Ruins of Modernism:

Sixteen Works by Roman Khidekel (2025)

Curated by Dmitry Borshch

Artist Statement:

The thematic series of images "Ruins of Modernism" explores the theory and philosophy of futuristic architecture using a humanist approach. The images conceptualize grand ephemeral structures that represent the totality of collapsed and fragmented modernism, utilizing geometric forms and abstraction to convey a sense of cosmic dimension.

Inspired by the ideas of the Avant-garde and the Suprematism of Kazimir Malevich and the monumental architecture envisioned by early 20th-century modernism, the series seeks to comprehend the relationship between philosophy and space in the world of tomorrow, against the backdrop of the history of modern architecture. Early 20th-century works, rooted in utopian ideals, depicted futuristic fantasy architectures such as those imagined by Malevich and his disciples, including El Lissitzky and Lazar Khidekel.

Today 3D visualization allows us to render these fantastical projects of Malevich, Lissitzky, and Khidekel to their true scale and level of detail, embodying the dynamism and spiritual dimension of Suprematist philosophy. However, we must ask what these early 20th-century dreams, born from a movement that challenged conventional artistic values, mean in the context of contemporary challenges and the urgent needs of our fractured planet.

Works from the early 20th century – that influenced so much of the art, design, and culture that followed – display an optimism in the future where cities and technologies could allow humanity’s habitats to float effortlessly above the earth without interfering with and polluting the natural environment. These enormous habitats would also float in space, orbiting our planet, giving humanity free access to space, and removing all heavy industry and pollution from the surface of the planet.

My artworks, created in the last three years, are the product of the search for the meaning of the Avant-garde and modernism in today’s uncertain world, where ideas of rational order and progress appear to be stumbling. One hundred years ago Malevich and his students dreamed of a utopian future where new art would complement a new social order. Today we are living among the ruins of modernism at a time when uncertainty darkens our expectations of the future.

The sublime spatial forms conceived by Malevich's Suprematism, once representing a higher realm of consciousness and cosmic truth, appear to us today as the rusting hulls of beached ships after a great hurricane has thrown them against rocky shores. These decaying and forgotten monuments to grand ideas of progress, once embodying the movement's focus on elemental shapes and non-objectivity, now float aimlessly in space above the ruined cities of tomorrow. All that remains are chaotic fragments, a far cry from the simplicity and purity of Suprematist ideals, floating above an injured world, challenging us to reconsider the legacy of this influential artistic philosophy in our contemporary context.

About the artist:

Growing up in a family of Suprematist artists and architects, Roman was fascinated by the stories of space travel and the visual visceral images of cosmic bodies and futuristic cities in the drawings of his grandfather Lazar Khidekel in the 1920s and his father Mark Khidekel, a participant in the Apollo-Soyuz project in the mid-1970s. Paying homage to this rich legacy, Roman’s space structures merge with urban ensembles suspended in the air, hovering on the edge between aerial cities and space stations.

In a series of large-scale digital works of art, he elevates these structures above a variety of landscapes – green, vibrant or post-civilizational trash – turning them into romantic ruins, mysteriously exciting plots that require dynamic development, and, accordingly, one of his main reference points was animation cinema.

This intense dialogue between generations is visualized in vivid images that tell of our time, which has lost its appetite for the Avant-garde desire for new forms and ideas, and at the same time is preparing for the next leap, which will reveal the classical ardor of discovery that has remained.