A Mid-Season Exhibition

On October 31, 1991, visitors who came to the regular Thursday opening in the familiar gallery space on Tryokhprudny Lane expected the usual kind of scandalous or amusing spectacle. They were in for a surprise, however, as the room was completely empty, except for a few hooks nailed to the wall. Guests kept arriving. Since it was warm inside, many took off their outer garments and hung them up on the hooks: gradually, the wall filled with coats, jackets, scarves, and hats of various colors and textures. And the exhibition was born.

A Mid‑Season Exhibition by Alexander Sigutin unfolded on several semantic levels. First of all, according to the accompanying text, it revealed the artist’s stance regarding the condemnation of postmodernism: amid ongoing talk of its collapse, an artist always retains the option to avoid critical analysis by focusing instead on everyday needs. Second, the work dealt with the then‑current idea of engaging the audience in the production of visuality — what we would now call a classic example of participatory art.

Sigutin’s main achievement, however, was the embodiment of human presence itself, a universal sign of humanist art. The warm hospitality of the gallery hosts, the friendly atmosphere, and the lively conversations about this and that created the spectacle. Once the visitors had left, the gallery once again stood empty, vividly demonstrating that there can be no art without people.