As I stepped into the halls of the National Art Museum of Ukraine, I knew I was about to embark on a journey unlike any other. The exhibition before me, “Modus Coloris Sintez” by the enigmatic Florian Yuriev, promised to blur the very boundaries between sight and sound, challenging my senses in the most delightful of ways.
You see, Yuriev was no ordinary artist – he was a synesthete, blessed with the extraordinary ability to experience color as sound, and vice versa. While the majority of us perceive these sensory realms as distinct and separate, for Yuriev, they were intricately intertwined, woven together into a captivating tapestry of artistic expression.
Color Requiem
As I stood before Yuriev’s iconic “Color Requiem”, I was immediately struck by the sheer audacity of the work. Inspired by the solemn musical genre, the artist had eschewed the traditional shapes and forms typically associated with the requiem, opting instead for a geometric composition.
Yuriev’s synesthetic gift allowed him to experience the melancholic rhythmic harmonies of a requiem as a symphony of hues, each note manifesting as a distinct shade or tone. It was a mesmerizing blend of the aural and the visual, a true synesthetic symphony that left me with feeling of understanding how the world works.
As I explored the exhibition, my senses were continuously captivated by the way Yuriev’s works seemed to vibrate with an all my favorite songs (I started imagining Coil, King Lizzards, Bach). The rhythmic undulations of his geometric shapes, the harmonious interplay of complementary hues – it was as if the canvases were alive with a symphony of color, each piece a unique composition that spoke to the very core of my being.
Perhaps the most intriguing aspect of Yuriev’s art was the way it challenged the traditional boundaries between disciplines. Leonardo da Vinci style. Blended painting, music, and poetry, he created a truly synesthetic experience that transcended the limitations of any single medium. It was a bold and ambitious undertaking, one that invited the viewer to abandon their preconceptions and immerse themselves in a world where the senses intertwined and danced together in a display of artistic virtuosity.
As I reluctantly took my leave of the exhibition, I couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of awe and inspiration. In a world that so often demands conformity, it is the true visionaries – the color-hearing, music-seeing mavericks – who have the power to truly enlighten and inspire.
February 2019
