Konstantin Batynkov, Sergey Shekhovtsov / Football

About the exhibition

Konstantin Batynkov, Sergei Shekhovtsov

Football

Curators: Olga Sviblova, Anna Zaitseva, Maria Lavrova

The works specially created for the MAMM exhibition by Konstantin Batynkov and Sergei Shekhovtsov are united by the theme of football, which long ago overstepped the boundaries of an ordinary game of sport. It has become an important cultural, social and economic phenomenon, a battleground between past, present and future.

In the new series of paintings Konstantin Batynkov combines the legacy of the Russian avant-garde – first of all, Alexander Labas – with the aesthetics of the black and white TV picture, which he remembered when still a child as something that gathers people together, those who are close and not so close.

Sergei Shekhovtsov’s work references the Soviet sculptural group ‘Footballers’ (1938) by Iosif Chaikov, known for its complex composition. Using polyurethane foam as material, Shekhovtsov rethinks the monumental image of football players and renders it as a semi-abstract form reaching beyond the boundaries of earthly space.