Fourth Dimension
(in collaboration with Mila Bredikhina)
Wiener Secession, Vienna, June 6, 1997
«Since the Mad Dog (Moscow), Reservoir Dog (Zurich), Dog House (Stockholm) shows, the dog, as obstacle between the street and the museum – between reality and representation – became a trade mark of Oleg Kulik. This border conflict looks aesthetically complete in the Fourth Dimension. The spectator, who has overcome the real space of the incident in the street, finds himself in the three-dimensional scan of the same space where the conflict continues. Yet that is an illusion. The real danger outside, with its smell, passion, fear and bewilderment, has nothing in common with its preparation inside. Despite maximum interactivity, other characters operate in the zone of observation/representation. Experience remains unrepresented. nteractivity does not change anything... The Russian mentality, bearing the eternal shock of reality, aggressively demands authenticity (transparency) as far as notions of «place», «time» and action» are concerned. Kulik's argument cannot be neglected, for the bite of the dog outside is, in fact, not equal to its «bite» inside, as the real is not equal to the aesthetic. The experiment of Oleg Kulik testifies that it is easier to transcend the horizon of the human than to escape aesthetic horizons. Kulik's return was determined almost as Darwin had it, but the experience of transgression allows the artist to start everything from the zero point».*
Mila Bredikhina
*It's a Better World. Catalogue. Vienna. Secession. 1997, p. 45