GTBT Start Introduction Itinary Outro
Romanian artist Alin Naidin made a work through which he wanted to put to the test a contemporary myth of the people of Siberia. In his exhibition he showed a sequence of small black and white photos, visual records of a conversation with young shaman Dimitriy Jakovlef. In the project room one could hear fragments of the conversation, of the artist and the shaman exchanging experiences.
It started with an experience of the artist who, after outside exercises on the first morning of his stay at Olkhon, was in a deep need for water. At that moment the shaman woke up from a dream in which he had seen someone in panic. He went outside, met the thirsty guy in front of his home and gave him water. This rare experience was commemorated by the artist in his exhibition, which had at its centre a glass of water on a white pedestal. The artist emphasizes that through his work he wanted to expose the myth of the shaman and his special powers. It seems a paradoxical intention, considering how the encounter with the shaman came about. The conversation between the artist and the shaman, as it could be seen and overheard through the visual and aural records, was a talk between two strangers who are on their way to get to know each other. At the end the artist explains his theory of the circle. On Alin Naidin's theory, Hungarian artist Janos Sugar has remarked, that it is 'complicated, semi scientific, a bit obsessive, and totally subjective'. In his view it is a special case of an artist's theory.
Looking back at this exhibition, it could be argued that it emphasized the primal sensorial experience that preceeds thinking. The glass on the pedestal referred to the moment when the artist and the shaman shared the water, in an almost sacred moment. Viewers were invited to suspend disbelief and to acknowlede that there is more between heaven and earth.
