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Growing up in Grozny, Kallima was one of the first in Russian art to turn to the theme of Chechnya. The works of 2004-2010 reflect the social and military plots of the early 2000’s, explore the idea of the Chechens at that time. Heroes of Kallima can be divided into militants and civilians – athletes, football fans, parachutists, but the artist often plays with the conventionality of these categories: weapons sometimes appear, and the red sanguine resembles blood in works that are not related to the subject of combat operations.
The presented work is included in the graphic series «Anticyclone» (2005-2007). Kallima creates a stable set of characters in it and depicts them on the city outskirts, roadsides, construction sites. In the presented work the Chechens settled on concrete slabs – squatting, standing and sitting – their poses are confident, expressive, not devoid of grace. Images of Chechens are stereotyped – they are bearded men in sports suits, sneakers or boots, one of them is wearing a hoodie with the logo of the football team of Chechnya "Terek". Strength and courage is felt in them, it seems, that neither a snowstorm nor cold concrete cause them any inconvenience.
Working with acute social themes, Kallima creates not depressive and cruel, but aesthetic and heroic subjects. Representing marginal images, performed in a virtuosic graphic technique, in complex compositional solutions, Kallima seems to be trying to transcode their negative perception, to make a new look at the stiff stereotypes. V
