Exhibition “This Is Not a Book: Collection of Dmitry Volkov. The story of a man, his art and library" sent viewers on a quest on the collector's mind. Considering that Dmitry Volkov is not only a collector and philanthropist, but also a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, as well as a venture investor with a focus on artificial intelligence technologies, the journey turned out to be interesting. The viewer was guided through the exhibition by light (architect Katya Bochavar) and sound. The audio tour mixes the collector's story about what connects him with the selected works, with the voice of the curator, the role of which was performed by the performance artist and director Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich.
The exhibition features works by contemporary artists (painting, photography, objects) and volumes of rare editions of philosophical treatises by Francis Bacon, René Descartes, Immanuel Kant, Georg Hegel. Art and philosophy are two key mediums of human wisdom, says Dmitry Volkov. And the title of the exhibition simultaneously refers both to the surrealist work of Rene Magritte "The Treachery of Images" ("This is not a pipe"), and to Kant's ideas about sensations (each one has his own) that create an object of cognition.
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