Assignment of space. Kochergin I.

In the early 1990s, Ilya Kochergin decided on a kind of biographical experiment: he left his studies at the Institute of Asia and Africa, left Moscow and went to travel in Siberia. Despite the fact that Kochergin nevertheless returned to Moscow, this adventure left an important trace in the fate of the writer: the impression of life among the mystical Altai mountains became part of his art world. The experience of being outside the city civilization supplied Kochergin with material, influenced his personal internal attitudes, the artistic method and the choice of problems.

In the texts included in the book “Statement of space”, Ilya Kochergin talks about returning to Altai and the construction of his own house in the Ryazan region. The position with which the author describes the landscapes of Southern Siberia and the middle strip is unique: among them he is at the same time his own, “that lives” or “getting used” into these landscapes, and a stranger belonging to a large city. Such an angle allows you to see something especially important and piercing in these places and stories of their inhabitants. Stylistically, the text balances between journalistic clarity and poetry: this is how a dynamics is created inside the book that helps organically combine an autobiographical narrative with relevant reflection on the boundaries that modern civilization has established between man and nature.