</Through Smoke and Brimstone...>
author: Katya Ceppel
In the main hall of the CCI Fabrika (Moscow), the artist Ivan Florensky, great-grandson of the famous philosopher Pavel Florensky, who was repressed in the Soviet Union, showed his gloomy art works. Chimneys, factories, lonely spaces, puffs of smoke, walkways, fences, concrete, iron wire. Katya Ceppel recalls how smoke fills the space again and whether it is possible to see the beautiful behind it.
Artists in Russia often represent the landscape as harsh, austere, lonely, cold, unfriendly
My name is Ivan Florensky and I am an artist, a philosopher, a human, a Christian. It's all matter, the order is not so important. But what is more important that I am a synthesist. I would say that all of this merges into a Personality. However this is a difficult question, whether a human is a Personality or how much of this he or she could be. Or maybe we are just a clot of socio-cultural influences during our life experience.
Here I need to talk about my own conception of how the worldview and worldview of each subject is constructed in general. Within this system, I think there are certain axioms that every subject, the individual, accepts for himself. These axioms can be designated as Kant's antinomies, among them is the question of the existence or non-existence of God, the question of the existence or non-existence of the spiritual world, whether there is only a material world or whether there is a material and spiritual world, and the question of if there is a spiritual world, which is higher, the material or the spiritual, and here logically it follows that if you have recognized the spiritual, it would probably be higher than the material material world.
And another question that rests on the axiom is the question of where we are going, that is, whether man is degenerating with the course of history or evolving or stagnating.
This question is naturally tethered to the question of spirit, because if spirit is and spirit is higher, you recognize evolution or degradation or stagnation only in the system of spirit. We can say that materially we do evolve in something, although this is also debatable, it may be a conditional development, but spiritually we can also either evolve or degrade. Again, I am not saying anything new, in fact I am postulating the Christian worldview that spiritually we degenerate. There is spiritual degradation after the fall into sin, and material degradation is secondary.
In these axioms I have made up my mind. I accept the axiom that there is a God, I accept the axiom that the world is degrading, spiritual in the first place, and I accept that there is a spiritual world. From these axioms my worldview is constructed. And each subject, in answering these axiomatic questions for himself, can neither refute nor confirm his answer. Each subject, accepting these or those axioms, builds his picture of the world, and in this respect you should be ironic about other positions, because you should understand that your worldview, as well as the worldview of others, is based on irrefutable and simultaneously unsupported axioms.
And another question that rests on the axiom is the question of where we are going, that is, whether man is degenerating with the course of history or evolving or stagnating.
This question is naturally tethered to the question of spirit, because if spirit is and spirit is higher, you recognize evolution or degradation or stagnation only in the system of spirit. We can say that materially we do evolve in something, although this is also debatable, it may be a conditional development, but spiritually we can also either evolve or degrade. Again, I am not saying anything new, in fact I am postulating the Christian worldview that spiritually we degenerate. There is spiritual degradation after the fall into sin, and material degradation is secondary.
In these axioms I have made up my mind. I accept the axiom that there is a God, I accept the axiom that the world is degrading, spiritual in the first place, and I accept that there is a spiritual world. From these axioms my worldview is constructed. And each subject, in answering these axiomatic questions for himself, can neither refute nor confirm his answer. Each subject, accepting these or those axioms, builds his picture of the world, and in this respect you should be ironic about other positions, because you should understand that your worldview, as well as the worldview of others, is based on irrefutable and simultaneously unsupported axioms.
I was showing the exhibition to a writer today and he made an interesting point about the exhibition that I really liked. ‘To a certain extent, God sort of looks at his creations and looks at how people got things done, how they were able to overcome their own inner damage and how they were able to do something’. That's an interesting interpretation. What is close to me is that the viewer can form his or her own feeling and then become familiar with the concept that the author offers. Art should speak for itself, without any text, because it can and should do so. ‘A true work bears the imprint of the spirit and it will reveal itself in spite of....’
Solo exhibition at CCI Fabrika, Ivan Florensky, Moscow, 2022
I once did a tour of places of power in the Teply Stan area [area in Moscow – ed.], where we are now. There's a thermal power plant, a gas station, most of the places I know personally and I took pictures of them myself. There are a few shots I got from movies, documentaries, such as one about nuclear power plants, one about travel and a story from Apatite, but most I photographed myself.
By the way, one work is called ‘Homage DL’ stands for ‘Homage to David Lynch’ because it was taken from one of David Lynch's photographs. Speaking of pipes and the origins of creativity and internal construction, in many ways I was influenced by directors like David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kuarismäki, three names that I would highlight first and foremost. The aesthetics of emptiness and the industrial landscape are very evident in all three of them, but primarily in David Lynch.
By the way, one work is called ‘Homage DL’ stands for ‘Homage to David Lynch’ because it was taken from one of David Lynch's photographs. Speaking of pipes and the origins of creativity and internal construction, in many ways I was influenced by directors like David Lynch, Jim Jarmusch and Aki Kuarismäki, three names that I would highlight first and foremost. The aesthetics of emptiness and the industrial landscape are very evident in all three of them, but primarily in David Lynch.
Specifically, why the pipe, I would attribute it to an intuitive perception. There is no rational explanation. These are subjective symbolic and semantic structures that just somehow somehow felt and felt to me. Not because the pipe is a symbol of human consumption, but simply, apparently, their energy, energy, metaphysics resonated in me.
K: In many of your works there is an emptiness, a night, an evening, dark colors, but there is a glimmer of hope, at least according to my personal feeling. So, for you, is there more hope or darkness around you? I mean not only your art works, but in general. What is your personal mood for the future, is it more optimistic, based on these glimmers of hope, or not?
I: It could be phrased as ‘pessimism about this world and optimism about the celestial one’. Where this world is our, material world, the world of things, and the celestial world is the world of the spirit, the world of ideas. I don't have any optimistic views about the former, but I do have optimistic views about the spirit world and how one can become part of a spiritual and luminous world and bring that light into the world that is basically filled with pessimism.
About the work, yes, you said it well, that hope is felt and it is everywhere. And I don't think there's anything wrong with darkness, that night. In general, even though all the landscapes are kind of depressing, in any case it's important for me to see aesthetics and beauty in something so unsightly, maybe even philistine, more negative than positive. And in the text, I write that to be able to see beauty even in the unsightly is to be able to see the potency for the beautiful, for becoming a beautiful person and for the transformation of both the person and the world following it.
K: Is there still hope for this transformation in our world?
I: There is always hope, of course. In principle, my exhibition is deeply Christian and postulates a profound Christian understanding of being, where our world is doomed to fall, which must happen sooner or later, and then rebirth and transformation happen. I am not saying anything new here, but I am postulating my Christian Orthodox worldview, which says that there will be the second advent, the end of this world and the beginning of a new spiritual world. So naturally there is hope.
K: Is there still hope for this transformation in our world?
I: There is always hope, of course. In principle, my exhibition is deeply Christian and postulates a profound Christian understanding of being, where our world is doomed to fall, which must happen sooner or later, and then rebirth and transformation happen. I am not saying anything new here, but I am postulating my Christian Orthodox worldview, which says that there will be the second advent, the end of this world and the beginning of a new spiritual world. So naturally there is hope.