Interview. Viacheslav Poliakov

Viacheslav’s work as a Motion and Graphic designer has a strong influence on his artistic projects. Viacheslav is proud to share his „Lviv–God’s will“ book and other projects.

How are you? What have you done today?
Good, need some free time, open borders and no pandemics around.

Who are your biggest influences?
The internet, all travels I can digest. And, especially, the contrast between global internet’s „normal“ and local reality. But to name a few, I always mention artist from my home city (Kherson, Херсон) — Stas Volyazlovskiy, Slava Mashnitskiy, Max Afanasiev.

What is your general workflow?
I like to travel around the country, visit all these industrial towns built by soviets in the middle of nowhere, next to the ruins of medieval fortresses. They often have a closed military factory that used to employ the entire town’s population, a couple of baroque churches, a ruined synagogue, and a kitschy market next to brutalist „palace of culture“ from the 80s. I love and hate those places; their isolated uniqueness and frozen time. Where traditional culture meets glossy plastics, where concrete ghosts of the past are being utilized in the most unpredictable manner.

Why art?
Who knows. A natural habit? I was drawing during all school-university time, it helped me to fight boredom during lectures… Or to challenge the idea of death? Or, maybe, it is just not so easy to find a job that will make your day worth living.

What do you dislike about the art world?
That it thinks it is a „separate“ world, not a part of the normal one. Artists are often sure that they are more sophisticated than construction workers or taxi drivers.

What is your next project?
When I have a good written definition of a project, I call it a „past project“. If I have a complete understanding of what I will do — I call it job. While doing art, I like to play, I like to be surprised myself first. So later I can surprise others.

Viacheslav Poliakov – www.via-poliakov.com