Existence is integral and indivisible. Any attempt to extract a striking image from it is artistically justified, but unforgivable from the point of view of authenticity. Plusch chooses process as his subject – a kind of continuous system of coordinates, unfolded in time, but limited spatially by the picture’s frame or by the border of the installation. If Kabakov strove to recreate the spirit of communal housing recreating it in the minutest detail in the artistic space, then Plyush (with his deliberately computerised constructs) on the contrary seeks to convey the very duration of life as a complex system of coexistence. Unlike Kabakov, Plusch presents everything social as being superficial, vulgar and, ultimately, meaningless.

As far as reason, memory and conscience allow him, Plusch shows the dynamics of life, devoid of the social element, as an evolutionary process. According to him, art today is incapable of surviving collisions with the existential essence of being. Once in the field of Art, everything superficial crumbles to the floor in a pile of ash.

The artist manages to change the flow of time by retuning his canvases to the speed of plant growth or the movement of clouds. Or, conversely, by increasing their speed to that of light, so that individuals are erased from the canvases and the walls of their dwellings are blurred, leaving only a flash of light and a handful of sand. The constant portrayal of historical images yields no fruit, for it is not reason but only intuition that is capable of approaching the recreation and replenishment of life’s movement in all its complexity.

Plusch defines the genre of his works as “the process of passing” which, of course, makes one recall the “vital impulse” and “duration” of Bergson’s philosophy, who defined the reality of life as something most authentic and integral, and more fundamental than the dichotomy of spirit and matter, which are only the fruits of the decay of life. Intellect, according to Bergson, is limited, because it operates only with abstract concepts that it creates itself. It is capable of grasping the essence of being only in its material and formal aspect. What remains is to give in to intuition and emotions, which are not so easy to control using reason. In the 20th century, this gave rise to a number of phenomena, marginal As far as reason, memory and conscience allow him, Plusch shows the dynamics of life, devoid of the social element, as an evolutionary process. According to him, art today is incapable of surviving collisions with the existential essence of being. Once in the field of Art, everything superficial crumbles to the floor in a pile of ash.

The artist manages to change the flow of time by retuning his canvases to the speed of plant growth or the movement of clouds. Or, conversely, by increasing their speed to that of light, so that individuals are erased from the canvases and the walls of their dwellings are blurred, leaving only a flash of light and a handful of sand. The constant portrayal of historical images yields no fruit, for it is not reason but only intuition that is capable of approaching the recreation and replenishment of life’s movement in all its complexity.

Plusch defines the genre of his works as “the process of passing” which, of course, makes one recall the “vital impulse” and “duration” of Bergson’s philosophy, who defined the reality of life as something most authentic and integral, and more fundamental than the dichotomy of spirit and matter, which are only the fruits of the decay of life. Intellect, according to Bergson, is limited, because it operates only with abstract concepts that it creates itself. It is capable of grasping the essence of being only in its material and formal aspect. What remains is to give in to intuition and emotions, which are not so easy to control using reason. In the 20th century, this gave rise to a number of phenomena, marginal garden plants, the carcass of the car, and the absent greenhouse owner have three different periods of life – from birth to death. The plants will survive until the autumn, the metal will rust in about ten years, and soon no one will remember the gardener either. “Creative tension” (Bergson’s term) makes it possible for the artist to capture the poignancy of this combination, which, in his opinion, looks like a flash that illuminates the existential essence of being.

Both works were united by the title “The Process of Passing”, which once again focussed the viewer’s attention not so much on the result, but on the processes presented in both works. The vegetable garden actually continued growing in the exhibition, the building of the Concert Hall continued gradually falling into ruin, and the viewers continued looking at it all through the prism of interested, arrogant snobbery. Each subsequent work in the series fixes a point at which several time streams converge.

Alisa Prudnikova, a Commissioner of the 2nd Industrial Biennale, got married on the “Kremlin” red carpet of “The Process of Passing 1” The wedding of the artists Irina Drozd and Ivan Plusch was celebrated on the 2nd of November, in the house that was built as their installation at the “Anna Nova” Gallery.

The third work of the series “The Process of Passing”, presented at the exhibition, is an intricate 3-D installation that can be divided into parts fairly easily: portraits of people, their dwellings, light, time. Nothing stands in its proper place, and the epoch itself disintegrates right before our eyes, leaving everything separate: forms, materials, meanings, sounds. Only through artistic self-observation can this disorder be grasped. Plusch demonstrates that it is not we who have got tired, but the very time in which we are living. Facts and results no longer exist, only processes remain, and not always interesting ones. Everything else – is mere vanity.