Abstract

The article is devoted to the comparison of “folk things” from the collection of Vladimir Arkhipov presented at the exhibition “Objects of Pride and Shame. The Vladimir Arkhipov`s Collection – Things, Authors, Transformations”, with the performance of asanas (postures) in the Iyengar yoga. The goal of the article is to demonstrate that the forming of folk things collected by the artist Arkhipov and the performance of asanas in the Iyengar yoga are an exemplification of the same ontological structure that is found (or not found) in practices again and again. The methodological basis of the work is the approach proposed by the American philosopher Steven Shaviro in his work “Without Criteria: Kant, Whitehead, Deleuze and Aesthetics”, in which the aesthetics of I. Kant and the ontology of A.N. Whitehead and J. Deleuze are outlined. As a result of the work done, Shaviro shows how the transcendental subject loses its exclusivity and turns into an assembly of actual entities on the ontological plane. According to S. Shaviro, such an assembly is possible only in an aesthetic way, and therefore, aesthetics becomes the first philosophy. Appeal to sensual practices (in our case, to the Iyengar yoga and to the collection of folk things by the artist) makes it possible to discover in these practices the aesthetic attitude of actual entities, the general ontological structure. “Folk Things” from the collection of Vladimir Arkhipov, understood as communities of actual entities, at the moment of reassembly manifest themselves and the specifics of the aesthetic relationship according to which these communities are formed. A broken suitcase, which has restored its functionality thanks to a metal bar, rope and sticks, displaces a suitcase that is accustomed to use. But at the same time, it shows the connections of communities of actual entities with each other and is “museumified” by the artist precisely as a demonstration of such connections that have become visible. In the practice of Iyengar yoga, in the process of performing asanas (poses) and integrating the body with various props, the moment of rebuilding the connections of actual entities also becomes visible. At this moment, the yogi's body is felt as part of the system of sending one thing to another – it becomes "reassembled". The constellation of bodies and things is in the process of restructuring, in which harmonious moments of beauty are captured.

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