Do you put any hidden meaning into your work? Does the viewer need to figure them out? Your art is often associated with eroticism. Are there any taboo topics for you in your work?
In connection with the painter Aidan Salakhova (*1962), the name of Rauschenberg is often mentioned in publications about the modern post-Soviet avant-garde. Venerable American artist During his exhibition in Moscow, he met the then very young beginner Salakhova, admired her work and dedicated a painting to her. Today Salakhova is known both as an artist and as a gallery owner. She is so far one of the few Russian artists whose works have been selected for participation in the Venice Biennale. Moreover, Aidan successfully performed there both as a painter and as a curator.
Credo:
“I can only compare myself as an artist with women. The men’s world with their art interests me more as a gallery owner.” Born, lives and works in Moscow.
Graduated from the Moscow Art Institute. Surikov.
Since 1984 he has been a regular participant in exhibitions. Aidan's works have been repeatedly shown in Italy, Spain, Germany, and America.
1989 - opening of the first private alternative gallery in Moscow together with artists Evgeny Mitta and Alexander Yakut
I met Aidan under special circumstances. Shortly before the scheduled interview, she unexpectedly ended up in the hospital.
And the very next day after the operation, she received her secretary at the hospital and gave me an interview, which speaks of her extraordinary concentration and willpower.
Aidan's parents are from Uzbekistan. Her family has a strong artistic tradition. Grandmother - outstanding singer folk songs, Tamara Khanum. Today the Choreographic School and one of the streets in Tashkent bear her name. Grandfather Kari Yakubov was also a famous singer.
Father - Tair Salakhov - a famous Soviet painter.
- Tell us more about your famous grandmother.
Our grandmother became famous for singing folk songs. She sang in 80 languages. The first one went on stage without a burqa. This was in 1922. She was 13 years old at the time.
- It was probably very cool then.
It was cool. At first they threw stones at her. She was absolutely wonderful. She specially changed clothes for each folk song in National Costume. Now they are kept in her museum in Tashkent. In 1924 she performed at the World Exhibition in Paris.
In Stalin's time, it was not easy for my grandmother. She sang about love all the time, and because of this, critical articles. One of them was published in Pravda and was called “Love and Roses.” Then the whole family was scared for her. During the war, she used all her money to buy tanks and planes. And she was even awarded the title of captain of the Soviet army.
- How did your husband feel about her success?
Her first husband, Kari Yakubov, himself brought her to the stage. They performed together. As soon as she became famous, conflicts began. They got divorced. Then my grandmother remarried a musician from her ensemble. He let her be the star while he existed in the shadows.
-Have you decided to become an artist following your father’s example?
At first I didn't want to be an artist. Maybe because everyone in the family drew. I wanted to become a genetic biologist. But since I also constantly drew, they persuaded me to enter the art school. Then I studied at the Surikov Institute with my dad. He is a wonderful teacher.
- Your father began as a revolutionary in Soviet art. Compared to the deceitful pathos and optimism of Stalinist academicism, the “severe style” was significant progress. Then he became an official, venerable artist, the First Sectarian of the Union Board.
It’s nice to remember that when we studied with him, his workshop was the freest in the institute.
- What was this expressed in?
In style, in technology. The Pope also allowed the choice of freer subjects. Despite the fact that his father held an official position, he managed to create projects for his soul. One of them is the Rauschenberg exhibition in 1988. He got permission through the Central Committee. There were wild scandals. Everyone else on the Union Board was against it.
- You didn’t join the Union?
No, on principle.
- Did the academic school put pressure on you?
No. I'm glad now that I received it. Subsequently, this experience was useful to me. Even now I regret that I didn’t learn some things because of the protest.
- Were there any artists whose work helped you find yourself?
Since childhood I always thought of Picasso good artist. Of the modern ones, I was struck by Jeff Koons. I first saw his work at a solo exhibition in Chicago.
In March 1989, Aidan Salakhova, together with two other young artists, Evgeniy Mitta and Alexander Yakut, opened the first private alternative gallery. It was located in the very heart of Moscow, on Pushkin Square and was called: The First Gallery. Their goal was to introduce the public, including foreign ones, to the works of the most significant artists of the Moscow conceptual avant-garde. Very quickly the gallery's exhibitions attracted attention Western artists, critics, curators. Many famous Western masters showed their works here, including Helmut Newton. One of the most sensational was the group exhibition of young conceptualists “Rauschenberg to us - we - to Rauschenberg”, where the very “famous” painting that the American maestro dedicated and presented to Aidan took pride of place. This exhibition was chosen to represent soviet art at the Venice Biennale in 1990. For the first time in history, the opportunity to curate the Soviet Pavilion was given to a private organization.
- How did the “Aidan” gallery come about?
Other structures became interested in the premises of the First Gallery, since it was located in the center of Moscow. I had to close it. After that we separated. Yakut has a good gallery on Sadovaya. I also decided to open my own gallery.
- What are your goals as a gallery owner?
Do exhibitions of artists I like. Now almost no one buys contemporary art. Therefore, we make money on old art, antiques, and exhibit new ones. I really like the work of contemporary St. Petersburg artists, Timur Novikov, Olga Tobreluts. We recently presented their work to the Moscow public.
- Does your work as a gallery owner distract you from your creativity?
I try to combine family, gallery, and creativity. Aidan's father was unhappy with his daughter's early marriage, believing that it could interfere with her career. On the other hand, he calmly reacted to the fact that his wife, a professional artist, at one time gave up creativity in his name.
- Your mother is also an artist, isn’t she?
And my mother, unlike my grandmother, devoted 20 years to her husband. She studied at the Surikov Institute, at the painting department. There I met my dad. They got married, she gave birth to two daughters and stopped making art. Then she still couldn’t stand this wallowing in household chores and lack of rights. She herself believes that she was suppressed by her father’s talent. When they divorced, she began to earn money little by little with still lifes. I have the same problems in my family, because my husband is also an artist. Two artists in a family is very difficult.
Until recently, Aidan, in her works with almost obsessive consistency, talked about the “other” side of love, which a woman often has to face. With such frankness, no one from her compatriots had ever dared to talk about the topic of birth control, abortion, or childbirth. Salakhova’s works were something of a shock therapy for unaccustomed viewers, and perhaps even for the artist herself. In the installation “Golden Confession” (1988), for the first time she uses her favorite technique of contrasting large elegant paintings, written in the style of salon painting of the 19th century, with drawings made using old books on gynecology, depicting gynecological instruments, the first spirals, and pathological embryos.
- Why did you turn to this topic?
I wanted to talk about the other, unpleasant side of a woman’s life. About the cruel things she has to face, about a kind of retribution for the pleasures that befell her.
"Golden Confession" was followed by the installations "Abortion" and "Poor Mom" (1990), shown in America, Spain, Germany and arousing great interest among the public and critics. Given the virtual absence of civilized means of birth control, abortion remained a nightmare for many generations of Soviet women. The situation was even more complicated in the Muslim republics, where all this was done in deep secrecy, since exposure threatened shame for the girl and her family. But if exposure could be avoided, everything could end with a happy ending. For the family, of course, who cares about the trauma that forever darkened the life of a young woman. As Aidan said, a girl who had lost her virginity could regain her virginity again with the help of “medical intervention” and get married safely. In one of the paintings that preceded the project, she recreated this “stitching” procedure in an abstract, symbolic form. And it was this work that I chose to display at one of the exhibitions of young Moscow artists in Tashkent.
The central place in "Abortion" was occupied by two large-format paintings, painted in realistic manner. One of them depicts the girl’s father and groom, the other shows the bride herself. Each of the canvases is cut horizontally and wrapped with the canvas inside, symbolically depicting a vagina. The main canvases were surrounded by numerous images of phalluses and vaginas, executed in a variety of styles.
The installation "Poor Mom" had a pronounced autobiographical character. It was a "women's office". On the snow-white walls were hung photographs with gilded backgrounds, depicting the artist herself in the form of an odalisque reclining on a bed in a Bukhara costume with her breasts bare. They were adjacent to paintings depicting childbirth. In the middle of the room there was a woman's chair, very beautiful, with a brocade seat. Medical instruments lay on a gilded pillow. The floor was lined with photographic images of Aidan's screaming face.
The period of pregnancy and childbirth was not easy for the artist. It coincided with a conflict in her family and became a time of choice, making one of the most important decisions in her life.
We have a lot of couples in our artistic community, especially in Moscow. And everyone has problems.
- What are they?
If you come out ahead of your husband as an artist, he immediately becomes depressed and family scandals begin. During a group exhibition in Italy, when people came up to me for autographs, my art somehow appealed more to women and lonely older men, very unpleasant moments arose.
- And if the question of the need to choose ever arises?
I already had it. My husband gave me a choice: either you are creative or I am. I was still pregnant then. It wasn't easy. I defended the right not to dissolve in him, to remain myself, because all our men demand complete dissolution in their interests, in their lives. This, in their understanding, is a normal wife. And when she dissolved, where was she? I'm trying to raise my son differently.
In the middle of the artist’s studio, on an easel, stands an almost completed painting depicting a beautiful woman. Subsequently it turns out that this is the goddess of love, Aphrodite.
After all the terrible things I portrayed, I decided to move on to beauty. At first, when I began to switch to this “beautiful” painting, I still put something unpleasant next to it. Then it went away and I moved on to beautiful painting. It wasn't easy. Such purely “salon” academic painting is perceived by Ilya Glazunov as a cliche. If people knew what path I had taken, then it was perceived as the right move. Those who didn’t know saw it as kitsch, it’s unclear what.
- New picture, as far as I understand, is connected with this new round in your work and new project?
I am finishing small project, which I will exhibit in St. Petersburg with Timur Novikov. These are two paintings: “Aphrodite” and “Thermaphrodite” in a neo-academic style.
- Why did you turn to the image of Hermaphroditus?
For me he is a symbol of our time. Men feel good only in heroic eras. I have a feeling that during periods when there are no wars, they cannot express themselves and lose their meaning in life. In such times, women feel better, come to the fore, but acquire masculine qualities. And men, on the contrary, are feminized.
- Since you are not only an artist, but also a gallery owner, you can probably evaluate other people’s creativity more objectively. Artists, as a rule, love only their work.
The gallery cured me of self-love, and I can look at myself from the outside. - You have to communicate with many artists. Is there any difference in the strength of talent and giftedness between men and women?
I won't talk about work, I want to talk about my psychological state. For male artists psychological condition worse than women. Men are always very sensitive to women artists. On the one hand, they don’t seem to notice them, on the other, they perceive them as some kind of competition. Women, in my opinion, do not have this. Internally, I separate myself from the male world, I do not compete with them. I’m more interested, for example, in what Larisa Zvezdochetova is doing; it affects me more than what Ilya Kabakov is doing. As an artist, I can only compare myself with women. The men's world with their art interests me more as a gallery owner.
- You said that male artists have a worse psychological state. What does this have to do with, in your opinion?
All women here in Russia are stronger and more psychologically adapted to the new situation than our men. There was a takeoff, a boom in Russian art, but now the situation has changed. Many artists have lost what they had. Our men go through a very difficult path from an artist who had everything to the realization that they need to earn something else on the side. Women solved this problem. They can earn money as illustrations or something else.
“Maybe one or two of the artists will be lucky enough to remain at the peak of their fame and live on through their art.” The rest will have to adapt sooner or later.
My mother and I lived separately, I had no money, although everyone thought that I had it, since I had such a dad. I got used to earning money from the age of 16-17. When I needed money, I went to the Arbat and took portraits. Those who studied at the Surikov Institute walk this line more easily, because there was a double life there. For the institute you do one thing, what is needed, for yourself - something else. For others, this is simply a catastrophic problem. You begin to explain to them that Kabakov also drew illustrations, but did something else for himself. You're not convincing.
- You once said that you provide artists associated with your gallery with orders for advertising Stolichnaya vodka. How did you manage to find a customer?
I once organized the Absolut-Glasnost project for Absolut vodka. Now my customer, Michel Roux, is busy advertising Stolichnaya and again entrusted it to me. It took six months to persuade artists to make an advertisement for vodka. But it pays very well, and such orders are rare.
- Do you think that any ideas of feminism will ever work in Russia?
They are already working. There was a terrible transition period. Now I look at my clients as new Russians. At first, their wives sat at home, in a golden cage, and they liked it that way. Then they began to fight with their husbands. Now many of them have their own business. The woman has now stopped creating the illusion of his strength around the man, both for herself and for him.
Such an attempt to understand a man and at the same time free oneself from one’s illusions about him will be the “Private Collection” project, the development of which Aidan recently began. The viewer will see a unique collection of her hero. He belongs to the first generation of Russian emigration. His personal life was unhappy. His beloved left him. He devoted his entire life to collecting various works of art that captured the image of a woman in the most different cultures. So he tried to understand the woman, or at least get closer to understanding her.
In fact, it will be a study of a man, like a portrait of a hero. I want to understand male psychology. Before marriage, I had a different idea about men. All the claims that I made to my husband were my fairy tale about the male sex: I must rely on you, you must protect me. And then I realized that there was nothing to protect from. I realized that the man is a very weak person. I removed this role of protector from him.
Moscow. Workshop at Winzavod. Once again this magical wasteland, a workshop for the production of creativity... This is the second time that I have been brought here in pursuit of an extraordinary hero. Last time it was a meeting with theater reformer Kirill Serebrennikov. This time the goal of my journalistic pilgrimage is she, the rebel Salakhova who “fell from the moon.” And here she is. Aidan, who cannot tolerate silence, lives and works accompanied by background music, in free flight, obeying only the rhythm of her heartbeat. And now I, having picked up this rhythm, am sitting in the middle of a living “machine of desires” - between two Aidans, a photographer and an artist, feverishly wishing for the most cherished... The conversation is interspersed with short smoking breaks with “firing” cigarettes, as in my student years, and sips of tart almond coffee ordered from a cafe nearby.
Aidan, on the way here I tried to imagine what kind of person you really are: complex or simple? People speak about you differently, and for some reason many perceive you as a difficult person...
Such a look, unusual hairstyle, long nose... I don’t know the answer, I’m surprised myself.
Has your name turned out to be prophetic for you in some way? Aidan is like “fell from the moon”...
Well, everyone thinks that I'm an alien. Even my son.
In your work you touch on a variety of topics, even religion. What topic is most significant to you?
The religious topic is not really the main one for me. I am more concerned with the topic of women in all forms, even in religion. For example, a burqa... In my opinion, when you put it on, you close yourself off from social attitudes, views, and then the conversation with yourself is more honest. A woman, unlike a man, in addition to her inner self, also has a second vision, which allows her to observe how she looks, moves, acts, moreover, this observation occurs from a man’s point of view. A woman puts herself in a man’s place and observes herself. This is of course a schizophrenic situation.
Is nudity an advantage?
At all times, in art, which was mainly practiced by men, a woman was often presented naked as an object of desire. And this is understandable. In my works, I, in turn, present men as objects of desire, and I think this is also understandable... My art is for women. Although it should be noted that human body, whether it is female or male, it is very beautiful.
Today girls are trying more to undress...
They probably think it’s better and more convenient.
How do you feel better?
Clothing is a kind of theater where you dress according to the script and sometimes according to your mood. In Dubai, I wore both a burqa and a mini. When I'm in Carrara, I'm never dressed at all - in the sense that I only wear work clothes: it gives maximum pleasure - I don't have to put on makeup or comb my hair... In general, I love sweatpants.
Today, what we call contemporary art is often associated with shocking...
Some artists express their own honest opinions in this way. ideas and thoughts. Some mediocrities sometimes shock too intrusively, without having any reason for this. They rely on the lack of education of the audience. You just need to understand modern art to distinguish between what is good and what is bad.
How do you feel about modern theatrical art?
I don’t like the theater and don’t go. Categorically.
What do you like?
Go to the movies, dance and have fun in nightclubs.
You rarely meet a person who lives the way he wants, without fencing himself with boundaries. For me, and for many others, you are one of such rare people. How do you do this?
My answer is very simple: I just do what I want.
Sometimes it's quite difficult to do what you want...
You know, when you get old, you just start saving time.
Is that why you closed your gallery?
Yes. I didn’t want to be involved in gallery activities for the rest of my life. I became more careful and economical with my personal time. For example, an assistant makes a schedule, and when he says that there should be this or that meeting, I immediately ask myself the question: do I want to spend part of my life on this meeting? Convenient or uncomfortable in front of people, what the reaction will be - I haven’t bothered with this for a long time.
Apparently, you manage to be in harmony with the world and yourself... Under what circumstances does this occur?
When everything is just awesome! I've been through a lot. Such long haul- from social, parental, political attitudes... People spend too much time worrying about what they will think of them, they do not act as they want, but as is accepted. And in the end it turns out that they did not live their lives. Although it’s a little late, I realized that happiness is a harmonious state in which you don’t contradict yourself! You can't contradict yourself, never! Especially women! After all, our women generally live an incomprehensible life: maybe they don’t need to get married, but they do, maybe they don’t even need one child, but they give birth to ten children each.. We must clearly understand our desires. True, this is not given to everyone...
How did you feel about your son’s early marriage? After all, he is only 21 years old.
It’s very good, because he and his wife Anechka have very correct views on life. This is a couple who understands a lot, and they will not stifle each other with their relationship.
Why is it so difficult to be in a relationship today?
Well, I can only say about myself. It is difficult for me to be in a relationship because I am a creative person, an artist. Experience shows that under no circumstances does any man want to be in second place. And for me, Art always comes first.
And what about love? Or do you not recognize her primacy?
I used to believe that love is the death of one’s own Self. I even have such a work - “Love and Death”. Today there is for me unconditional love: these are calm, even feelings, not passion or cataclysms... With age, you learn to love in such a way as not to contradict yourself.
What about your love for art? What is more in it: feelings or passion?
In your works you always focus on your hands. I would even say that it is the hands that are the “main characters” of your works...
Hands never lie; a gesture can say a lot about a person. You can deceive with your eyes, but not with your hands... I was very. hooked. that tragic incident when terrorists captured Nord-Ost.. When they showed the suicide bombers, their gaze was so detached and cold, but their hands with bombs and wires - they definitely weren’t lying!..
I had the opportunity to talk with your father. He spoke very eloquently and in detail about various things, but when it came to you...you should have seen how his face transformed, how much tenderness and happiness flashed in his eyes! What is your relationship like?
Friendly: like a colleague with a colleague, an artist with an artist. Since childhood, my dad treated everyone, including me, with great respect and gave me complete freedom. In this regard, he is, of course, the smartest teacher. He is also a good adviser - he will always listen and guide. But for me, the daughter of Tahir Salakhov, he is not just a dad - he is, first of all, an artist with a capital “A”, a creative person. And he also believes that I am first and foremost an artist, and then a daughter.
That is, there was no problem of “fathers and children” in your relationship?
Once there was a big fuss about Interview, where a nude photo of me appeared. Dad called and asked: what happened? Well, we met, I showed him the magazine. He looked and said: “Beautiful photo, and you pose beautifully. Who is the photographer?” He, the artist, saw art in this photo, and not the fact that his daughter was naked. It's a slightly different world. He and I are used to seeing naked people at the institute, on the walls at home, dad’s models, and so on. There were successful “form and content”, nothing else in in this context- naked, not naked - no one was interested.
How did you manage, after living in Moscow for so many years, to maintain warmth and not become embittered? I love Moscow very much, but here even the border guard at the airport wants to say: Just smile, maybe you’ll feel better!.. And you live in a complex world, among the fiercest competition, envy, intrigue...
I'm not involved in any of that. I go to college, teach, and leave. What happens between the teachers there does not interest me at all. And when I had a gallery, I also did not participate in any squabbles. This all passes me by.
Does a person who is accustomed to value his time make plans for the future?
Necessarily. Next year I have an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery in October. In another year there will be an exhibition in Dubai - however, I haven’t even started making the work yet, I’m still thinking... And in December I will go to the Islamic art festival, I will present my sculptures with hands..
What can you say about today's Baku? Have you ever come to Baku to work?
Baku is the most beautiful city on Earth! For me it the best place relaxation: generous sunshine, delicious food, walks along old streets, a dacha... I recharge great there, but I have no desire to work. By the way, what is happening in Azerbaijan in the context contemporary art, makes me very happy. The good news is that, unlike Russia, money is invested in art, a lot of work is done, funds are allocated, so today Russian artists are known in the world less than Azerbaijani ones.
Is that why you prefer to work in Italy?
Yes, I bought an apartment there, I have my own workshop. Nothing there bothers me or distracts me. I just create and enjoy it. Delicious food and amazing people! Well, and marble, it’s very boring without it...
Interview: Kenul Nagiyeva/Photo: Aidan Karimli
On January 13, the exhibition of Russian artist Aidan Salakhova “Revelations” opens at the Saatchi Gallery in London. Art historian Maria Kravtsova talks about Aidan’s personal myth, which extends in the semantic space between the real and imaginary East, the “external” eroticism of the artist’s works, behind which lies her interpretation of the Sufi tradition. The full text, which Artguide publishes with the kind permission of the artist with abbreviations, can be read in the exhibition catalogue.
Aidan Salakhova. From the series “Fear and Trembling.” Fragment. 2014. Marble. Aidan Salakhova’s exhibition “Revelations” at London’s Saatchi Gallery. January 2016. Photo: Aidan Salakhova
…Aidan’s East is only at first glance similar to the fabulously rich and eroticizing East of the romantic poet Gerard de Nerval, the novelist Gustave Flaubert, the artist Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres or the translator of “A Thousand and One Nights” Edward Lane, that is, with the East generated European imagination (even more specifically, the imagination white man). For many centuries, this imagination was fueled rather by the scarcity of impressions and reliable information about the East. What was hidden from prying eyes was recreated by fantasy, sometimes thanks to the stories of “eyewitnesses” (like Giacomo Casanova, who, with the kind permission of his Turkish patron, watched from a hiding place the inhabitants of the harem frolicking at the spring), but more often - absolutely arbitrarily. This is how the myth of debauchery and revelry of passions, to which Eastern people are supposedly driven by heat, was born - this is how harems and “slave markets” with their obvious sexual overtones settled in the erotic fantasies of Europeans, and at the same time in European painting. This non-existent world, an ideological construct, was exposed several decades ago in his book “Orientalism” (1978) by literary historian, cultural critic and one of the founders of postcolonial criticism Edward Wadi Said. However, even after Said’s efforts, the imaginary East not only did not cease to exist, but even before the start of the “Arab Spring” continued to occupy a dominant position in the European consciousness, in which the tales of “A Thousand and One Nights” found new life in an oasis of luxury and consumerism (including including cultural), the city of millionaires Abu Dhabi. But today the saber-rattling East is no longer associated with the luxury of the court of King Shahriyar. Does this mean that the Orientalist myth lies in ruins? Not at all. The “Arab Spring” and the events that followed it again gave relevance to another stereotype - the idea of the East as the antipode of the civilized West, a space of savagery, barbaric cruelty, religious fanaticism, merciless justice and male violence. The media image of the modern East is shaped by Muslim fundamentalists, emirs of the new Islamic state, suicide bombers, executioners filming last minutes the lives of hostages in orange prison uniforms, refugees from Syria and Afghanistan, apocalyptic views of destroyed Middle Eastern cities and especially ancient historical and cultural monuments.
Aidan Salakhova. From the series “Persian Miniatures”. 2008. Paper, pencil, gouache. Сourtesy author
The beautiful East and the terrible East - between these two semantic spaces lies the personal myth of Aidan, who, on the one hand, is connected with this part of the world by blood ties, and on the other, looks at it, rather, through the eyes of a European, and also an artist raised in strong academicism with its cult of drawing and nature and devotion to the golden ratio. Oriental motifs and themes were already present in Aidan’s early student works, but rather they were a tribute to the work of her father, who, being a professor at the Moscow State Art Institute. IN AND. Surikov, did not require his students to swear allegiance socialist realism and implicitly instilled in them a modernist view of art. Actually, modern interpretation At first glance, Aidan offers us subjects of Orientalist and academic painting in his graphic, painting and sculptural series. At the same time, the artist cannot be called a salon painter blindly devoted to the dead canons of the Academy. However, the artist’s paradox lies in the fact that just as she is far from the salon, she is also far from the conjuncture of “current” trends in art—there is nothing distinctly political in her works. Unlike her colleagues, artists from the Middle East (like Shirin Neshat or Mona Hatoum), Aidan does not use the image of a woman repressed by patriarchal society. But, despite all these, frankly, quite numerous “nots,” Aidan not only remains within the framework of contemporary art, but also often radicalizes the situation, although this strategy can be called “radicalism in silks.” Appropriating one of the main and at the same time distinctly masculine myths of Orientalism, Aidan does not even hint (as Ingres and Delacroix did), but openly shows what European men have dreamed of seeing for centuries. The artist’s heroines, whose faces are hidden by veils of burqas, and whose elastic bodies are open to immodest glances, indulge in same-sex caresses. But only at first glance does this seem like lesbian fun. Aidan lures with female nudity, in order to then punish for curiosity, traumatize, completely exposing female physiology. The classic marble beauty of the characters in Aidan’s works (remember that the academic canon of nudity excluded whole line naturalistic details, such as drawn genitals or body hair) are destroyed, and pictures of an idyll of love turn into illustrations from manuals on obstetrics and gynecology.
Aidan Salakhova. Kaaba. Video installation. 2002. Сourtesy XL Gallery
However, harems and seraglios, in which hostages of passion languish from idleness and the midday heat, are just decoration. Aidan reveals the deepest secrets of the East, introducing the viewer through the propylaea of One Thousand and One Nights into the world of Muslim mysticism. For the first time, these, frankly speaking, ideas about the divine principle, far from dogmatic Islam, were embodied by Aidan in the 2002 video installation “Kaaba” - around a black cube, which glittered with eyes in the slit of a burqa, dervishes performed an endless whirl in a mystical dance. Then Aidan referred to Sufi ideas that the spirit is feminine, God is the Beloved, and the contemplation of the light that lives in the heart plunges the Sufi into a state of ecstasy. And she quoted the verses of the Sufi saint Rabi and al-Adaviyya: “All I want is the essence of Your Love, // I want to become one with You, // And become Your Face.” “Kaaba” almost became a reason for special commentary emanating from the radical wing of Russian Islam. Among the prophet's adherents there were those who saw in this work a too free, and therefore unacceptable, interpretation of the dogmas of Islam. However, the Supreme Mufti of Russia, specially invited for the “examination”, did not see anything seditious in the search for the artist The conflict of interpretations was settled.
Aidan Salakhova. From the series “I love myself.” 2005. Canvas, pencil, acrylic. Сuretsy XL Gallery
Oriental beauties emerged from a meditative stupor and, right before the viewer’s eyes, indulged in lesbian tenderness in the painting series “I Love Myself,” presented to the public in 2005 (the fact that the relationship between the odalisques crossed friendships and even platonic rubicons was even more eloquently evidenced than painting completely frank graphics by the artist). Although the faces of Aidan’s heroines were hidden by veils, their ideal bodies, drawn with a thin stylus, were naked and open to the caresses of their partners and the gaze of the audience. When asked if she was not afraid of an aggressive reaction from fundamentalists, Aidan calmly replied that she could erase the pencil lines with an eraser at any time, thereby turning figurative painting into abstraction, and also avoiding accusations of violating the ban on depicting living beings existing in orthodox Islam . In interpreting this work, critics have primarily focused on its obvious homoerotic overtones and recalled that Muslim East same-sex relationships are punishable by death by stoning. Allah himself set an example by destroying the people of Lut, committed to sodomy. In stories about the actions and sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, one can also find recommendations to kill supporters of same-sex love, be they men or women. Meanwhile, the notes of European travelers who visited the Middle East over the centuries are full of hints that in search of same-sex pleasures, Muslims visited bathhouses, where they were served by teenagers imported from the Caucasus. Married men often preferred the company of slave boys, and wives forgotten in harems had no choice but to console each other with sapphic caresses or use the services of black eunuchs, who, even being castrated, did not lose their male strength at all, but on the contrary, were “safe”, and therefore desired lovers. So one could assume that Aidan did not distort too much in her stories secret life harem, although the detached pictorial manner in equally allowed us to assert that the artist did not strive for everyday life.
Installation of Aidan Salakhova’s personal exhibition “Revelations” in London’s Saatchi Gallery. January 2016. Photo: Aidan Salakhova
But this is only a superficial interpretation, an “external” knowledge, which can be contrasted with the “internal” knowledge of the Sufi tradition. Love, and later erotic imagery permeates Sufi literature and the lives of the founders of Sufi mysticism. Thus, the 10th century Baghdad mystic Abu-l-Husayn an-Nuri, speaking of his love for Allah, resorted to secular erotic poetry, and also used the words “passion” and “desire” to describe the relationship between God and his loving Sufis. This not only shocked his contemporaries, but also led to prosecution, which was initiated by the ascetic literalist Ghulam Khalil against Abu-l-Husayn an-Nuri and other followers of the teaching of love for Allah. If we look at Aidan’s works through the prism of the history and philosophy of Sufism, then we can well allow ourselves to assume that the true goal of the artist was not at all to demonstrate acts of carnal love, but rather to “visualize” the most daring images of mystical poetry, glorifying the fusion of “Loving” and “ Beloved,” and the erasing of the slate mark symbolized the “dissolution” and “dwelling” of the mystic’s soul in God.
In parallel with the “I Love Myself” project, Aidan worked on an even more frank graphic series “Persian Miniatures”, which began as a private activity, not intended for prying eyes - quick sketches in a notebook, almost exposing the work of the subconscious, automatic writing. In "Persian Miniatures" there is little direct eroticism, but a lot of sensuality, mystery and mystical imagery. It was here that the images that the artist would later develop as part of her experiments with sculpture first appeared: a book - a symbol of knowledge, a mirror - introspection and introspection, which is necessary for everyone who strives for a pious lifestyle and selfless service to God, miniature mosques and minarets between gentle women palms - symbols of faith.
Aidan Salakhova. Purpose. Fragment. 2010. Acrylic on canvas. Сourtesy author
To the taboo in modern culture Aidan returned to the theme of the sacred, and at the same time to the secrets of the Forbidden Mosque in Mecca, again in 2010, creating the picturesque polyptych “Destination”. This time, a cosmogonic myth unfolded in Aidan’s artistic space, and the story of a woman in difficult life circumstances (even in the East, with all the rigor of education and religious norms, not all girls get married as virgins and give birth to children from their husbands) turned into one riddled with symbolism and absolutely heretical from the point of view of orthodox Islam, a parable about the acquisition of one of the main Muslim relics - the Black Stone, which the faithful worship during the Hajj to Mecca. The appearance of the precious relic was preceded by several scenes during which a young woman prepares for one of the most important events of her life - marriage. However, the heroine can rather be called a prepared victim (it is not for nothing that in one of the parts of the composition a half-naked bride with outstretched arms resembles the crucified Christ) than a bride. After mystical betrothal with an invisible husband, whose symbol is a completely “Freudian” phallic-shaped minaret, “The Beloved” faced another test - the first wedding night. Aidan disguises the heretical version of the origin of the relic as a story of simulation of missing virginity, although it is clear that mystical marriage does not imply physical intimacy, and, therefore, virginity could not be broken. However, paying tribute to the norms accepted in patriarchal society, the women from the “Beloved” circle “hide” a non-existent sin by staining the remaining virgin white sheets. Further events do not fit into the logic of earthly life at all. The “Beloved” is delivered from her burden with the Black Stone, after which she appears before the female figures frozen in misunderstanding and horror in the image of the “Madonna and Child”, in whose arms rests either an incorporeal creature, or something more tangible, but practically invisible against the black background. burqas. The black stone symbolizes Allah - not the “Lord”, that is, “master”, but the “object of worship”, which fundamentally lacks any iconography. "Beloved", clean and in white robes, worships the prisoner in silver ark, resembling the shape of the womb from which he just emerged, a stone. However, this parable has other possible interpretations. According to one of the apocrypha, the Black Stone from Mecca is a fragment of paradise, given by the Archangel Gabriel to the exiled Adam as an edifying souvenir. Theologians have debated the location paradise lost For more than one century, the crusaders searched for it in vain in the East, at the sources of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, but only Aidan was able to specifically indicate: paradise extends between women’s legs.
Aidan Salakhova. Without words. 2015. Marble. Сourtesy author: Aidan Salakhova. Wall of tears. 2015. Marble. Сourtesy author
Enclosed in the bosom of the ark, the “black stone” (whatever it was) became firmly established in the iconography of Aidan. His marble sculpture, which briefly adorned the Azerbaijan pavilion at the 54th Biennale of Contemporary Art in Venice (exhibition “Relatives from Baku” curator Beral Madra), was symbolically “removed” (and in reality simply covered with a cloth) from the exhibition before its visit by the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev. Aidan’s sculptures (“Black Stone” and “Bride”) were read by censors as openly Islamist, and therefore posing a threat to the new identity of post-Soviet Azerbaijan, which in its foreign policy sympathies is more strongly drawn to secular Turkey rather than to the Islamic Arab East.
The “Revelations” project at Saatchi Gallery is the result of Aidan’s many years of searching, her opus magnum, the sum of her technologies and an encyclopedia of images. The paradox lies in the fact that the artist, as if having perfected (after which self-repetition begins) the theme of the East, made a dizzying leap back into the space of European cultural myth. The imagery of “Revelations” is ambivalent (although an attentive viewer will point out that this ambivalence arose in her previous project “Imminence”), but central themes death, grief and burial, at first glance, are more relevant for Christian culture than for the Muslim East.
Aidan Salakhova. Touch. 2015. Marble. Aidan Salakhova’s exhibition “Revelations” at London’s Saatchi Gallery. January 2016. Photo: Aidan Salakhova
Presented in an endless variety of draperies, they resurrect memories of the Shroud of Turin, Veronica’s Cloak and the plot of the Entombment, known both in Western and Eastern Christian iconography (although the black stone in the folds of white fabric may rather be a tribute to the Islamic tradition about the cloak of Muhammad and his infinite wisdom) , the prostrate male figure is quite naturally associated with the crucified, already dead Christ, and the book, the pages of which are either empty or crumpled, gracefully woman's hand, recalls the Book of Life from the “Revelation” of John the Theologian, sealed before the Last Judgment.
The East gives the artist form and color (gold, deep black and pure white), and the West gives the opportunity for free intellectual play (and games are often on the verge of a foul), within the framework of which the most diverse and sometimes unexpected fragments of pre-Islamic beliefs of the Arabs are intricately combined (for example, three Aidan herself associates the female figures of the composition “Presence” with the three “daughters of Allah” - the Arabian triad of goddesses Al-Lat, Al-Uzza and Manat), Abrahamic religions, Christian iconography and radical ideas about a woman as a supreme being endowed with infinite power, subjugating yourself not only to the forces of nature, but also to your eternal partner/rival - a man.
However, if we look at Aidan’s “Revelations” through the magic crystal of mystical Sufism, then other possibilities for interpretation will open up for us. Behind the seemingly superficial plot of female dominance, we will see the embodiment of the Sufi absolute, not just an abstract man, but a Sufi who, through contemplation (composition “Duality”), finally achieved union with his divine Beloved (composition “Touch”). And then the tears (heavy marble ones or written with ink quickly absorbed into the paper) will become tears of joy of “the one who has come to Him, whom He embraces like a mother’s child” (Sufi sage Abu Said al-Kharraz, 10th century).
I'll start with a question that has simply been haunting me since the year before: is it true that Leonardo DiCaprio gave you a lady's pistol?
What??? What gun??? (Laughs.)
Igor Shulinsky mentions this in his book “The Soul Smells Strange”...
Oh, I haven't read this far yet!
It's clear. So, it's the author's invention?
Of course it's fiction! Yes, I was at Leonardo DiCaprio's birthday party in Jordan and presented my work. He didn't give me anything!
In the book, Shulinsky listed you under the name of the gallery owner Aytach. Not everyone knew then that you were a professional artist? Or is this a special positioning during that period of the 1990s?
He probably just perceived me that way...
After your first solo exhibition in 1986, you were exclusively involved in gallery activities for twenty-six years. What about creativity?
As an artist, I have always worked in parallel. The only exception was four years after the birth of my son.
Do you think now that your gallery years were in vain?
Now I think yes.
Did this reassessment happen with age? Do you regret wasted time?
Very pity. Firstly, the work of a gallerist is hard work. For some reason, now I don’t remember anything joyful from that period (although, of course, there was some!). And only difficulties and problems are remembered. And there was very little time for creativity, too many distractions.
How does the experience of working as a gallery owner affect an artist?
It’s good that art didn’t disgust me! (Laughs.) And so, working as a gallery owner gives you organizational skills, you can already be your own manager.
You have a painting education, like your father and mother. Where and when did the idea to take up sculpture come from?
When I came to visit Emelyan Zakharov in Italy, I saw these marble quarries and immediately realized that I would make a sculpture there. Well, I got involved, of course. And then I remembered: as a child, I went to the basketball section (although it was small) and to the sculpture studio. I even recently found my first bas-relief in the archive, made at the age of eleven.
I heard that as a child you wanted to become a biologist...
Yes, I found it very interesting. I studied well and easily entered the physics and mathematics school, but did not go there to study because I wanted to become a biologist. But I didn’t go to biology either, there I had to learn English, and I had German. And since everyone in the house drew, I went to art school in the fifth grade. And then, naturally, to the Surikov Institute. By the way, perhaps my father’s “sculptural” drawing at the institute helped me become so interested in sculpture.
By the way, my father successfully combined his work as the first secretary of the Union of Artists of the USSR and creativity almost all his life. Have you lost interest in social work?
Well, dad only recently retired from public work; now he is only the vice-president of the Academy of Arts. And I had a long period of such a model of life - work in a gallery and creativity. As a child, for a long time I was sure that everyone drew at home and went to work somewhere. That is, that an artist is not a profession, but an existence. Well, then I saw that, it turns out, other families don’t paint houses!
Knowing that you actively work with marble in Carrara, I thought that sculpture had completely replaced painting and drawing, but now I see that this is not the case, right? (The conversation took place in Aidan’s Moscow apartment, where there is also a workshop.)
Yes, in Moscow I can do painting and graphics, and in Carrara I have a sculpture workshop of 1000 square meters. m. And since I spend quite a lot of time there, almost all the paintings and graphics were sold, and I am now urgently creating new works, for which there is already a queue. In Carrara, I can only do graphics on weekends, because on weekdays, when I do sculpture - and this is very hard work, because when you work with a grinder, a drill, and so on all day, your hands are shaking - it is impossible to draw.
What factor is decisive when buying a piece of marble: its price or the intended sculpture?
A lot of factors influence. First there are sketches, drawings, then a small model is molded, then a large one and a calculation is made of what size piece of marble is needed. And with these dimensions you go to the quarry.
So you go to a quarry, see a piece of stone and say: “Oh, this is what I need, just right”?
No, alas, it would be gorgeous, but only very rich people can afford it. In reality it happens differently. They cut with certain blocks, and a small block, according to their concepts, is two by one and a half by one and a half meters. But for example, I need two per meter per meter. No one will cut off the extra half a meter. There is quite a lot of excess material left. You have to travel to different quarries and choose. After all, Carrara marble is the most expensive in the world.
Is it possible to share a block with some sculptors?
Yes, there is such a practice, and I use it.
Are there many sculptors working in Carrara?
There are a lot of people, probably a hundred people, from all over the world - from Argentina, from Canada, from Australia, from Europe.
A couple of years ago you said that you would no longer import your sculpture to Russia.
This is a lot of money - transportation, customs clearance. When the organizers start counting, they grab their heads. I had several large museum exhibitions related to the transportation of sculpture: in Venice as part of the Biennale, at the MMSI here at the Saatchi Gallery in London, last year in the Belgian Namur in the Catholic Church of Saint-Loup and in the square around it in a major museum project , which was called “Vices and Virtues” and was located on three sites. Its organizer was the Felicien Rops Museum, the curators selected artists - from Bruegel to me. And my exhibition in the church was the third of the entire project.
And they grab their heads only in Russia?
Only we came up with the idea of making the import conditions for sculptures at four euros per kilogram, the same as for ceramic tiles. To make it cheaper, it must be declared a cultural value, but in this case it is very difficult to take it back. And considering that some of my works weigh one and a half to two tons, that’s a huge amount! But, for example, to the United Arab Emirates by sea from Italy - only three to four thousand euros, the same as to England. It was three times cheaper in Belgium.
Are you currently working with any galleries?
I work with Cuadro Fine Art Gallery in Dubai, Wetterling Gallery in Stockholm and XL Gallery in Moscow. And I sell it myself, of course.
Let's talk a little about the past. When you opened the First Gallery with Alexander Yakut and Evgeniy Mitta in 1989, did you have an eye on quick commercial success?
Yes, we somehow didn’t even think about money then.
However, there were rumors that many contemporary art galleries were selling antiques to survive. Have you ever dealt with sales like this?
Yes, until the mid-1990s it was necessary. The viewer was not ready to buy contemporary art, although many people came to the exhibitions, it was a stormy, fun time. Foreigners bought a little, then our collectors appeared and began to buy something inexpensively. And from 1993 to 1997, there was not a single sale of contemporary art in my “Aidan Gallery”! And then they bought a little bit. Therefore, in 2012 I closed the gallery. Calling what is happening here a market would be a very big stretch.
How important is it for an artist to attend major international exhibitions and biennales? Are fairs interesting to an artist, as opposed to a gallery owner?
Of course, it is important for development to look at what is happening, to establish new contacts and social communication Same. An artist needs to see the entire cross-section of world art in currently, be aware of trends and trends.
Do you put any hidden meaning into your work? Does the viewer need to figure them out?
Certainly! There is a first level of perception, a second, then deeper and deeper... But I don’t like to talk about it, I can explain something for the first level of perception, then the person must figure it out himself. An emotion that is not formulated is important to me.
Does your social activity leave enough time for creativity? Is privacy important for an artist?
Yes! There are no problems with this in Carrara - there for me there is only work, creativity. This is difficult in Moscow - in addition to teaching, I want to go to a club and see friends. Well, I had a hard time finding the time to give you an interview, and before leaving I need to finish two more large canvases, I promised.
What most often serves as inspiration, an impetus for the creation of a new work: literature, music, cinema, life events?
These can be completely different things: personal stories, music... Thoughts come when I am lying on the beach and doing nothing or dancing all night in a nightclub, that is, when complete relaxation occurs.
What is your relationship to reality?
Strange... (Laughs). I can’t formulate it, but last years reality is kind of strange. Firstly, I created two completely different realities for myself - Moscow and Carrara. These are absolutely two different worlds, and it’s interesting when you plunge from one world into a diametrically opposite one. And this happens every one and a half to two months.
Is it difficult to return to Moscow?
If I don't watch the news or read Facebook, then it's not hard. I always really enjoy Moscow, meeting friends, parties, restaurants, nightclubs. I like my apartment, in Carrara it is much smaller, and I like the service here.
Service?
Yes, because in Italy it is a disaster. If something breaks here, the plumber comes in twenty minutes; All supermarkets are open at night, the Internet is installed in a day, and not like in Italy: first they draw a line, after two weeks they install a router, and then connect it for another week. So we don’t really appreciate and understand this, but here the household service is much higher. And there is much more bureaucracy in Italy.
But is it still better to live there?
It can't be compared. These are truly two different worlds. It’s more fun here, more convenient from a household point of view. And there, of course, there is ecology, products, climate, more opportunities for work, and so on.
Which contemporary artist is close in spirit?
Among the foreign ones - Matthew Barney, Olafur Eliasson, but in general I don’t like anyone. And from the Russian ones - AES+F, . I used to like the Dubossarsky-Vinogradov duet.
Your art is often associated with eroticism. Are there any taboo topics for you in your work?
No. But in different countries the attitude towards some concepts is different. If previously even here it was possible to exhibit almost everything, now censorship creates obstacles for many topics.
And self-censorship only works with a choice strategy - where a given work can and cannot be exhibited.
Is your interest in oriental themes due to the fact that the main collectors and buyers are from the United Arab Emirates?
This topic constantly interests me. Perhaps she will go somewhere. This type of work is sold in the UAE, and sculptures with a naked body are purchased with pleasure by European connoisseurs. Although with the discovery, perhaps something changed in their legislation, because they imported Greek and Roman nudity. And when we started participating in fairs there, all imports were reviewed by the censorship body, and figurative art, nudity, and religious themes (except Muslim) were impossible.
When you are working on sculpture or painting, is it immediately thought of as part of some kind of exhibition project, series?
All my work is interconnected. From one follows the other. The only thing is that when I paint nudes, I relax. For me this is just hand and eye training.
Do you do custom work?
Painting - no, but sculpture - yes. I make monuments. I have already made two: one was installed at the Troyekurovsky cemetery, and the second in Baku, for the mother of Polad Bulbul-ogly. And this is a very interesting experience.
What are you working on now?
On the project " last supper» in Carrara. This is a large installation sculpture.
Project for a specific space?
No, as usual, I do it for myself. It’s only later, when everything is ready, that proposals will begin to come from the gallerists with whom I collaborate.
Today I am visiting one of the most famous figures on the modern art scene - Aidan Salakhova. Artist, gallerist, teacher and public figure, Aidan is known even to people far from the artistic community, thanks to her charisma and well-deserved authority, and partly because of the scandals associated with the nature and theme of her creative works.
At the end of 2013 our joint photo project: A new variation of the Destiny series, in which Aidan again explored the theme of gender roles with her usual grace.
We will undoubtedly touch on the topic of men and women in this frank interview…
Polina Askeri: Aidan, I looked it up a large number of publications about you and noticed many scandalous stories. Tell me why this happens? Maybe your energetic energy is to blame?
Aidan Salakhova: You know, when I do something, I don’t think about the scandal. Just modern society very conservative in his views on life and art. Humanity as a whole is moving forward, but the reaction of many people has not changed for years. In addition, our country does not have a good cultural level, which is perhaps why any controversial project is perceived in this way. People don't understand the language contemporary art, do not understand the modern language of artistic expression.
Polina Askeri: But this happens not only in Russia. Your sculptures were not allowed to be exhibited in the Azerbaijan pavilion at the Venice Biennale. How did this story end?
Aidan Salakhova: One of the sculptures was taken to the exhibition of the Italian pavilion by Victorius Garbe. It was the Black Stone. Initially, Victorius wanted to take the sculpture of a girl in a burqa, but since it weighed 1.5 tons, the floor of the pavilion simply could not stand it. In fact, it’s a mystery to me why my works were banned, since there was no provocation in them. The composition consisted of a girl in a burqa standing in front of the Black Stone, the shrine of Mecca. In this work I did exact copy frames of the Black Stone, and the only change I made was that due to people's suffering and prayers, the stone turns into a tear that flows out of this frame.
Polina Askeri: So did the audience see these works?
Aidan Salakhova: Oddly enough, this scandal had positive consequences. Thanks to him, one of the leading galleries in the United Arab Emirates paid attention to me. At the Venice Biennale, a graphic showing a woman holding a minaret was also removed from display. These same miniatures were chosen for an exhibition in the UAE.
Polina Askeri: Tell us about how you started? You have a wonderful father, an outstanding painter, did he influence you?
Aidan Salakhova: As a child, I always drew, but I didn’t think of becoming an artist, I wanted to become a biologist. Then my parents persuaded me to go to art school, and from the 9th grade I never left this direction. Since everyone in my family is an artist, it seemed to me that in all families everyone always draws, and that’s how it should be. My first exhibition, which featured the triptych “Steel Orgasm on an Orange Background,” took place in 1986.
Polina Askeri: You see, you are not betraying your sexual theme.
Aidan Salakhova: Actually, everyone thinks about sex, I just talk about it honestly and openly.
Polina Askeri: How was your last exhibition in Dubai?
Aidan Salakhova: Since I had a museum exhibition, some of the works already belonged to private collections, the other part was purchased immediately after the exhibition.
Polina Askeri: You have clients who buy your work all the time, you have friends who support you, but what about new admirers?
Aidan Salakhova: Of course, there are also new faces, for example, the Quadro gallery sold my works to various collectors from Arab countries. Of course, I have things that I would like to keep under review because they are for exhibition. Many people wanted to buy sculptures of women in burqas. But since I want to give them to good hands, and only the three of us, in full, which is why I still have them (laughs).
Polina Askeri: Where are your sculptures made?
Aidan Salakhova: I do everything in Italy. In the Carrara area, where the best white marble is quarried, there is the "Studio Nicoli", which has been around for about 250 years. Many artists make their sculptures there.
Polina Askeri: Aren’t you sorry to part with your works?
Aidan Salakhova: You know, it’s a pity with some people... But when you finish your work, you already realize that you will have to part with it.
Polina Askeri: What are your plans for this year?
Aidan Salakhova: I have already planned a series of sculptures, but I won’t announce in what direction yet. I will start making them in February-March, I think the work will take a year and a half.
Polina Askeri: Regarding our joint photo project, you will print it, and then what? Our presentation caused a lot of noise, people often ask me if we would like to do a series of joint parties?
Aidan Salakhova: Yes, indeed, our work with you has aroused the interest of many. I plan to show the project at exhibitions.
Polina Askeri in the project “Destination”
Polina Askeri: Everyone is discussing what a charismatic and incredibly energetic person you are. What kind of men do you like?
Aidan Salakhova: I like younger ones (laughs). I am a very active person, I go to events and nightclubs, so it’s much more interesting for me to be with young people.
Polina Askeri: Do you fall in love often?
Aidan Salakhova: Not often, but a lot.
Polina Askeri: Why aren't you married?
Aidan Salakhova: I was married, and I realized that this was not really my thing. Because family is work, and not an easy one. This is a whole tough project. When a man realizes that I love art more, jealousy begins. And when you start rushing around and trying to be perfect on two fronts, you lose in both cases. What does family mean to you?
Polina Askeri: For me, family is a man who loves and loves me and the place where you always want to return. For me, family is a single whole, my help and support.
Aidan Salakhova: I repeat once again, this is first and foremost work, and 24 hours a day. I raised my child alone since he was two years old. But raising a child is something else... A man requires more attention!
Polina Askeri: Do you date men from a creative environment?
Aidan Salakhova: You know, I had a husband from a creative environment, so I don’t want to anymore (laughs). Two artists cannot get along together! I think it’s hard for men with me: I often stay in the studio until 2 am, and no man would like that. I don’t understand control and jealousy, so I demand the same attitude towards myself. I can't stand it when I'm deprived of my freedom!
Polina Askeri: Were you like this from the very beginning?
Aidan Salakhova: I am not a jealous person, which many men perceive as indifference. Really, that's just the kind of person I am. You always need to live and do what you want, everything else is social attitudes.
Polina Askeri: Were there times when you needed to fulfill these social guidelines?
Aidan Salakhova: Of course, I just realized over time that this is not possible. As you get older, you begin to value time and understand that you can’t do what you don’t want to do. Everything should be done for your own pleasure! I once read a book by Samurai, where one of the principles says: “You must take every day as if it were your last.” And I try to live by this concept.
Polina Askeri: What do you like most about yourself?
Aidan Salakhova: I think spontaneity.
Polina Askeri: What do you dislike most?
Aidan Salakhova: My laziness, it takes me a long time to start something. (laughs)
