DEUS ExCAVATOR
(KERIM RAGIMOV, PETR SHVETSOV)
JOHN SILVER
(Russia, Saint Petersburg)
A small, nimble creature that looks like an excavator on spiders’ legs is rummaging around hastily in the trash can. Clearly used to a nocturnal lifestyle, it burrows in the trash, looking around skittishly and jumping back in fright when it notices that it is not alone there. Once in a while a fleck of gold can be spotted in its bucket.
The complexity of finding relevant art directions and methods for representing them sometimes turns my anxious eye towards questions associated with global trends in the strengthening and expansion of right-wing discourse. By this, I am referring to politics, philosophy, and political economy, as well as general cultural aspects of peoples’ social lives.
Petr Shvetsov
With all due respect to leftist discourse, I am extremely concerned by local excesses that take place when adherents exercise their direct right to justice. The genius Dorenko illustrated this problem brilliantly using his theory of the crumpled hundred ruble bill: in order to straighten a bill that has been folded in half one needs to firmly fold it several times the other way. Let’s continue to watch with rapt and stern attention as the universe unfolds, hoping for the best and, as much as we can, resisting evil.
Kerim Ragimov
The artists Kerim Ragimov and Petr Shvetsov (Deus ExCavator) have participated in a multitude of solo and group exhibitions (including as part of the Parazit Art Gallery collective). They began their collaboration in 2016 to explore the phenomenon of digging and all its adjacent practices. Since 2017 they have been the holders of tractor driving licenses with the right to drive wheeled excavators, No. 78SK434220 and No. 78SK434219, respectively. They are nominees of the Innovation Award (2019), laureates of the 7th Post-Excavation Biennale (South Royalton, Vermont, USA 2018), and the Presidential award “People Are The New Oil” in the Extraction category (Terra Scientia Forum, Klyazma, 2017), and participated in the Biennale “Searching For A Person” (Nakhodka, 2019) with their project Deep Media.