Viktor Nikonenko’s Exhibition «The Story of Nigel and…»

The Victor Nikonenko’s exhibition is dedicated to the story of the loneliest bird on Earth. This gannet bird was nicknamed Nigel, which in Australian dialect means «a person without friends», «a loner». In the hope of attracting real gannets to the reserve, New Zealand zoologists have installed on a cliff eighty birds made from concrete. Speakers have been built into them to lure the birds flying by. However, for many years, only Nigel took the bait. He flew in and stayed on the island and found his chosen one among the stone statues. While caring for her, making a nest for her, he did not leave her even when real gannets appeared on the island. He took fiction for reality, fell in love with a skillfully crafted dummy.

This story inspired Viktor Nikonenko to create pictures, each of which represents a separate performance, and together they tell the lifelong story. Anna Kazarina notes that «the artificial things on the pictures want to impersonate the present, and the present wants to hide, to merge with a fake, to think of the incredible: a snowy hummingbird, a pineapple blinded with blizzard and lighted by a lonely lantern at night».

The exhibition is complemented by a series of works «Cypresses» by Ilariya Nikonenko, where an insatiable youth is expressed through the picturesque multi-layer.

About the artist

Victor Nikonenko is a theatre and cinema artist, a painter. Born in 1957 in Angarsk, Irkutsk Region. Graduated from the Irkutsk School of Arts (1976). Designed about one hundred performances in theatres in Russia and abroad /Poland, France, Great Britain/. Production designer of movies and television films. Member of the Union of Theatre Workers of Russia. Member of the Moscow Union of Artists. Winner of numerous theatrical awards, including the Golden Mask Award.