The "soap" chapter in Semyon Motolyanets' artistic activity began with the group "SOAP" in 2007. As a duo with Dmitry Petukhov, Motolyants chose soap as both a material and an instrument that none of his comrades-in-arms had used before. The artists made objects and sculptures out of it, boiled it, bit and ate it, gave it away, arranged whole "soap" rinks and, of course, washed and soaped. At the moment the group is no longer functioning, but Semyon continues to work with soap and develops his philosophy associated with it. The works on display at the Borey Gallery form a new series of works where soap is not used as a readymade, but is taken as an image, and its practical meaning is replaced by a metaphorical one. The rickety, unstable pyramids of glossy ceramic soap are an alternative to the porcelain elephants on the dresser in some bourgeois apartment. The little plaques on the base suddenly introduce a discourse of time-"20 minutes more," "Permanence lasts five hours," "328 more years"-and the works become an absurdist measure of either lost or remaining time. This theme continues in another series, which the artist himself calls "Hours," white boxes with two pieces of soap inside, one real with graphics and the other ceramic. In this visualized comparison of the original and its copy, the calculus of time manifests itself in a whole new dimension of the sublime. The ceramic soap as the "positive sublime," that is, something that remains unchanged in the midst of the impermanence of everything around it, and the real soap as the "negative sublime," or something finite, decaying with the passage of life and evoking thoughts of the perishability of the world - these measures are chosen by the artist to thus measure the time periods he needs and make himself the yardstick of time. Speaking about Motolyants' art and about himself, we should say that Semyon is an artist who escapes from the speaking of meanings and from answering questions and who plays with multiple facets of the comic, although he himself denies it. Irony, and more often self-irony, builds the foundation for the author's art, while a certain vagueness, ambiguity, and unspoken ideas become a frame, which strengthens the work's position in the realm of the sublime. This balance between the comic and the sublime, between the primacy of form over idea and idea over form, creates absurdist situations where the viewer finds himself in a space of unsteadiness and instability, sometimes even cognitive dissonance, and this is evident not only in the works related to soap, but also in painting, in performance art, and in his "chandeliers" or "nozzles". In this exhibition, the artist also physically creates such circumstances by placing a rickety construction of laundry soap and old furniture in the center of a small room. This repetition of the same thing - soap - seems to drive the final nail into the discourse of the sublime, providing the viewer with a visualized idea of infinity, boundlessness combined with the shakiness of the world and a touch of humor. Elizaveta Matveeva In the photos: Works by Semyon Motolyanets from the "Soap Clock" series, 2018. Ceramics, soap. 30 x 20 cm each.