«THIRD ROME»
2007, canvas, Mozart score, mixed technique, acrylic, 180х265 cm (diptych)

I’m not sure if the old dying Emperor Theodosius foresaw the design for a new double-headed eagle when on a January evening in 395 he divided the Roman Empire into the East and West halves, inherited respectively by his sons Arcadius and Honorius. The traditional Roman eagle unnoticed and latently became double-headed, but this mutant bird turned out to be long-lived: it flew to the 20th century in the arms of Austria-Hungary and Russia, successor states of East and West, and today it has multiplied into numerous little Balkan birdies. The plasticity of the double-headed eagle is quite expressive and startling, while a double-headed calf is exhibited in the Kunstkamera in St Petersburg. Consequently, it would be legitimate and somehow amusing to make another major Roman symbol – the Capitoline Wolf - double-headed as well. And this new creature will be perhaps even more appropriate to the well-known mystical notion of the "Third Rome". The 21st century has introduced some changes, and new realities lay claim to the half of the composition - on the wolf’s right appears a yellow-red phantom mask with a Chinese barcode in its upper right corner.