The real purpose of my trip to SPB was to attend the opening on Thursday of Anatoly Belkin's exhibit at the State Hermitage Museum, "Золото Болот" ("Swamp Gold"), a multi-media installation depicting an imaginary series of anthropological expeditions and their discovery of an imaginary society of dwarf-like people, complete with "remains" as in this photo from the exhibit. Belkin has been a family friend for nearly 20 years - in the 1980's he was an "unofficial artist," but more recently he has become part of the cultural establishment as the publisher of the glossy St. Petersburg magazine Sobaka.ru - and by coincidence I was also able to be present at the opening of his most recent solo exhibition, "Private Territory," at the Russian Museum in the summer of 1996.
A more interesting coincidence was pointed out to me recently by Bram, who went with me to the opening and later emailed me this Washington Post piece titled "Dwarf Human Ancestors Lived on Pacific Island." Maybe Belkin is onto something. On the same tip, see also this Slate article on the "Tiny Humans."
No comments:
Post a Comment