Vyacheslav Akhunov: Instruments of the Mind

Vyacheslav Akhunov: Instruments of the Mind offers a poetic reflection on themes related to cognitive and spiritual consciousness. Exploring the relationship between archives, memory and time, Akhunov’s art offers tools for reimagining and rethinking histories and narratives through counter-archeologies, mantras, para-fictions, and the use of archival bricolage and reassemblage methods.

The title of the exhibition is inspired by the philosophical understanding of mantras, which are a recurring artistic method in Akhunov’s practice, relayed through the use of texts and performative gestures. Derived from Sanskrit, mantras have been employed for mindfulness, meditation, prayer, and affirmations in Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam. Mantras have also been employed as tools for ideological slogans throughout history including the former USSR of which Akhunov was a citizen until its collapse in 1991.

Through painting, drawing, video and installation, he offers moments of introspection, transcendence, absurdity and humour, highlighting a unique practice that has spanned the last five decades. Presenting unrealized works for the first time, conceived in the 1970s, the exhibition examines an antichronological project.