Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov’s artistic practice engages with various biological processes, challenging the conventional notion of humanity as the ruler of nature. By incorporating imagery and motifs from natural sciences, the artist exposes the dichotomy between the natural and the anthropological, presenting nature as a universal language that, on the one hand, demands classification, yet on the other, rapidly disintegrates into separate fragments.
The exhibition “Cabinet of Rare Poisons and Fantastic Zoology” is part of Fedotov-Fedorov’s larger artistic research, the first phase of which was introduced in the “Museum of Poisons” project at Anna Nova Gallery. Situated at the intersection of anthropology, biology, and art, this project incorporates visual elements of poisonous animals and plants. Conceived as a unique museum of poisons, alchemical artifacts, antidotes, and talismans against diseases, the artistic experiment explores a semantic system reminiscent of medieval thought.
The project’s title refers, on the one hand, to late medieval collecting practices—such as the Kunstkammer or cabinet of curiosities—guided by the principle of cataloging the surrounding world in its entirety. On the other hand, it nods to the original title of Jorge Luis Borges’ work “The Book of Imaginary Beings”. Borges’ speculative bestiary, presented as a fantastical encyclopedia, follows Michel Foucault’s idea of unsettling the familiar habits of thought. Thus, the exhibition creates a space for artistic experimentation where the medieval aesthetic—characterized by an “uncontrolled growth of form beyond the limits of an idea”—merges anatomy with humoral theory, alchemy with theology, astrology with Gnostic philosophy, and the boundless collection of “everything” in early cabinets of curiosity with the unstoppable expansion of symbols.
The “Cabinet of Rare Poisons and Fantastic Zoology” adopts the methodology of a medieval scholar-archivist, situating Ilya Fedotov-Fedorov’s works within the space of a bookstore, a symbolic heir to the cabinet of curiosities. Today’s poisons are generated by the digital environment—just as ambiguous for us as nature was for medieval people—which becomes a field for the reactivation of speculative artistic experimentation. Only through non-utilitarian objects, fantastical substances, and intricate talismans can digital poisons acquire their necessary antidote. These antidotes emerge precisely through fantastical objects that refer to nothing but themselves, thereby possessing the power to “unsettle” habits of thought paralyzed by automatic perception.
Mythical substances and creatures—such as the Philosopher’s Stone and the Chariot of Mercury, the Unicorn’s Horn and the Wolpertinger, or “The Creature with Helpless Paws” and “The Cunning Creature with a Grin”—cease to be dismissed as “scientific errors” or “superstitions.” Instead, they become metaphors, a contemporary Mithridate—a semi-mythical antidote against the digital plague.
