Oleksiy Sai, creator of the Excel-art series, about the problematics of digital format

Oleksiy Sai, a contemporary Ukrainian artist, author of sculptures and installations, creator of the Excel-art series, shared his experience of holding a virtual exhibition and discussed the problematics of digital format with Anastasiia Gliebova.

Oleksiy, please tell about your current activities — what projects are you working on, how tangible is the impact of quarantine measures for you?

The quarantine did not particularly affect my work; nobody comes to my studio. I have several long-running series at work, I finish them alternately and get distracted by applied tasks, which also sometimes need to be performed. There has never been yet that I take on only one topic.

Have there been any conceptual changes in your corporate series due to the drastical changes in the world around you?

I am already depicting a world that is over, something that is on the way to inevitable change and end. The working relationship of people, their aesthetics, has changed a lot over the 20 years that I have been actively working. I think it works differently in different countries, but in general, work ethics and relationships between people have become a little more humane, but at the same time an entire generation has changed. Everything changes, but I, perhaps, continue to capture what is leaving.

Where do you think is the line between art and design?

For me, it is completely definite — when a person forms their order by themselves, they are most likely engaged in either art or complete bullshit. And when a person completes the tasks that the order assigns them, necessity or functionality is already a design. There are, of course, border areas, such as monumental art — it fulfills a certain order, but it absolutely does not work without complete creative freedom. The border is passed when a person is willing to independently form their order, even within an applied task.

How do you think digital art is changing the world, the philosophy of art in general?

I do not quite understand what digital art is now, for me the definition is not critical. There are the problematics with what to do with the original file, which has no material embodiment, but in general it is just a medium that does not change its essence. Digital format once again raises the question of what an object is — once again someone is answering it, the questions are constantly being chewed: if your image is everywhere, is it still yours? If your work can be endlessly replicated, what is the value of the original? Personally, I don’t ask these questions. But everyone answers them in their own way, so it is impossible and it makes no sense to create certain standards, everything is self-regulating.

Is the experience of holding virtual exhibitions more positive or negative for you in comparison with physical ones?

I have not seen people who viewed my last exhibition, so I cannot judge, but I liked it, they made a good opening. It’s curious, but can you call it an exhibition, or rather a watchpad, as it is trendy now on social networks? As a documentary film, which is made once, so similar exhibitions are not yet a definite space. I don’t know how many people are in it, how I am manipulating it. I do not have much enthusiasm for this, I perceived the exhibition as an integral work, which is not even an exhibition in the conventional sense of the word.

How do you think V-Art can help you personally and other artists, digital art in general?

You will be a bridge between galleries and somehow help the art community, which is equally useful to museums, dealers and gallery owners, you will begin to perform a function as physically overloading Kunsttrans and perform what they physically cannot and will not be able to do on their own.