Authors of the project - the critic and the artist - propose you a conflict they've found between two mythological figures of the XX century art, Antoine de Saint-Exupery and Joseph Beuys. Although the authors' views on the subject differ, they have at least come to one common ground, that is the subject of discussion itself. Really, in the WW II the heroes could have dashed against each other in the sky - over Berlin or African desert, that doesn't matter - as both served in the Air Force of the hostile armies. The authors also agree as for result of the fighting; both assume that romantic pilot Exupery, author of 'Le Petit Prince' lost the battle with the fascist airman and the last modernist Beuys.

Nevertheless it's obvious that the project by Zvezdochetov and Epikhin is nothing like the illustration to historical drama. Famous aviators are needed to personify the opposition of the forces engaged in central military campaign of contemporary art's history. The artist, who manages visual part of the exhibition, imagines the art generals as characters of comedy del'Arte where a benevolent hero (Exupery) is followed by his shadow in the face of comic/cynic (Beuys; the critic considers his heroes were major figures in the battle of theoretical abstractions. In the long run our duet exploits an eternal theme of rivalry of generations, of the fight between the new and the old, fathers and sons. Both in metaphorical 'critique of cynical reason' (Slotterdike) given by the artist, and in the art critic's high-brow thoughtfulness, Exupery and Beuys meet at an almost Freudian track - like father like son.

The scheme seems to be modernist, i.e. linear, hence mom was removed from the family polygon, as well as all kinship. But the unknown parent wanders somewhere behind the curtain. Is she hidden under the heritage hat? And who's she - Duchamp or Warhol?