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  PG GROUP (Aleksey Kayalkin, Iliya Falkovsky, Boris Spiridonov) 

 Biographical information 
 
PG group was founded in 2000. Today its participants are Ilya Falkovsky, Alexey Katalkin, and Boris Spiridonov. The "PG" abbreviation has been decoded differently depending on certain project: "Criminal Group / Prestupnaya Gruppa", "Antitank Bomb / Protivotankovaya Granata", "Fire Plug / Pozharnyi Gidrant".

Aleksey KATALKIN
(real name Alex Rashkovan) – place and date of birth unknown, nationality – Moldavian, previous occupation – profiteer from Solyanka, presently – professional card player.

Iliya FALKOVSKIY
(Ilyas Falkaev) – place and date of birth unknown, nationality – Chechen, for a long time was an ordinary fighter in a criminal gang, which controlled hard currency dealing, the trade of gold and The Orders of Lenin and prostitution in the South-West of the capital.

Boris SPIRIDONOV
(he is Ruchechnik) – born in 1920, nationality – Russian, the oldest Moscow pickpocket, who carried out thefts in theatres, museums, art galleries and similar places of cultural leisure.
Site: http://www.pop-grafika.net/

 

 Collections where works are held 
 
 

 Participation in exhibitions and auctions 
 
The activity of the group is multifunctional. In its magazines, postcards, music discs, performances and comics works the group develops theme of cruel reality of today`s life seen through the lyric glass of Moscow rastaman culture. The artists adopt the tactics of role behavior, playing mass-media figures: bandits, Chechens, city hooligans, Islamic extremists, members of sub-cultural groups. These diverse trends of its activity the group has generated into a "multimedia comics" format, where photo stills are accompanied by video images and soundtrack.
 

 Autobiographical notes 
 
 

 What the critics say 
 

OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE ACTIVITIES OF PG

PG is an autonomous, mobile, criminal group of "artists", who tend towards multi-functional activity. There is a well-known deep aphorism of PG: "To sing, to dance, and to write, for us, is the same as to paint". So it is – the double meaning of this saying is, on the one hand, that for these guys it was absolutely unimportant what they did – sing, or dance or boisterously box, and on the other hand, it really did not matter to them what they "painted". Any object in their capable thieving hands became a real work of art. Any of their actions was transformed into a gesture of art. Whatever they did these most refined appreciators of beauty, genuine – I shall not be afraid of this word – masters, experts, these elegant, stylish young crooks – for them everything turned out equally well. That is why even the most ordinary of their public appearances resulted in wild ovations and raucous laughter.

The criminal group appeared in the autumn of 1998 on the initiative of A. Delfin, A. Katalkin, A. Falkovskiy and A. Chernyak who joined them a little later, having being released from prison. After the 17th of August the feeling of the exhaustion of the space, which had formed during the post-perestroika period, arose. In the search for new territories, still undivided into spheres of influence, the group moved to other worlds. There it started to cultivate a fresh cultural field of Soviet weeds and young Russian generically-crossed mutants. It had to master a new criminal language -the language of contemporary mass concepts.

The first product of the activity of PG in this zone was Magazine (the abbreviation of – fat crooks cut the intestines of fools with knives), in which were combined the traditions of the illegal lairs of Soviet times, today`s aggressive style and pleasant Russian recklessness. Then the chain of criminal tours to Moscow and St. Petersburg was set up: under the cover of exhibitions of contemporary artists, musicals, performances and literary activities PG was in many top-class places. They managed to gain a great deal and to chat with the right men. As A. Marinina wrote: "The most important thing is to appear at the dark hour in a dark room and not to forget your white pistol". From June onwards the style-forming mega-machine – web-machine "The voice of PG" was up and running at full speed. The money flowed in. As Putin said to Mashadov "Don`t` get your bum wet in the toilet, and everything will be alright". At the same time other PG-programmes were frozen.

Under interrogation the PG`ers at the top of their voices made a declaration of psychedelic gealism, the style without limits, when the most adequate way of depicting reality looks "absolute inadequate" – the monologue of a mad creator, simultaneously both author and hero and... "The thief should sit in the madhouse!" – such were their last words.

Ekaterina Ilyinicha Degot
Art Critic, PhD
Press-Release for the exhibition
"Press-format", "House", 2000.

 

 Bibliography 
 
 

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