Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe. Man - Art

Vladislav Mamyshev-Monro — a Soviet and Russian artist, painter, graphic artist, drag-queen performer who worked in performance and video art. He also did "scratches" (as Mamyshev himself calls them). This is an authorial technique of scratching the surface of a photograph with subsequent application of drawing. Together with Timur Novikov he created "Pirate Television", which was recognized as the country's first contemporary video art. He staged performances and shows at concerts of Sergey Kuryokhin's group "Pop-Mechanics".
Winner of the Kandinsky Prize 2007 in the category Media Project of the Year.

But Vlad Monroe is best known for his transformations into celebrities. The artist highlights 2–3 traits of a character, often not obvious but always recognizable, and pushes them to the point of absurdity.

Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe is one of my favorite artists. For the star's upcoming birthday on October 12 I reviewed a large amount of material, couldn't resist and wrote an article. In it I will tell about three of the artist's projects and my favorite stories related to him.

Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe with Timur Novikov

TALES OF LOST TIME

The project's title refers to the eponymous film by Yevgeny Shvarts. In the film's plot four evil magicians decide to regain their youth. To do this they must find four young idlers and eat them, thereby collecting their wasted time and turning back into children.

The project is connected to the film only by the idea of lost time — more like a bygone era that will not return, along with a whole layer of culture. The unconnected stories of the characters: iconic figures of Russian culture of the early 20th century and heroes of literary works. Using non-professional actors, makeup and antique props, the characters try to regain their youth, while the project's author cold-bloodedly immerses them in the irretrievable pre-revolutionary time.

The project was first published in ArtChronika magazine in 2001. The idea belongs to Mamyshev-Monroe and was realized in collaboration with photographer Sergey Borisov.

THE RUSSIA WE LOST

A video project — a satire of the then-common stereotype about the high standard of living in Russia in 1913 that had taken hold in Russians' minds thanks to the media. The initial idea included a series of collages featuring representatives of the aristocratic class, taken to the absurd with gender confusion and class-mixing characters. Later Monroe abandoned the collages, and the project appeared as a series of photographs, a video sequence set to songs by Alexander Vertinsky, and installations of sorts — "traces of a vanishing era." These are various stylized accessories and wigs.

"The Russia We Lost" is part of a namesake exhibition shown in 2007 at the XL Gallery. The project was conceived back in the time of "Tales of Lost Time."
Vlad Monroe himself said about it:

"I don't consider myself some kind of fighter... But it's no coincidence that my last exhibition at the XL Gallery was called 'The Russia We Lost.' It was a mockery of all those newly minted noble assemblies, of the albums published by fashion historian Alexander Vasiliev, of Nikita Mikhalkov with his 'Siberian Barber.' On the one hand it was poking fun at that fabricated-from-thin-air nostalgia. But, by and large, in 2007 I realized that we have lost Russia. It's gone. Everything that is happening may perhaps remain as a change of epoch, I don't exclude that. But overall it's a brutal disappointment."

LIVES OF THE REMARKABLE MONROS

A series—or rather a whole portrait gallery—of photographs of Mamyshev-Monroe in the guise of iconic historical figures. The play in this project begins already with the title, which references the propagandist book series "Lives of Remarkable People" (1933) and the film cycle "Death of Remarkable People" released by "Pirate Television" in 1990–1992, whose authors were Timur Novikov and Mamyshev-Monroe himself. Work on the project began in 1995 and continued until the artist's death.

Stories about Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe:

In 1980 Vlad Mamyshev was drafted into the army. He was sent to serve at the Baikonur cosmodrome, where he was supposed to run the army club. Upon arrival he made himself a white wig and sewed a dress from a curtain resembling Marilyn Monroe's dress. He photographed himself as the Hollywood star and hung the photo in the most visible place. Soon the picture was seen by the command, who wondered what woman was decorating the club wall without the commander's permission. To which the artist replied: "That's not a lady, that's me." After that the artist was first sent for psychiatric evaluation, and then back to Leningrad.
Vlad's mother recalled that it was in the army that he first began trying on the image of Marilyn Monroe. In letters he wrote:

"My attachment to her does not diminish, but, on the contrary, takes on ever new forms. Before, I considered her my religion. Then myself — that is, that in Marilyn I love myself. And now I have strangely compared her to my mother."

"Once in Berlin we went to a press conference for the 'Moscow — Berlin' exhibition. An official press conference, the German minister of culture, the mayor, and so on. Vladik came as Hitler. He approached the matter very delicately. He completely transformed into Hitler, but did so without any Nazi symbols. There was nothing to fault. We deliberately sat in the front row, right in front of all those important people who were sitting at the special table and holding the press conference. Vladik put on an incredible mimetic performance. It was a complete innovation. Because we know Hitler's facial expressions mainly from his speeches. And Vladik managed to portray Hitler as a listener virtuously. He constantly demonstrated an incredible absorption in the words being spoken. He leaned forward expressively, clenched his hands, sometimes dropped the leather briefcase he was holding under his arm. All those German ministers saw that they were speaking before the Führer himself. Waves of panic ran across their faces because it was unclear how to perceive it all. On one hand a scandal, but there was nothing to object to. But Hitler was sitting in front of them. They seemingly had no right to react. Accordingly, they kept themselves together. It wasn't easy for them, because, of course, Vladik did everything to unnerve them. They held out, and I, of course, couldn't hold out. I periodically crawled somewhere near Hitler from laughing. There was a chance they would remove me from the hall instead of Hitler, who was behaving quite decently." — From the recollections of Pavel Pepperstein.

Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe. Tsar. (with Anton Levakhin) 2010

In the mid-1990s Vlad Monroe moved to Moscow, where he immediately became one of the most vivid and well-known figures of the art scene. In the capital he lived in none other than Boris Berezovsky's apartment, where he had been invited to stay by Elizaveta — the businessman's daughter. Later he would cause a big fire there. Accidentally, of course.
"Eliza didn't like living there. Berezovsky didn't like living there. But I liked it very much. Because Western curators and art historians came to me, and they simply couldn't believe how a Russian artist lives!" — Monroe recalled in one interview.

Once Mamyshev walked the streets of Moscow in the guise of Osama bin Laden. In a white robe, with a glued-on black beard, with an Arab headscarf and in makeup. He strolled freely along Tverskaya surrounded by several journalists. On Mayakovsky Square a group of English tourists noticed him and were greatly disturbed by what they saw. They seriously concluded that the world's number one terrorist was walking through Moscow in broad daylight!
They began to gestures wildly, shouting the Arab leader's name ever louder. Vlad Monroe went into a café to get away from the noisy crowd. The Englishmen called the police. The police arrived and checked his documents. The disappointed crowd had to disperse.

Already living in Bali, Vladislav got a mongrel dog. Her name was Bronya and he loved her very much. "We were surprisingly alike, she became my family," the artist admitted. "She liked to bite the waves, and I rented a house on the coast…" One day she got lost, and the artist searched for her for a long time. The little dog never turned up. Monroe was then in Cambodia. Missing his friend, he painted a portrait of Bronya in the guise of the Buddhist mythological dancer Apsara. But it turned out that in Cambodia a portrait of an Apsara with a dog's face is a terrible sacrilege.

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