Dates: 21/06/2024 - 28/07/2024
Address: 9 Usacheva St., Moscow
With their new painting series, the HOUDINI art group presents a free-spirited take on classic Shakespearean characters and narratives. Here, we enter a contemporary realm where magic is but a faint suggestion, and the presence of fairies can only be glimpsed in one’s peripheral vision.
The group, which unites three artists —Masha Lam, Kirill Silantyev, and Sergei Blokh—draws its name from the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini. In many ways, each artwork is its own feat of handmade magic: a clever illusion, an engaging performance. Yet it is also an escape—a departure from reality. In a world that falls short of perfection, art arrives just when one must confront what is real.
Shakespeare’s plays embody the very method and narrative logic of HOUDINI: they are layered stories, "a play within a play", where one reality unfolds inside another. Like a fleeting carnival—a mischievous, time-bound spectacle with a clear beginning and end — their artworks leave behind more questions than answers. Beneath the theatrical flair and almost saccharine playfulness, HOUDINI’s art speaks to something deeper: the inner conflicts of the human psyche, the clichés that shape our worldview, and the subtle tricks of perception. Their visual stories thrive on inverting opposites: the wicked becomes virtuous, the blasphemer turns bishop, the weapon morphs into a toy. A single image can stir conflicting emotions—or pull the ground from under one’s feet entirely.
The artists invite us to witness the tale from two opposing vantage points. First, to behold and marvel at its enchantment; then, to look closer and see through the illusion. Only to finally glance back at a reality already lost in an endless weave of meanings and mirages.
The group, which unites three artists —Masha Lam, Kirill Silantyev, and Sergei Blokh—draws its name from the legendary escape artist Harry Houdini. In many ways, each artwork is its own feat of handmade magic: a clever illusion, an engaging performance. Yet it is also an escape—a departure from reality. In a world that falls short of perfection, art arrives just when one must confront what is real.
Shakespeare’s plays embody the very method and narrative logic of HOUDINI: they are layered stories, "a play within a play", where one reality unfolds inside another. Like a fleeting carnival—a mischievous, time-bound spectacle with a clear beginning and end — their artworks leave behind more questions than answers. Beneath the theatrical flair and almost saccharine playfulness, HOUDINI’s art speaks to something deeper: the inner conflicts of the human psyche, the clichés that shape our worldview, and the subtle tricks of perception. Their visual stories thrive on inverting opposites: the wicked becomes virtuous, the blasphemer turns bishop, the weapon morphs into a toy. A single image can stir conflicting emotions—or pull the ground from under one’s feet entirely.
The artists invite us to witness the tale from two opposing vantage points. First, to behold and marvel at its enchantment; then, to look closer and see through the illusion. Only to finally glance back at a reality already lost in an endless weave of meanings and mirages.