Photo: Artist Roman Minin (day.kyiv.ua)

A Ukrainian from Donbass, whose paintings on a mining theme easily go under the hammer at the world's main auctions and adorn famous collections, gave an exclusive interview to Styler

Last year, Roman Minin entered the top ten best-selling Ukrainian artists over the past five years. In the summer of 2015, his work “Donetsk Metro Generator” was bought at Sotheby’s for $11,500.

Roman, born in the Donbass into a family of miners, is known primarily as the author of works on mining topics.

“From early childhood, my dad took me to the mine, showed me who worked there, how and why. He was probably sure that I would be a miner, and that’s why he told me everything in advance. I don’t even know exactly what generation I’m a miner from, but at least starting from my grandparents,” says Minin in an interview.

For the Donetsk region, mining is not only an industry, but also a way of life. The novel took the miner's theme as the basis for his painting and stained glass - as a metaphor for a closed social system that prohibits exit.

A few days ago, the artist presented his works at the opening of Kyiv Art Week, where journalists had the opportunity to talk to him.

Roman, you are rightfully considered one of the best artists in Ukraine. What is the key to success?

You could say it happened naturally. I simply did not resist the course of events. The choice to be an artist was natural, like a natural phenomenon. Even as a child, they called me an artist, because I drew more or less well. And then it turned out that I was the best in the city. Well, later it became clear that I don’t stand out so much in the region, and now I’m not the last one in Ukraine either.

At one of the competitions, while still a schoolboy, I overdid it. I was 11-12 years old, and I had already painted an oil painting and brought it to the office where all the paintings for the competition were collected. They thought it was an office painting and it was not included in the competition.

Photo: Painting by Roman Minin “Carpet of Promises”

I have been purposefully developing my own style since 2007. Now it's stained glass. The main thing here is also not to overdo it and not to strain too much. The main thing is to find what you do best. And this, by the way, does not always immediately come to everyone. You just need to be confident in yourself and understand what not others like, but you.

This is probably one of the recipes for the path to yourself. After all, there are people who are born, say, watercolor painters. They have talent, they feel this material, like I feel stained glass. This also needs to be understood, calmed down and accepted. Another thing is that many follow fashion, catch modern trends in order to be in demand. But I know many cases when talented guys do everything newfangled, but at the same time they are not at all “theirs”, and do not feel any joy from their work.

Are stained glass windows a reinterpretation of an old genre?

I really like stained glass windows. Another thing is that many people are not in a hurry to understand what I do. Many people associate this with the style of the 70s. The Soviet style is an aftertaste that will remain in the air for some time. But there will come a time when people will understand that my mining theme is a rebranding, a rethinking. I put a completely different content into the paintings: on the contrary, I want to clear the archetypes of miners from communist propaganda, to create my own fairy tale, which will be written in a monumental and decorative language.

In Soviet times, monumental and decorative art was given a different, propaganda meaning. What now to do with the old mosaics on the walls of houses, in passages and at bus stops?

The plasticity of monumental and decorative language is very traditional in itself and comes to us from the distant Byzantine period. This is the language of sacred paintings, which has been developed over centuries. In Soviet times, the genre was greatly exploited: propaganda tools were created in the language of monumental and decorative art.

Photo: “On the contrary, I want to clear the archetypes of miners from communist propaganda and create my own fairy tale” - Roman Minin (instagram.com/mininproject)

I would suggest redoing them and then creating something else, rather than just covering them with plaster. I am not against decommunization, but, on the contrary, I am glad about this process. It seems to me that even the air in space changed when all these monuments to Lenin were removed. I wish the same for Russia. It would be good for them to “sweep” their place on Red Square, and maybe then everyone will feel better and it will be easier to communicate with each other. What I mean is that the monumental and decorative mosaics of the USSR should not be destroyed. After all, it’s not the genre’s fault that it was exploited.

How are your paintings on the theme of Donbass perceived now?

Over the past two years, I have received attention for a number of reasons. Many simply understood the content of my paintings. This is especially true for the “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region”. After all, I didn’t follow the trend, but created a series of “miner’s” works since 2007. And now, in light of the latest events in Donbass, many have begun to understand that this is not without reason. It's been almost ten years since I was noticed. But these are basic laws of nature, this is a common thing. It seems to me that in my case the process of understanding the “mining” topic by society is just beginning.

The "miner" theme is a good way to show the life of Donbass to future generations.

I don’t know how long this topic will live. It is also difficult to say whether the next generations will use these archetypes. Of course, use it in a good way. After all, each of us is happy when someone needs us. And every artist who openly and quite consciously says “I don’t care what they think of me” is actually unconsciously striving to be needed by someone in society.

I would like my native land, Donbass, to consider my paintings as their own. So that they would say, “Here, this is an artist who shows our life.”

It takes a lot of work to create such an archetype. But life is worth at least trying.

How do you think the perception of Donbass is changing now?

It changes when different contexts replace each other, primarily political ones. During the time of Yanukovych, many people distrusted the region, and the context was a thriving criminal romance. Now the context is different, very dramatic. We are experiencing different waves of events, and in the future Donbass will also be perceived differently. Time will tell how exactly. And my works only prolong the life of the traditional genre - the life of miners, again.

One of my works is called "The Reward for Silence." In its very center there is an eye - a symbol of a unique point of view. I value a person’s outlook more than their point of view. After all, when a person has a broad outlook, it is very difficult to impose some small point of view on him. But, let’s say, it is very beneficial for the government that everyone has their own point of view. It is a convenient social management tool. Don't be afraid to change your point of view, don't be ashamed of it. After all, it can be your mental trap. For example, 90% of people from the Donetsk region have their own point of view...

Should Ukrainians change their perception of themselves?

We are shaped by the psychology of the society in which we live. Many got used to the fact that no one needed us, that they wanted to sneeze on us. That rich people are only those who steal, and if you work honestly, you will never earn money. This influences others, and they begin to think the same way.

These social clichés distinguish our mentality from some London aristocrats, among whom other traditions are cultivated. Why do we want to go to Europe? Because we want to be respected. Join those who are respected. In my opinion, in their aspirations for the fullness of life, all people are the same, and all races are the same. Only the paths to happiness are different, religions are different, history is different.

What can help our country in this sense?

I think we all need to travel more. By traveling, Ukrainians will develop. At one time I sat still for a long time, and then I started traveling around the world - and I felt this huge difference. After all, sitting on the shore of the Black Sea in the lotus position - this euphoria and desire to live are somehow not enough. But immersion in the world puts everything in its place. There should always be an effect of chance in our lives. It is important in creativity, because it is impossible to come up with everything on your own: you have to catch something on the fly. I myself value ideas that accidentally “fell” from above more. This is openness to the world, this is a kind of practice of catching ideas. It turns out, catching ideas with live bait.

Photo: “When a person has a broad outlook, it is very difficult to impose some small point of view on him” - Roman Minin (Vitaly Nosach, website)

And the phenomenon when an artist’s paintings begin to be “accepted” much later is normal. After all, different genres of art live in time. Music lives in the shorter, because the song lasts three to four minutes. But visual art exists in a different time space: a painting lives for at least 5-6 years. That is, only after 5-6 years will the artist’s work be noticed. I would advise artists to wait five years, and during this time quietly pursue their favorite style, without demanding attention. But if after five years nothing works out, then you need to change your profession.

But during these five years you have to earn your living somehow.

Yes, this is a difficult process. But it can be easy when you have rich parents and apartments. This is usually how people engage in art: they are majors who have a good financial background. They can afford to create paintings. We often hear from artists that art should be non-commercial. You can shout left and right that money doesn’t matter; you can’t do this without financial help.

Yes, I also know poor people, artists who live on the streets - and they are still very altruistic. But 90% are still just posers. For me, money matters: it is the freedom of my realization. For example, art fairs are a precedent when anyone who comes to them invests in art. It may be a drop in the ocean, but this is how art develops. This is how Ukraine should develop: drop by drop.

How can this development process be accelerated?

It is much easier to be skeptical of various kinds of exhibitions, to support them, than to buy paintings. A skeptical attitude does not develop, but is ballast. We all need to learn to respect what is happening in our country. If we don’t respect each other and everything that is here, we simply won’t go anywhere, we won’t end up anywhere. We will not be respected.

Photo: “It’s much easier to be skeptical about exhibitions than to support them, than to buy paintings” - Roman Minin (bit.ua)

The most active skeptics have been abroad for a long time. No matter what happens here, they have their own house there, there is somewhere to go, to escape - and from there to criticize everything that is happening. And those who remain here will spit at themselves. It's like playing punk: spitting into the sky, but not knowing who the spit will fall on.

I think that we need to gradually change our intra-social relationships and learn to accept each other for who we are. The hope, of course, is for the new generation. But he will not develop without the help of the older generation. People should already give way entirely to the young, and not try with all their might to stay in power themselves. This is ordinary relationship psychology. Everything is the same, the same laws of nature are everywhere.

How to revive art in small towns? After all, there seem to be enough cultural events in the capital, but in a village or town a hundred kilometers from Kyiv, no exhibitions are expected.

You can consider a way out of this situation using the example of one family. How to get one of the children to start doing creative work, and then they all gradually get involved? So that they have some kind of creativity day at least once a year, and then this becomes a tradition for the whole city? In the apartment where the family lives, first of all, it should be convenient to engage in creativity. So that no one screams if suddenly the son splashes the wallpaper, and the daughter stains the table with plasticine. We need to create an environment in which no one would say, “Damn, why are you fooling around?” and in which the concept is cultivated that creativity is normal, interesting, and is by no means a stupid activity.

After that - moral support, and then financial support. When a child says: “Dad, I want a big canvas,” they buy it. Then there will be development. The same thing happens in the city, in the microdistrict. For example, I would start with one yard. There must be a garage or a club there. And it contains paint and some other materials. And if Uncle Kolya also has shoe covers that he will give to children so that their pants don’t get dirty, then that’s generally good. And then grandpa will come to paint the bench. And if there are several colors available, he will be able to decorate it. We all have the desire to decorate, and when it begins to happen naturally - not for money - then people begin to change.

Photo: “We need to learn to accept each other as we are” - Roman Minin (Vitaly Nosach, website)

And believe me, if it is possible to write on fences, three-letter words will appear, but less and less often. It gets boring quickly. Moreover, if drawing on the walls is not prohibited. When one teenager sees that four other teenagers have drawn something complex and beautiful, the first one will no longer write an obscene word.

How to look for young talents? After all, often in small towns the jury is just acquaintances of acquaintances.

It is necessary to propose a professional jury every time. These should not be secretaries, but competent people who understand art. And under no circumstances should you suppress your enthusiasm. This is the most expensive thing we have. Enthusiasm is so natural, and when it manifests itself, it must be supported by all means, or even provoked. And God forbid they launder money using this enthusiasm! I was once asked a question about how street art could be dangerous. And the fact that money can be “laundered” on it.

How?

The fact is that there are documents on pricing of monumental and decorative paintings that migrated to independent Ukraine from the USSR. A lot of money is “laundered” using these documents. My team and I have been organizing a street art festival since 2007, but when I found out how much money was in circulation, I lost the desire to do this for a long time until the government in Kharkov changed.

And it is impossible to prove these “mastering” of the budget: all the figures are official. Looting the budget is heavy ballast that will drag us all down for many years to come. And the worst thing is that all this is theft of time. While everyone is waiting for an opportunity, time is slipping away. After all, creating something useful, cool and of high quality is more ambitious and difficult than simply stealing it.

The artist, photographer, street artist, author of objects and installations, Roman Minin, fits the definition of “widely known in narrow circles.” Despite the fact that he is a prominent participant in the artistic process in Ukraine, the artist’s works have not taken part in all large-scale exhibition projects in recent years. This is due to the fact that artMininadid not mature in the territory of contemporary art, although now it is certainly a component of it, but rather is connected with the artistic tradition. In addition, his ethical views are often in opposition to the behavioral patterns and ideological norms accepted within the contemporary art community. The artist’s status, not without contradictions, stands out both against the backdrop of postmodernist artists, masters of the older generation, and against the backdrop of younger socially critical pragmatic artists, as if he is aloof from both the “classics” and the “critics,” thus striving to a new level of worldview.

Roman Minin is known primarily as the author of works on the mining theme. The artist managed to create not just an extremely large-scale cycle, but also a kind of anthology of miner’s life. For Minin, the image of a miner is not just a symbol, the meaning of which has a different range of metaphorical readings: from the symbol of the Christian feat of humility to the modern science of “Data Mining” - the search for information in the world of information, but claims to be, as the author himself puts it, an “anthropomorphic archetype” . At the same time, the artist’s works are truly social in nature and are a clear illustration of human exploitation in the capitalist market system. In 2008, his exhibition in Donetsk was closed with a big scandal; local officials then personally removed paintings from the walls of the Donetsk regional administration, complaining that Minin was defaming the “bright image” of the Ukrainian worker.

Roman Minin

Sergey KantsedalYou were born in the Donbass into a family of miners, how did it happen that you became an artist?

Roman Minin Since childhood, I had a knack for drawing and spent a lot of time doing this activity. At school, everyone decided that I was an artist, they decided for me - I didn’t do anything for it, but it was convenient for me, it helped me in life and became so harmonious with me that I didn’t resist. Moreover, I could draw anything and at any time of the year, no matter what. The only thing I didn't like to draw was tattoos.

- Did you ask?

Constantly. At that time, various criminal groups were very actively developing in Donetsk, in my case there were two local associations, and everyone had to choose which of them you belonged to, including me. But I didn’t run with anyone and didn’t choose anyone, because I’m an artist (laughs).

- How did you start drawing miners?

From early childhood, my dad took me to the mine, showing me what, how and why it works there. He was probably sure that I would be a miner and that’s why he told me everything in advance. I don’t even know exactly in which generation I am a miner, but at least, starting from my grandparents, everyone was a miner.

Not long ago, a drawing was discovered in the things of my late grandmother, which clearly shows that without a coal combine and miners underground, the picture of the world does not add up, you need to be born with it.

Children's drawing. 1985

- And when you were already at a conscious age, when did you first turn to this topic?

The first work about miners appeared in 2004 thanks to the Orange Revolution. I painted a picture of miners sitting and looking at campaign leaflets, wondering who they should vote for, but something was missing. Then I added the inscription: “To slaughter or to binge?” The result was both a poster and a painting, where a rather primitive drawing was supplemented with text.

To slaughter or to binge? From the series “Miner's folklore”. 2007-2011

- If I’m not mistaken, it was because of this painting that your exhibition in Donetsk was scandalously closed? Why?

It was an act of censorship, a vestige of communism. After the exhibition closed, there were also commissioned articles, which many, oddly enough, believed. Here, people are more willing to believe in “horror stories” that, having sold one job, I can feed 12 mining families for a whole year, and at the same time I throw mud at them - this nonsense can be found on the Internet.

- How do miners perceive your work? Surely they don't like it?

Of course not. Because in order for the miners to like it, you need to make art not about the miners, but for the miners.

Miner's Day. From the series “Miner's folklore”. 2007-2011

- What role does tradition play for you in art?

Man has created decorative patterns that are associated with the place where they were created, and are authentic, carry important information, in which I see something more than just squares and triangles - this is not even a language of symbols, but the language of nature, the language of antiquity. There is nothing deeper and smarter in fine art.

The creation of an anthropomorphic archetype, which I do, is also somewhat of a folklore tradition. For example, I create the miner archetype because I was born in the Donbass. If a person lived in a lighthouse and fished all his life, his archetype would be with a tail and fins (laughs).

The last fight for love. From the series “Miner's folklore”. 2007-2011

- For you, a miner is not just an image, it’s more of a symbol, isn’t it?

This is a symbol that doesn't exist. But he couldn’t disappear with the collapse of the USSR - people remained, miners remained, but the symbol died? It turns out that with my art I was looking for this symbol to find a way out of the current situation in which he found himself, a situation of losing his bearings. However, I wanted not only to give it a new impetus, but also to give it a more global meaning, to make it an archetype of a cosmopolitan character.

If I didn't see people who are talented, but they are miners, I wouldn't be doing this. I see in this a feat of Christian humility and a philosophical outlook on life, a simple attitude towards oneself that can be contrasted with individualism. Every film now awakens this inflamed self in a person, the search for happiness, no matter what, in all possible ways: do what you want, but you simply have to be happy. This does not apply to miners; they, it seems to me, do not possess this inflamed self.

- I remember Andrei Tarkovsky, who said that “there are things in life that are more important than happiness.”

Yes, you could even say that the miners sacrifice themselves. The fact is that previously everyone’s personal happiness was put into the common fund. I’m talking about this without nostalgia, it’s just good when there are such social relationships between people, and a person is ready to sacrifice something for the common good.

If you look at the first part of Vladimir Molchanov’s film “Slaughter,” filmed in the early 90s during the so-called “miner’s revolutions,” then the miners there look like full-fledged members of society. They fight for their rights and are not afraid of anyone. In the second part, filmed recently, the miners are intimidated and afraid of everything, as if they had become slaves. It turns out that they were not slaves then, but now they are.

From the series “Creed”. 2010

Don’t you think that the situation in which miners find themselves in Ukraine should be criticized using art as a tool of struggle?

During the period when I was working on the series of paintings “Miner's Folklore”, I was filled with love more than now, I wanted to more quickly justify the actions of the miners. If they live like this, then there is some meaning in it, I tried to find this meaning and love what they do. And the series of photographs “Burn everything with a blue flame” or “Donetskus bacillus” represents a more critical look at what is happening; here I wanted to create an aesthetic picture, but with a more manifest political overtones.

From the series “Burn everything with a blue flame.” 2012

Let's trace the chronology of the “mining cycle”. It turns out that from the large-scale paintings of “Miner’s Folklore”, which are quite traditional in formal design and not devoid of narrative, you came to an artistic generalization of the works of the “Symbol of Faith” series, where the image of a miner becomes more symbolic?

In the “Symbol of Faith” series, the image of a miner acquires a pronounced sacred character, becomes a concrete symbol, a symbol of faith, not religion, but faith.

From the series “Creed”. 2010

Then you began working on the project “Plan of Escape from the Donetsk Region”, in which you turn not only and not so much to the image of a miner, but to the topic of escape, which has been unusually relevant lately for Ukraine, which makes us consider this project in a sense separately from the cycle of work on a mining theme. Do not you think so?

Yes, the theme of escape is more international.

- Could you outline the boundaries of this project?

There is none of them. The most important work is the diptych “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region,” consisting of two multi-figure graphic compositions. This work contains the main idea of ​​the project, which needs to be conveyed to the viewer, which is very difficult to do now, because there are many distracting moments. In this sense, replication of this work helps me in this. The rest of the project’s works rather accompany it, helping to make the viewer find themselves in another reality, in the Donetsk reality.

Escape plan from the Donetsk region. 2012

What about shocking? As part of the project “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region”, you proposed that the Donetsk “pharaohs” organize a magnificent funeral in waste heaps, for which you created sketches of sarcophagi, which you showed at the exhibition.

Sarcophagi are not shocking, shocking is making a three-meter ball of dung and, dressed in a beetle costume, rolling it towards Kyiv (laughs).

Sketches of sarcophagi for Donetsk pharaohs.

- “The plan to escape from the Donetsk region” is not without hoaxes, just look at the encrypted inscriptions...

As a child, I really loved scrambling letters and inventing a language that no one understood, it's a cool and interesting game. And everyone has their own escape plan, and therefore must be secret, so I encrypted it, although in fact in terms of complexity it is the first degree of encryption and, if desired, the texts in the works can be easily read.

From the project “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region.” 2012

Is it safe to say that you occupy, in a sense, a separate place in the context of contemporary art, remaining as if aloof from the processes taking place in it?

Yes, I think that this position is in some ways stronger. When, in the 17th century, ships loaded with paintings sailed to capture colonies on behalf of the Catholic Church, already at that time art served some kind of power, in this case religion. It has always been this way. Now is no exception, maybe someone doesn’t know about it, but I know it and I never forget about it. In that case, I want to play this game, not exactly by my own rules, but at least not by theirs.

In socially engaged art, for example, there are many of its own rules, as well as interesting techniques and findings, artistic, but primarily psychological, that can be borrowed. Now psychology has begun to play a leading role in contemporary art, contemporary art is a cocktail, and the result depends on how much politics, psychology and artistic inventions we pour into it. I also use the techniques of such a cocktail, but I’m interested in making my own cocktail. This can easily be explained using a metaphor. For example, a new bar has opened on the corner, where they prepare a cocktail that includes vodka, coffee and milk. After this, several more similar bars open in the city, serving the same cocktail. Then again and again, a large number of people go to these bars and the cocktail is popular. However, I am interested in preparing a cocktail according to my own recipe, meeting my own, if not numerous, but regular clients, and being sure that they need exactly what only I make. This approach is in many ways more promising.

From the project “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region.” 2012

Are you also one of those artists who doesn’t have a complex about the love of drawing, even though it’s no longer fashionable, to put it mildly?

This is not fashionable here. The problem is that the world is very big and what is not needed here is not always not needed at all. There are a lot of people in the world who draw well, but we don’t understand that every art has its own audience. We constantly think, what is right in art? Yes, that's right, do everything. If you want to make contemporary art, do it, but don’t interfere with the guys with their sketchbooks. This is a completely different sport, why don’t football players and tennis players conflict, they are friends because they play different sports, and we have a binary everywhere, this is good, this is bad, etc.

- There are many references to Christianity in your works about miners. How religious are miners?

The miners are religious, because there are no atheists in the trenches under fire. However, I would rather call them not religious, but believers. There is no doubt that faith is needed, but with religion it is a controversial issue. If we compare, for example, the Franciscans and the Benedictines, the former are more like believers, and the latter are more like religious ones. I can talk about this because I spent several years painting churches and saw church life from the inside, I saw a lot of good things and a lot of things that I don’t even want to talk about.

Sketch for the painting of a memorial complex dedicated to the dead miners. 2008

- Lately you have been actively involved in photography...

In photography I like to balance between reality and illusion, which I bring to it through the images I put on film. It turns out that this is neither reality nor a picture, but something in between, I would even say something third, that results from this combination.

- Did the Kharkov school of photography have any influence on you?

She influenced me in the sense of complete freedom with the work on the image, I appeal to her not as a photographer, but rather as an artist. In this sense, it certainly had an impact on me and showed me that photography can be used in completely different ways.

From the series “Donetskus bacillus”. 2012

You are also known as a street art artist, but, as far as I know, you would like, first of all, to be able to implement large-scale monumental murals about miners in urban space.

As Pushkin said, “The beautiful must be majestic.” My long-time dream is to create a syndicate of muralists in Ukraine, whose efforts could be united in order to engage in large-scale paintings in public spaces. In addition, I just really love monumental art, I like working with large-scale multi-figure compositions, but, unfortunately, it is very difficult to implement such projects in Ukraine.

- How many works with miners did you manage to implement?

Although I had many opportunities to paint miners on the walls, I did not do so because I did not see the right context for them. For example, in Kharkov, where I did a lot of work during street art festivals, in my opinion, such a symbol has no place.

Homer. 2010

Comment on the situation around the street art festival and with Kharkov street art in general (maybe it would be more correct to call it muralism). On the one hand, the authorities stopped giving permission to paint walls, and on the other, some representatives of the Kharkov art community developed a negative attitude towards street art. Could you comment on this situation?

As the experience of revolutions shows, it is always the minority who do not like it. However, when a minority speaks, it feels like it is coming from the masses. In fact, this is not a mass phenomenon, and the protest against Kharkov street art came from several people who are “at the helm” of mass consciousness in the media space of contemporary art. The fact that this is happening is actually a good sign, it indicates that the Kharkov street art movement has gained weight, attracting the attention of people whom it, to some extent, even pushed out in the information space, and they are trying to resist it, which in itself is normal.

Wanderer. 2011

Nothing further. We can say that in the end no one won, if in this case it is at all appropriate to talk about victory. Neither the artists who criticized it, because street art is no longer developing in Kharkov and there is no reason to talk on the Internet. Neither the artists who contributed to the development of this movement and who did not subsequently receive a platform for self-realization. Nor, especially, the government, which, having sanctioned a law from above, in connection with which each sketch must be approved by it, did not receive new ideas that could replace compositions with flowers and landscapes of old Kharkov. No one actually benefited from the disunity on this issue, but only wasted time. During this time, we could change the city so that it would move somewhere, so that new works would appear that could again mobilize artists not just to talk on the Internet, but to take action. One way or another, the street art festival, and this situation only emphasizes this, was a certain motivator - for some in one sense, for others in another.

I admit my mistake in that I called the festival incorrectly, I should have called it not a street art festival, but a muralism festival, but I started from the fact that this is a street art festival, in which not only artists should have taken part, Only artists “caught up.” I spoke about street art not as a form of social protest, but as street art, about muralism, which is characterized not by an illegal principle, but by work with the help of special devices and scaffolding.

From the series “Losers Dream of War.” 2010

- What are taboos in art associated with for you, first of all?

Do not hit the spectator below the belt. When you, for example, show a phallus to the viewer, then this is pure physiology, no matter who this person is, it always works. I deliberately do not use such methods of psychological attack, because I think that it is dishonest. For example, the performance of Marina Abramovich, when she sat opposite the viewer and looked into his eyes, is also pure physiology, or rather the impact on her. I am an artist of a different genre. In Ukrainian, fine art is translated as “image-creative mystecstvo”, this is a very good formulation and it suits me, I like to create images, and not tear out the soul from a person.

A work by Ukrainian artist Roman Minin was sold at Sotheby's for £7,500. The famous auctions of Sotheby's and Phillips are no longer new for Minin - Ukrainian and foreign collectors regularly buy his paintings under the hammer. And this is far from all that the young artist from the mining town of Dimitrov can boast of. Art blogger Evgenia Smirnova talked with Roman and tells his story.

“When I first sent the work to auction, I was a little overzealous with the packaging - it was beautiful, but it turned out to be heavy and could not withstand falling from the height of the loading conveyor belt onto the plane. As a result, the packaging was broken, the frame of the round work was damaged, and the painting was partially dented,” recalls Minin. – They sent me photographs of the work that had arrived at the auction, and I, of course, thought that the first thing was lumpy. But thanks to the help of friends in London, the painting was restored. No one knows who bought it at the auction, but the main thing is that they actually bought it. It was a nerve-wracking but rewarding experience for me.”

About the artist

Roman Minin grew up in a mining family in the small town of Dimitrov, Donetsk region. Studied at the Kharkov Academy of Design and Arts. Moreover, thanks to his innate artistic talent, he immediately entered the second year. Studying in Kharkov left its mark - Minin is often called a Kharkov artist. Although, the paintings that made him famous are dedicated to miners - those who surrounded him since childhood.

Minin’s work “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region” became a real breakthrough for modern young Ukrainian art in foreign markets, thanks to it the artist became known outside of Ukraine. Another painting, “The Big Bang Practice,” was sold at Contemporary East Sotheby’s auction in 2014 for $8,200 and brought even more laurels to the Ukrainian.

About creativity

If Roman Minin no longer experiments with beautiful packaging for his works, he conducts various experiments in his creativity. In addition to monumental art, he is close to street art, photography, and installation.

“Currently I’m working on stained glass windows with artificial lighting, trying new materials. These are expensive and technically challenging projects. In general, I like to deal with complex ideas,” admits the artist.

At the same time, he notes, many artists in Ukraine have to adapt, use things at hand or underfoot that are convenient to transport and easy to sell at minimal cost.

But this story is no longer for Roman; another art is close to him. “In the past, I have often used materials from landfills for my art, but I have always dreamed of working with quality materials and monumental projects. I like to paint walls and work with large planes. The more complex the project, the more interesting it is to me. When they trust me with difficult, expensive projects, that’s really the drive. I wanted this to happen more often,” he notes.

Roman Minin is no stranger to creative charity - this summer-autumn he, together with his colleagues Zhanna Kadyrova, Tanya Voitovich, Alevtina Kakhidze and the GAZ group, as part of the Small Heart with Art project, will be engaged in artistic painting of one of the buildings of the main children's hospital of Kyiv OKHMATDET. Large planes, a complex idea - everything the artist likes.

About the Ukrainian art market

Roman Minin praises his colleagues and assures that there are artists in Ukraine who can provide worthy competition on the international market. It’s just that now is not a very suitable time for the development of the domestic art market. They say that everyone is busy with politics, war and other more vital concerns. Nobody really cares about contemporary art.

“When I was in school, chewing gum first appeared on the market. But it’s one thing to chew gum that was chewed, stuck under desks and chewed again. Another thing is the earbuds. They collected them, soldered books to store them, and played on them. This was the market!”

“Figuratively speaking: when rich people buy “expensive chewing gum” for inserts in order to play and exchange them, then a gambling art market will appear. There are so many problems in Ukraine now that few people can afford to be a child, play art in public, and get carried away by it. This is one of the reasons for the scarcity of “flora” and “fauna” of Ukrainian art; we need appropriate “climatic conditions”. Before the war, of course, there were more patrons of the arts. Apparently, they have all left and are waiting for the right climate,” the artist sums up.

“When I invest my money in a project, it’s freedom, I don’t depend on anyone. If I collaborated with various grant institutions, to which I need to not only report, but also follow certain trends, I would not have this creative freedom.”

The artist Roman Minin is the son of a miner, he spent his entire childhood in Dimitrov near Donetsk, and has been living in Kharkov for more than 10 years. He was the first to raise the issue of Donetsk miners and create an archetype of this profession, mystifying the life of a miner.

His work “Escape Plan from the Donetsk Region,” based on miner symbols, was nominated for the PinchukArtCentre Prize, and “Reward for Silence,” also based on this issue, was recently successfully sold at the Phillips auction.

UP.Zhizn journalist Ekaterina Sergatskova talked with Minin about the mentality of Donetsk residents, the Kharkov protests and what art can do in the current situation.

You now live in Kharkov, but you yourself are originally from the Donetsk region. Something incredible is probably happening in your head in connection with all these events. What are you feeling now?

I feel life. At such moments, when the war is approaching, you begin to feel life more. I was in the park and noticed: there were more people there, people were somehow walking so friendly and desperately. As the last time.

When there were tense events in Kharkov, the city desperately resisted revolutionary events. Kharkov really wants to pretend that nothing is happening, to remain in a state of bourgeois well-being.

It is very difficult for Kharkov to somehow move from this point.

But it seems to me that people are the same everywhere, and in those regions where armed events are unfolding, people feel life, if death is at least somehow close. Maybe not mine, but the death of other people, but it could have been mine.

So I feel it too. In a sense, such tense situations force a person to make a choice or reassess his values. I think we have to get through this.

Of course, I am for a peaceful outcome to the conflict, I am against war, because war is poorly treated, but the threat of war is useful.

- Useful in what way?

People experienced life in all its aspects. We understood how you can change something, how to change yourself. Or there were friends, and then one day - and it turns out that the person is using this legal opportunity to quarrel with everyone else, because they have chosen some wrong path, and he has simply been waiting for this opportunity for a long time.

It sometimes shows people at their worst. They express themselves in such non-standard situations, this is useful.

- You are a native of Donbass. What are they thinking about, what are they worried about?

In Donetsk, the story is completely different from that of Kharkov, over which hangs the karma of petty-bourgeois, merchant prosperity.

In the 90s in the Donetsk region, people threw themselves into mines, and there were a lot of suicides. There was no electricity for weeks. In the city where I lived, there was no gas for eight years, and no electricity or water for weeks.

People kept goats and chickens on their balconies, and constantly went to wells to get water. There were so many of them that the water ran out there within two hours. People stood and waited for the water to flow again.

To buy bread you had to constantly ride a bicycle to different villages and wait in line.

In the 90s it was a terrible test for all people. This was not the case in Kharkov. They don't know what Donbass is.

At my school, everyone's father was a miner. There wasn't even a question about what your dad's job was. In Kharkov, naturally, life is completely different. They are accustomed to normal life. And in the Donetsk region they have seen everyone, you can’t scare them anymore. No war, nothing.

They willingly seize the initiative. Desperate people, you can’t argue with them later. But Kharkov is easy to scare, people are very passive, they sit in their holes and you can’t force them to act in either direction.

- Why do you think there is an explosion in Donbass now?

Of course, the 90s is one of the reasons. In my yard when I was little, there were twenty children, and they were all of different nationalities. For example, after the Second World War, my grandfather, originally from Belarus, was told to go to the mines or to prison for theft. After the war there were many such groups, small gangs.

How many thousands of people have been told this?

Donbass was formed from the entire Soviet Union, people were brought here. That's why there are no Ukrainians there. My dad always said: the only people who don’t work in the mine are gypsies, Jews and Ukrainians.

They had one Ukrainian at the site, and everyone pointed the finger at him because he didn’t want to work. Ukrainians have a different mentality; they don’t want to work in a mine - they save their energy for the garden.

After the mine they run to their site and process it with all their might. There have always been few Ukrainians in Donbass, it just so happens.

The imposition of the Ukrainian language, which has been happening all the time, is a very long process; there is no point in forcing such events. The memory of the Soviet Union, of fraternal peoples, of a large, strong country still lives on. Twenty years of poverty. Thieves, deputies and cops are leading us through the desert of poverty. We have been led for 20 years and will be led for another 20 years. Because it takes 40 years for generations to be reborn.

I talked with some cultural experts, and they believe that Donetsk people have no identity. What is your identity?

It’s really difficult for me to classify myself as someone else, because I was born in a country that doesn’t exist, then I grew up in a poverty-stricken region, and now I travel around the world, that is, I’m sort of a “man of the world.”

Of course, I would still like to have a homeland. And the older I get, the more I want to return to Donbass and do something useful for it. If there are any conditions to return to the region, I will return to spend the rest of my life there. Such thoughts are already appearing.

In general, the Donetsk region is something that evokes fear and disgust, hatred and contempt in people. It disgusts me when they say that there are no talented people in Donbass, that there are only idiots there.

This offends me, because this is not so, and the image of Donbass is artificially created as a bunch of cattle, which can only be surrounded by barbed wire. It is a difficult task to change this attitude.

But I like challenging tasks.

- What would you do if you went to Donbass?

I would work with children. Public art, the environment in which children grow up.

- How have recent events affected your work?

I have already done a lot of work that is dedicated to this. I write poems and songs; I came up with a lot during this period. I never wanted to pick up a machine gun and go to defend myself; I never wanted to kill people.

I want to talk to them, explain, show them, but now people brought up with Internet thinking receive chewed-up information and are used to it.

A complex picture that needs to be thought about is perceived differently, in contrast to photoshopped photos, which people need more. They make political advertisements against Yanukovych or against Tymoshenko, some specific direct statements. But the statement needs to be objective.

Both of them have horns and tails, and you also need to be able to see your own people with horns and tails.

It is important to see the process from two points of view. Look not with one eye, but with two.

I have a work called “The Reward for Silence”, which is exactly about this. In the center there is one eye - a point of view that ruins everything.

To see the distance to an object, the volume, you need two eyes. We are not one-eyed, which means that any problem must be looked at from two points of view. It is very important. Try to make works of art that will not praise or offend anyone, but show the middle. Because the truth is always in the middle. We must hit between. This makes sense to me.

Truth is such a thing that when you start talking about it, it immediately disappears and becomes different. This is an elusive constant, it is impossible to catch it, it does not like to be uttered. You pointed your finger at the truth, but it is no longer there.

You need to strive for it. In my understanding, this is a parallax vision of the problem - listening to both those news and others, at a minimum. We must listen to each other and make peace. And those who want war close one eye to us.

- What does Ukraine need to do to understand Donbass?

Just listen. Interview not only me, but many people, read these interviews to the end. People don't want to understand. Why don't they want to? The question must be posed this way.

- Why do you think?

Because if they begin to understand, they will have to agree with them.

35-year-old Roman Minin is among the top 10 best-selling Ukrainian artists, and today he is the most expensive among young artists and the most promising according to Forbes. Its main theme is the mythologization of miners and their life, since Roman is from the Donetsk region, although he has lived in Kharkov since 1998, and graduated from an art school and design academy there. His exhibitions are held in galleries in Poland, Norway, Switzerland, Italy, and Britain. His paintings are also at world auctions Phillips and Sotheby's, and his work "Donetsk Metro Generator" was sold at the latter for $11,400. Last year, at the Art Prize competition in Grand Rapids in the USA, his stained glass window "Carpet of Promises" (16 x 24 m) was in the top 25 out of 1500 works. Donald Trump’s advisers during his election campaign, the route of which ran through this town, advised the future president to speak against the backdrop of Minin’s “Carpet,” which he did.

— Roman, why do you think Trump’s assistants chose your stained glass window? “A carpet of promises” is what any politician lays out for his voters?

— I don’t think that the PR people delved into the essence and title of the work: they liked that it was bright and eye-catching. A promise is a tool of manipulation. People even go to war not because they want to kill someone, but because they were promised something for it. Promises rule the world. They must, of course, be exaggerated, exaggerated and painted with bright colors. All politicians promise something, but as for Poroshenko, he is a champion in this, a real maestro of unfulfilled promises.

— What was the reaction of the audience to your work?

- "Wow!" And if you explain the meaning, some began to cry, because in the center of the “Carpet” there is a window to heaven - what we are promised after death. I didn’t want to show everything that we have in Ukraine, I depicted only the most beautiful things - promises. It was great that in this town, instead of lessons, schoolchildren kept diaries of the competition, interviewed artists and gave points. As a result of the children's assessments, I was in the top three. But no commercial proposals have been received - they are strongly focused on their own people, you have to live there: investments are made in a long-term and stable project. And the “Carpet of Promises” was later bought in London at Phillips auction.

Painting "Carpet of Desires". Photo: buyart.gallery

— Tell me how the British street art star Banksy transferred 1000 pounds sterling to you?

- He liked my work “Homer with Homer” (an image on the wall of an ancient Greek poet who, looking in the mirror, sees the reflection of an animated Homer Simpson - the picture has become an online meme. - Author). At that time, I was wandering around Kharkov in search of work and money. Suddenly Banksy’s assistants wrote that he noticed this thing and wanted to print it on posters. They offered 1000 pounds - I agreed. My family and I lived on this money for four months.

— Was it possible to monetize global interest in art in Ukraine in the wake of political upheavals?

- Not good. $10-12 thousand for a painting is not bad, but it will be good when in Ukraine a dozen artists will receive an average of $100-200 thousand for their work. Now we have two or three such masters. China has already reached this level. No matter how much I earn, I invest everything in living and my art - I still don’t have an apartment or a car.

— At Manifesta 11 in Zurich last June, you walked around in an Alien costume (a kinetic sculpture made for the project “Your Alien” is a mix of a miner and a monster from Hollywood films). The local art community didn’t pay too much attention to you, but when you went among the people, there was a stir...

— Because their curators and journalists have it planned in advance what and who to pay attention to. Their art machine pushes strictly its own people. They are not very interested in Ukraine. For the West, we are a third world country.

— Emir Kusturica was famous in Yugoslavia before the war, but only the film “Underground” about it made him a world star. Could something like this happen here?

— In 2010, I had a series of works on this topic, “Dreams about War.” As I now understand, these were warning works made in anticipation of future tragic events. I also drew an Alien on the Maidan, feeling that society was becoming stratified into friends and strangers. And now, on the contrary, I want to abstract myself from all this, not wanting to speculate on this painful topic. The authorities have done nothing all these years to somehow consolidate the east and west of the country. There were no ideas or cultural programs.

— Your art, to some extent, is a connecting link between the West and the East. What other meaning do you put into your paintings?

— The mines are closing, the mining profession is becoming a thing of the past. I want to prove that the lives of my fellow countrymen were not in vain. This also applies to my parents. They worked in the mines all their lives. And there are entire cities like them.

— What you say is very contrary to the modern political installation of the same decommunization...

“I want to create a fairy tale, but at the same time I am not going to serve anyone’s ideology, adapting to the political situation. I want to create something positive, new, create the future. But we don’t like to invest in projects that don’t pay off immediately, so that they can make money in a week. Today there is not a single state museum of contemporary art in Ukraine.

— Who supported you during difficult periods of your life?

— My wife is also an artist, she understands me. And the son is still small, he is seven years old.