Hochu Byt’ Sokovym
Chelyabinsk is an industrial Russian city in the Urals, located some 2500 miles away from London. Famous for the 2013 meteor, a huge tractor plant, and most recently its powerful art scene, it is home to those who largely influence Russian contemporary art. Among them is Hochu Byt’ Sokovym, an art group inspired by the iconic artist and sculptor Leonid Sokov.
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About:
In an age of personal branding and new expressions of sincerity, it is uncommon for artists to separate their identity from their work. Unlike many contemporaries, members of the Hochu Byt’ Sokovym art group intentionally step away from their projects as they continue to experiment with different genres and media, from street paint to buckwheat. Their social media platforms do not reveal the people behind the projects or their stories, but sometimes offer laconic explanations to some of the group’s works. The name Hochu Byt’ Sokovym (Хочу Быть Соковым) translates to “I want to be Sokov,” referring to Leonid Sokov, a renowned Russian nonconformist artist known for his extensive research of Soviet visual culture with its symbols and icons. Looking to Sokov, the Chelyabinsk-based art group is brave in quoting recognizable visual symbols and combining them with Russian urbanism.
Leonid Sokov, Lenin and Giacometti, 1989. Bronze, 47.5cm.
In Hochu Byt’ Sokovym’s Piece of Art series, Boticelli’s Venus looks perfectly relevant against the shabby urban background along with Watteau’s La Boudeuse that gracefully reclines on the wooden steps of a city park.
Hochu Byt’ Sokovym takes site-specific art to a new level. In their Duck Intervention project from 2019, the group introduced a secret agent, a neon pink rubber toy, into a raft of ducks and documented the newcomer’s journey in an experiment showing how a foreign element can destroy an established hierarchy from within. The rubber duck from the project could, among many things, represent feminism and its influence on the patriarchal society.
Hochu Byt’ Sokovym, Duck Intervention, 2019.
Confessing their love for the Urals, Hochu Byt’ Sokovym invites their surroundings to participate in their art. The snow, the city streets, and the ruins of old buildings have become canvases for the group’s many artistic experiments and collaborations.
Hochu Byt’ Sokovym’s audience has largely increased with the group’s participation in Russian biennials. One of their most recent biennial projects was what the group called “an illegal buckwheat intervention” at the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial in Ekaterinburg. As a response to many artists being rejected and not having the opportunity to show their work there, Hochu Byt’ Sokovym presented their project titled Not Enough Buckwheat for Everyone. Placed at one of the biennial’s venues, the pile of buckwheat, a staple food in Russia, represented the limited resources and opportunities available to artists in a modern exploration and depiction of art and accessibility.
Hochu Byt’ Sokovym, Not Enough Buckwheat for Everyone, buckwheat, 2019
Selected Exhibitions
2021 Art Agitka 1.0, (Russia)
2021 A Time To Embrace and Refrain From Embracing, (Russia)
2021 Urbanconfest, (Russia)
2020 Nemoskva [lit. Not Moscow] is Just Around the Corner, (Russia)
2019 5th Ural Industrial Biennial, (illegal intervention) (Russia)
Anastasia Pechalova
Contributing Writer, MADE IN BED