MirroR spectacular

Since 2013 in the #mirrorspectacular series Russian photographer Valery Romanov has been collecting a gallery of composition coincidences, exploring how they might look in the “(non) accidental” encounter of the spectator and the work of art.


The combination of the words "mirror" and "spectacular" in the title of the project indicates the possible analysis of seemingly simple, if not downright trivial, images in modern, critical dimension. What is a work but a mirror of its time? Can the art object be appreciated more “impressive” when it resonates with the spectator? How may this resonance look like and what conditions can provoke it? Which part does the exhibition space take - a passive participant or a place for creating a new art?

The fortuity, fleetingness of unexpected consonance is also emphasized by an idea that the contact between the spectator and the art, captured by a smartphone, lasts only a split second, and then a digital picture appears.


Examining the gallery of "spectacular" coincidences, an ironic question arises: what if the art work, entering into this accidental resonance, thereby lets the spectator penetrate in, give birth to a new, more complicated art, initiates a dialogue of color, content and shape - visual empathy of a person and the world?