Andrei Bilzho

That's not all

In terms of personality, aesthetic approach and breadth of genre repertoire, Andrey Bilzho ideally corresponds to notions of the contemporary artist as an individual who lives in an ever-expanding world of signs, symbols, emblems, chance remarks and incomprehensible visual images, yet is also aware that their inner content requires constant creative endeavor.

Simply living in this world is insufficient. We should carefully and painstakingly render this world habitable, as light-heartedly and humanly as possible, by dismantling genre barriers with confidence but with minimal noise, commotion and thunderous declaration, by fearlessly disregarding cultural hierarchies.

For many years Andrey Bilzho has been doing just that. As he draws pictures, devises animated movies, writes texts, performs songs he composed himself or sits at a table with his numerous friends.

Giving birth to a hero of modern folklore, developing, rearing, nurturing and finally releasing him is a rare feat. But Bilzho has succeeded. Our universal acquaintance Petrovich, whose proud profile can be spotted in any crowd, has now become such a hero — undoubtedly one of the ’heroes of our time’. He lives and will continue to live an independent existence, whatever may happen to his creator, to us, to this country.

Bilzho is one of those people who clearly perceive that the most productive and ’effective’ artistic strategy is based on an extremely open but also very tense relationship with reality. His previous experience as a practising psychiatrist brings to this strategy an additional colour that is both striking and persuasive.

Lev Rubinstein

Close