Allegoria Sacra: Giovanni Bellini’s vs. AES+F (Sacred Allegory)

ALPHA OMEGA ARTS
By Tahlib

With art galleries looking to reach new collectors and to offer more affordable routes to buying works, at least one company believes that digital religious art is the answer. In fact online art dealer s[edition], is offering a 21st century digital reinterpretation of Giovanni Bellini's painting Holy Allegory for only $80.00. How do they do it? Like a bricks-and-mortar gallery they've contracted with AES+F, an artist partnership which creates  unique aesthetic famous for its hypnotic appeal, classical beauty to allow their Bellini re-interpretation, Reincarnation to be purchased online with video download plus a certificate of authenticity. Whether you prefer the original (1490-1500) in the permanent collection of the Uffizi Gallery, or this modern trilogy: heaven, purgatory and hell are all there and open to creative interpretation. AES+F in the tradition of Bellini. AES+F is a group of four Russian artists: Tatiana Arzamasova (A), Lev Evzovich (E), Evgeny Svyatsky (S), and Vladimir Fridkes (F). AES+F group focuses on photography, photo- and computer-based art, and video art, as well as using other traditional media such as drawing, painting and sculpture.

Bellini's depictions of purgatory: unchristened children, figures of the Old and New Testament and ancient mythology meet in 21st century international airport where grounded passengers are suspended between time and place. This contemporary digital version is rich with the mystery of Christianity and ancient mythology are gathered together with Saints, the Madonna, children paying, a centaur, and small children at play. There is also a naked old man reminiscent of Job brought together by

"They see Bellini’s heroes in those passengers who meet accidentally while awaiting their flights at international airports. The airport is Purgatory. The bringing together of the incompatible (in an airport, according to AES+F) raises the question of the values of our civilization. The crowd of Muslim migrants and the skinhead with a baseball bat, the disconnected ‘western’ passengers and the almost military unity of the Asian travellers, the adopted children of prosperous gay couples and the poor Muslim children with their families - Allegoria Sacra does not discuss recipes for happiness in different cultures, it points to the impossibility of an answer to that question."

"This vision of the passengers is interwoven with a new mythological reality, where a centaur appears at the centre of a romantic battle in the desert, a superliner-dragon lands on a snowy runway, cannibals and ladies dance in the jungle and angel-stewardesses, inspired by Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, help an elderly Job turn in to a mutant-baby. The metaphor of contemporary civilisation, with its relative values, becomes visible as a result of the surrealistic mix of images of new and ancient religions and stereotypes from the mass media, comics and fantasy."

"The dreams of one passenger flow in to those of another and a river completes the scene, carrying planes, mythological monsters and space stations to the horizon...The trailer for the single-channel version of Allegoria Sacra is being shown as part of the international video project ‘Commercial Break’, in a specially-designed virtual pavilion as an intervention within the framework of the 54th Venice Biennale, organised by Garage Center for Contemporary Culture and POST magazine. The premiere of the five-channel version of Allegoria Sacra will take place at Multimedia Art Museum Moscow in September 2011 as part of the 4th Moscow Biennale."

Reports say that AES+F has always been intrigued by this painting. When they started to think of a third project after "Last Riot" and "The Feast of Trimalchio," shown at the Venice Biennale in 2007 and 2009 respectively, the artists decided that a series entitled "Allegoria Sacra" would form the final part of a trilogy about the modern world (Hell, Heaven, Purgatory), and it can be yours for only $80.00 at s[edition].