The Labyrinth and "DE...ISM"

by Roman Hankevych
From: Press-release for project "The Labyrinth", Center for Contemporary Art, Kyiv (1999)

Vasyl Bazhaj's project "Labyrinth" continues the action of the same name held in February, 1998 at the Palace of Arts in Lviv. The clear combination of installation, painting and performance always draws the artist's interest and affects the most important areas of individual's consciousness and unconscious. The dialogue between the form of the art work and the unconscious essence of the individual's Self continues, now in new form.

Unlike the previous general notion of the Labyrinth as the symbol of the mysticism of the works of contemporary art, the attention is directed towards the problem of the mysticism of the Creator, Demiurge. The recipient is given the "test opportunity" to solve the mysterious essence of the ENTRY, the process of ADVANCEMENT through the passages of the labyrinth and its OUTLET. This process appears to us as an attempt of creation.

In fact the recipient creates works for himself. They differ from the works-for-themselves which were presented on the exhibition "Piano-Forte" in 1996 because at that time they were considered to be self-sufficient, without the need for the physical presence of the man. Now the situation has changed a little - starting from the Marcel Duchamp's notion of "ready-made", Bazhaj observes the gradual birth of the work. Since 1995 the exhibitions of Vasyl Bazhaj are characterized by the crystalline purity. It was present in previous exhibitions as well, however it was often contiguous with the state of reflection and yearning. Why to reflect the environment if it is already the copy itself? The artist understands this postulate and goes deep into creation of the new forms. You come to each Bazhaj's exhibition and feel your own presence is unnecessary. You've rudely burst into terra incognita, or more precisely into prohibited zone having ignored the threatening "Danger! High tension!" Want we it or not, but in this is the very essence of the clear idea. Our Self is not ready for this.

The feeling of the childish frankness, clearness, chastity comes through the whole structure of the Labyrinth which is just waiting for the rude material interference. It is this interference which we create by our thoughts. Actually the question is asked not by the artist, but by the ready work created by him, the artist just observes the process. The answer comes later and slowly, but in the process of its search occurs the reaction which the chemists might call the filtration - worthless, narrow-minded individuals don't find it, they go away with desperate arm gesture, delivering the space for the adherents of the contemporary creation of the forms.