“Don Tenorio”. Anatoly Chechik’s Flashtheatre. The digital memory of the past in the visual discourse

Abstract

Our contemporary Anatoly Chechik is one of the so called “clever” artists. His creations always contain cultural memory of the past and require deep and extensive intellectual background from the viewer for the understanding of semantic aspects of the artwork. The article considers the representation of Don Juan Tenorio – one of the eternal images of the world literature in digital art. In this Flash-theater experience the author analyzes, which of his archetypic traits are outdated and which are still actual. The new technology enables the artist to manipulate the art objects from different epochs and use them as actors of sorts, playing their roles depending on their original content. This way the artist-actionist-protogonist directs the dramaturgy of the action, opening the new meaning and showing the actuality of the eternal in today’s world.