Alexandr Apollonov’s "The Theater of Masks"
The aim of the article is to study the problem of authenticity and fake forms of the modern mass culture by the example of a series of works by the sculptor Alexandr A. Apollonov «the Theatre of masks». The methodological basis of the research is provisions of F. Schelling and G. - G. Gadamer on art as the embodiment of universal ideas of the uniqueness of a specific image and, accordingly, a particular way of understanding the world by means of mimesis - recognizing those ideal-typological grounds that define the realities of life. In this context, sculpture, through the creation of plastic images, penetrates into the value-semantic horizon of the ideal, which makes it possible to comprehend the existential foundations of life. Such images do not just convey a certain idea, but concretize its abstract content. Thus, the completeness of its expression is achieved, combining thought and emotion. The difference between the mimesis of modern sculpture belonging to the classical tradition and the works of «actual», «conceptual», «associative» art, which is based on the principle of representation, is shown. Such a principle conveys the idea through a deliberate scheme, which leads to imitation, parody and kitsch, art is not modern, but momentary. Mimesis of modern sculpture, on the contrary, aims at identifying the dynamics of today's eternal themes and spiritual foundations of human existence. In the analysis of sculptural works, the hermeneutic method was used, which involves the clarification of the author's approach to the understanding of the existential problem by the author through the analysis of the composition and the plastic language of the work. The analysis of the considered works showed that the mask is a metaphor of visibility, an external image that is in an essential connection with a person. Such a connection is ambivalent: the mask appears to be a product of man and his burden; it helps to express himself, to find stability in life, but also imposes fake forms of existence on him. Therefore, the acquisition of authenticity is not only to remove the mask, but is a dramatic process of asserting themselves in them.