An art exhibition curated by Polina Lobachevskaya and funded by the AVC Charity Foundation, was a phantasmagoric admixture of magical mastery and Homeric laughter! From times of yore, qualities that have attracted the imagination of artists and painters — Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder in the 15^th and 16^th centuries to Goya, Daumier, Degas, Renoir and Toulouse-Lautrec in the 19^th; then joined by Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Fonvizin, Tyshler, Rodchenko and Chagall in the 20^th century. In one of Chagall’s last works, Big Circus, life is presented as circus performance. A host of artists of the late 20^th-early 21^st century, each capturing the thrill of circus performance, collaborated with the Polina Lobachevskaya Gallery on this project. No doubt for them as for us, it served as a metaphor for contemporary human life.

Polina Lobachevskaya Gallery and colleagues conjured up some real hocus-pocus!