Leonid Voitsekhov is a contemporary artist, art theorist, curator and writer. He was born and lived almost all his life in Odesa. He is a father of Odesa Conceptualism – a trend of art that claims that the main thing is not the form of the work, but its intellectual component. Most of Voitsekhov’s works are built on associations, wordplay and absurd situations that force the viewer to pay attention to non-obvious details. He was one of the first organizers of actions and performances in Odesa.

An action “Exploration of artistic lodes” which was also curated by Leonid Voitsekhov, is dedicated to problem of misconception of the evaluation of art as a commercial product. The action took place in the public space of the central city square, next to a spontaneous market where works of art of various levels were put up for sale by artists or dealers. Voitsekhov and his assistants, armed with borrowed or found geodetic instruments, imitated the work of geologists at the stage of studying the topography of the area. They approached the artists and their works, carefully measuring the dimensions and proportions, as if conducting visual studies. It was announced that these measures would allow to determine the real artistic value of the works. The girl with the folder carefully and concentratedly recorded the results of these experiments in a table in a notebook, giving the action an official scientific appearance.

In the photographs in the Museum of Odesa Modern Art, you can see the measurements of the works of only well-known artists: Oleksandr Roitburd and Oleksandr Savko. Most of these authors were happy to support the game of high-scientific research. It is not known how lesser-known authors, who made works of frankly low quality, reacted. Passers-by, who had nothing to do with the organization of the action, also unwittingly became its participants, observing the process.

The campaign raised questions about the essence of creativity and invited us to think about how to distinguish real and valuable art. Curator Leonid Voitsekhov aimed to show that real art is often reduced to the level of a commodity. He reminded that it is easy to lose sight of the value and essence of art. That is why it will require deep research, attention and immersion, similar to the exploration of natural resources. It is obvious that it is necessary to counterpose search and support of new artistic “deposits” to a short-sighted commercial calculation.