A Few Thoughts from Our Solitude

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Lesha Stolyarov's contemporary art includes bitumen paintings, pictures made of gas burners, abstract art, in short, everything that is incomprehensible to the layman. Recently, Lesha has been going through a creative crisis; he wants to speak about God, but using the artistic means that are unfamiliar to hm. So he decides to make an experiment and travels to the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery in distant Totma to set up an installation amidst the Vologda snows. Only one monk lives in this monastery – Father Feodosiy. Forty years ago, he was a painter but abandoned his craft to serve God. One would think he should be sympathetic to art. However, the ultra-modern artist clashes with an equally "ultra" counterpart – only an orthodox one. Is it possible to reconcile contemporary art and the church, new trends and two-thousand-year-old traditions?