found.

Paulius Peleckis/BNS photo/Andrejus Polukordas

– Finally, what do you expect from the viewer who comes to the exhibition?

– It would be fun to massage the jacket they put on when they entered (laughs). And anyway, one would not want a person to come here in vain. I wonder if they will understand how to use a massage chair in general, because usually it is not allowed to combine anything at exhibitions. Additional instructions may be required. In general, it’s important to me that people come full circle with a little instruction like this.