The School of Athens | Contemporary Art Collection | While Everyone's Home with Anton
In the summer of 2024, the Anton Kozlov Collection and the Oktava industrial cluster presented Roman Sakin's total installation, "The School of Athens," in Tula. We recorded a video tour with the artist specifically for "While Everyone's Home at Anton's."
The "School of Athens" project was created in 2015 and first shown at the Marina Pecherskaya Gallery. Sakin's project is particularly relevant at the current historical moment: society is experiencing a period of rapid change that prevents us from seeking support in thoughts of the future—it remains vague and invisible. At such moments in history, people tend to rely on the notion of a "golden age" of humanity, preserving the notion of unconditional values and lofty principles of humanism.
The artist, a follower of the traditions of the Moscow Conceptual School, realizes each of his projects as a complex system, incorporating a well-thought-out visual image and a meticulously crafted narrative. The artist effortlessly draws the viewer into this signature system: step by step, learning the rules of the "School of Athens," he experiences his own return to the "golden age."
00:00 — About the exhibition format
00:59 — About the artwork
01:28 — About fantasy
02:10 — About the figure of the teacher
02:43 — About mystifications
03:21 — About the stages
04:16 — About the First Room
09:26 — About the Second Room
13:22 — About the Third Room
#romansakin #athenianschool #contemporaryart