Evgeny Mezhibovskiy
Born and raised in the suburbs of Moscow, Evgeny Mezhibovskiy left Russia at the age of 16 to break out of the doldrums and immerse himself in the world of multisensory arts. Driven by the thrill of honing his senses on many levels, he moved from the UK to the US and Germany until he found just the calming security that felt right for him in Antwerp.
Here Evgeny felt it was the right moment to fully focus on his own projects. - Rightly so! Today, the 3D artist, creative director and even musician knows how to play on all media. He talked to Coeval about quarantine, Mc Donalds and his first blowjob.
Your art flow combines different mediums. What’s the thrill behind this merging?
I am keen for discovering new tools and ways of communication with the viewer. Research is one of my favorite parts of any project. The moment when you dive deep and drown by your own will is really sweet indeed. I like doing things that are formed by utilitarian narrative. Advertising and projects that have a concrete practical purpose excite me the most at the moment. I feel like I am capable of creating media content in different fields and trying to encourage other people around me to do the same. This idea brought a big push towards creation of a community and a platform we are working on called CCULDESAC. I think it’s important nowadays to have an ability to express yourself in different ways and be occupied by different kinds of activities. It is all really individual, but it definitely adds a nice rhythm to your workflow. I am considering a matter of being multidisciplinary as important as being concentrated or deeply involved in one topic or medium.
Videogames and 3D building seem to have an impact on your view of the world. What’s your relation to virtual realities when it comes to your work?
I love things that are staged or created from a scratch. The feel of being in your own universe and following its own made-up rules comes right after masturbation in my DAILY PLEASURES LIST.
The choice of 3D as a tool comes from a logistic aspect which you cannot really get rid of or simplify in a different way especially at a times like now. It is really convenient to have an ability to work online and still being in full control of your projects. It would be really exciting to work with the actual physical props, to work directly with people again and so on. But those limitations we are having right now are also benefiting and deforming our outcome, which is not bad.
Based in Moscow and Antwerp – seems like different worlds, what is special to you about both places and where do you spend Covid-days?
During the first wave of Covid I got stuck in Tel-Aviv and instead of two weeks I spent there half a year. It wasn’t too bad man: hot weather, seaside, fresh fruits - my quarantine was a hit!
While I’m writing this, right now in this second, I’m on the plane to Tel-Aviv again, so fingers crossed.
Moscow is my hometown and I never lost a connection with it, even when my family decided to move from there. I still come around quite often, to work, to see my close friends and relatives. On the other hand, my relationship with Antwerp was cut off because of Covid. I’m still not able to come back there, because of the traveling restrictions. I fell in love with this small city - a complete opposite of what Moscow is and looks like. Antwerp is a special place with its enveloping and even sedating comfort that you start getting used to real quick. Don’t know if it’s good or bad, but you can always come around to Moscow to get your sphincter funky again.
Do you believe in aliens?
Once when I was like 12, my friends and I were sitting somewhere in a forest located in the countryside of Moscow during a nighttime and summoning the queen of spades meanwhile sipping on Obolon. Of course, no queen pleased us with her appearance at our spiritual session, so we decided to play ‘spin the bottle’ and that was how I got my dick sucked for the first time. What a night!
Which project has been the most exciting for you so far?
It’s on the way now, the postproduction is almost done and it is going to release soon. Can’t tell you much about it except one thing - I had a real near to death experience while working on it.
What is your favorite Fashion designer and why?
Uniqlo is the shit. After all the time I have spent in Antwerp, I felt like if I would do clothing to “wear”, then it would be something like Uniqlo. The undisputed current king of ready to wear, who has a good balance between commercial and still very much alive garments is Kiko Kostadinov.
There are a lot of cool characters graduating every year from top fashion universities. - You won’t find something like this in LVMH. Places like Fantastic Toiles and Nasir Mazhar himself are also really sympathetic to me. In addition, I want to mention a couple of Russian designers - Seredin & Vasiliev, check them out if you haven’t seen what they did to Paris fashion week back in a day.
If someone travels to Russia for the first time, what food must not miss in any case?
Try going to McDonalds. Fuck authenticity and national cuisine. Same menu. Same price. Same dick we sit on.
interview IMKE RABIEGA
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