From 2 October to 22 November, DiDi Gallery presents a solo exhibition by St Petersburg artist Pavel Pletnev. In Pavel’s Labyrinth, the artist has brought paintings, drawings and objects large and small together into a total installation.

Pletnev last exhibited at the gallery in 2021. He has hardly spent the intervening years in creative seclusion or existential soul-searching. He was working out an idea, finding the right tone and, of course, still assembling miniatures from hundreds of tiny parts. He understood that the longer the pause, the higher the expectations.

For stylistic effect, let me borrow a line from Somerset Maugham’s novel Theatre: “What matters is knowing how to hold a pause. The greater the actor, the longer the pause.” I like to think that is true.

Pavel’s Labyrinth is a self-portrait in the form of a total installation. Pletnev looks back at his practice and asks what he has achieved as an artist. In one sense this is a retrospective: he began these works three, five or seven years ago.

Maestro Pletnev makes a persuasive case for taking one’s time. In his score the same motif returns with mounting intensity, each new accent casting its spell afresh. His timeless landscapes take us on a tour of the outskirts, where everything is “closed around the clock.” Pavel keeps us outside. Bars and curtains on the windows thwart our curiosity; locks and warning signs hang on the doors. A regular Prince Potemkin! His work demands our full attention if we are to spot his conceptual traps. We are left to scrutinise the world he has built with unnerving precision, to see where reality gives way to the grotesque.

As a lone traveller, the artist sets out for a media citadel of historical images and everyday consumer goods. He wanders the labyrinth in search of his own outlook and style. He works across genres, appropriating, quoting, copying and taking apart familiar visual forms, from classical architecture to internet memes. A sphinx is built of blue corrugated metal; knights in armour ride robotic horses; the façades of prefabricated apartment blocks sparkle with diamonds. Barbie and Ken live happily on a landfill.

Pavel commands a whole orchestra of tools. He is equally at home with a brush, a pencil and a soldering iron, and his hand is recognisable in each. His skill is mesmerising. In a world crowded with things, images and information, plastic, metal, packaging and digital waste all become material for his work. By working with salvaged materials he raises a question that goes beyond ecology: what does it mean for an idea or an image to be second-hand? For him, borrowing offers a way to examine his own practice and to question whether repetition is a sign of cultural exhaustion.

Pavel Pletnev is a noble knight of the outskirts, serenading the hogweed. An enchanting Orpheus who has found himself in the kingdom of prefabricated apartment blocks. A Paganini playing a virtuoso accompaniment to consumerism.

How do you find your way out of Pavel’s Labyrinth? The answer lies in your imagination. If you reach a dead end, try inventing a little door.

Text by Zarina Akhmetzyanova

Exhibition dates: 2 October – 22 November 2026

Address: 62 Bolshoy Prospekt, Vasilyevsky Island, St Petersburg

Visiting hours: Tuesday–Sunday, 12:00–20:00. Free admission.