A Few Thoughts from Our Solitude

Lesha Stolyarov's contemporary art includes bitumen paintings, pictures made of gas burners, abstract art, in short, everything that is incomprehensible to the layman. Recently, Lesha has been going through a creative crisis; he wants to speak about God, but using the artistic means that are unfamiliar to hm. So he decides to make an experiment and travels to the Spaso-Sumorin Monastery in distant Totma to set up an installation amidst the Vologda snows. Only one monk lives in this monastery – Father Feodosiy. Forty years ago, he was a painter but abandoned his craft to serve God. One would think he should be sympathetic to art. However, the ultra-modern artist clashes with an equally "ultra" counterpart – only an orthodox one. Is it possible to reconcile contemporary art and the church, new trends and two-thousand-year-old traditions?