Egor Zigura "Kore Awakening"

The sculpture Kore Awakening is a part of the Awakening diptych, comprised of a male and female figure

The statue depicts the awakening of the free human spirit in the times when the present consumerist culture has, as the artist sees it, entered a stage of crisis. The sculpture’s fragmented shape, harkening back to the Classical Antiquity, emphasizes visual destruction on the formal level, and hints at the apocalyptic finale of the consumerist existence that left no space for spiritual freedom after “humankind had relinquished freedom in exchange for higher quality of life.” In the only possible scenario for salvation, each individual would recognize the importance of moving on from consumerist passive being to active life. Knowledge of our sources and foundations would be crucial since those would become beacons of change and salvation. It is no coincidence that Zigura actively engages with the legacy of the Classical Greek Antiquity, which has informed the entirety of the European culture.

The artist reworks Kore, a Greek type of sculpture of the Archaic period depicting a female figure. Nevertheless, Egor Zigura’s Kore Awakening is stripped of its original meaning and addresses the viewer with a new message, a new informative and sensory construct.