Its stages – the study of the art scene in thirty-three cities; journey of the international team of curators for the TRANS-Siberian railway and Symposium with their participation in the cities of Russia, an exhibition on the visit to Brussels at Centre for fine arts BOZAR; the first curatorial school in the city of Satka. The current exhibition in St. Petersburg “Manege”, which is a large-scale project “UNMOSCOW” in Russia, not the final project. Rather, the solemn arrival of the TRANS-Siberian Express (which had become the TRANS-European after a stop in Brussels) in North Venice.
Therefore, the exhibition in the “Manege” is not summing up the project, especially not a show of Russian contemporary art in the regions. The bet is placed not on the local identity, no matter how much bright it is, and on the individual statements of the curators. It is the curators are the storytellers, or “moderators” conversations that bring artists close to them in spirit and attitude to art. The exhibition did seven curators: Oksana Budulak from Krasnoyarsk, Artem Filatov from Nizhny Novgorod, Herman Transfiguration of Tyumen and Tomsk, Vladimir Seleznev, Svetlana Usoltseva and Evgeniy Kutergin from Yekaterinburg, as well as Antonio Geusa, Italian in Russia and the only Muscovite in the “not-quite”.
the Train, if you remember the installation of Ilya Kabakov, who opened his exhibition in the Hermitage that is firmly glued with the image of “a future that will not all”. And even those passengers who got tickets and managed to boot, will surely arrive to a bright future. Certainly not his promise large black letters against white pillars of the Arena “NOTMOSCOW is not far off”?
a Promise this is reminiscent of two works. First, the installation of Boris Matrosov “Happiness not far off” (2009) on the embankment of the Kama river in Perm. Concise as a slogan and as bright as the promised utopia, installation Matrosov actually reproduces the relationship of text and space in the paintings of Erik Bulatov. But not in the plane of the picture – and in the middle of a real embankment and in the river vistas. Secondly, the name refers to the loud story of a couple of years ago when Perm street-artist Alex Ilkaev, filling in and replacing some of the letters, altered the inscription and turned the word “happiness” in “death.” In addition to the “invasion” in the urban environment and the gloomy comment to my old job in the new context of the advertising optimism, this campaign appealed to the ancient injunction Memento mori, so dear to the founders of Dutch still lifes. As a result, the title of the exhibition in “not-quite” converged contrast, the opposing “Happiness” and “Death”. The duality of these shimmering meanings determined the structure of the exhibition.
And the only site-specific exhibition project “Station Dystopia” Alexander Morozov. Between the floors of the Arena, according towith “airship”, similar to the soaring bibliography and on the model flying city Georgy Krutikov. Instead of houses there – boxes with a special offer or a special Bureau in use – “friend”. “Station Dystopia” is dedicated to the Arena and the author of the project of its reconstruction – architect Nicholas Evgenievich Benoit, which is just as “special” CB spent nearly four years, from the summer of 1931 to the summer of 1935, doing the upgrade Konnogvardeisky Manege in the garage of the OGPU.
But first work Many Nasybullov meets the audience the message “nothing happens” – in the arc of a smiley face on a background of cotton “Cumulus” clouds in the silver threads of rain. She still mixes frustration and childlike faith in miracles in a cocktail. But behind this curtain that is both attractive sight and stops a replica of a disappointed viewer, we are waiting for the Thriller, trash, lethargy and drawings of the dreams of the tired soldier and the abyss of bogs that erupted in the paintings, photographs of women prisoners, and “Park of culture and rest” that would be envied by Terence Malick… the death mask of Gogol, knitted from the shredded bedding to the mattress that covers the bee hive (operation Olga Rostrosta) is a guardian and guide in this grotesque world. The Creator of “Wii” and “old-world landowners”, “the Nose” and “Nevsky Prospekt” is clearly not a stranger in “not-quite”.
the Place marked by negation, inevitably seems synonymous with not only English nowhere but in oblivion. Is this not the motives of Guignol, most clearly stated in the project curator Artem Filatov “the end coming”? Filatov, borrowed the name from an old work ilkaeva, also presented his new project, referring to the medieval motif of the “dance of death”. However, instead of dancing – Jogging track on which the faster you run, the brighter the neon sign above her, “You will still die.”
Curiously, the curator of the partly still used, and the strategy of intervention in “alien” the space demanded by modern artists. Filatov does not seek to limit the space of the show, but on the contrary – it seems to be spraying force. A frozen fountain in a half-ton weight hovering over the stairs. Artist Vasily Kononov-Gredin who was inspired by the fountain of his native Kirov and are found in the Internet a photo of rounded bowls of its Italian counterpart samples in 1965, created a perfect image frozen in time. Vladimir Chernyshev offers visitors to relax by the pool, only now filled with the sticky black tar. The St. Petersburg group iBiom organizes a “Sensitive service” (2020), removing dance performance with rags, brushes, buckets and turning the whole exhibition into the sterile territory of a healthy lifestyle. Some objects, like a poster, promising an exoskeleton of a new generation with a high degree of tactility, proboardayut alarming curiosity of the audience. Blue gloves at the exoskeleton is very reminiscent of the ones we wore in the spring during the start of the pandemic, cursing quietly zvereya.
Different curatorial projects in common, AUCA. So, intervention and building relationships with the urban space are also important for the curator Svetlana Usoltsev. Artist Asya Marakulina, arriving from Perm to St. Petersburg, writes loops, walking around the houses, “stitching” walks the streets and creating “their” fabric of the city (this fabric turned into a dress with sleeves river channels in the installation “Rule joint”). Asino description of “secret” walks in a strange cold city is fascinating sorrow of loneliness and the magic of invented ritual. But four artists from Krasnodar Max Alekhine, Alexander Goncharenko, Dmitry Kramar I and Sergey Lyulyukin, on the contrary, mapping draw of a place of “alienation” in his native Krasnodar, whether for a tower or an old barge to “return” them to the shared life exhibition, party, concert…
For Usoltsev “Mimicry” becomes the key word. It helps turn everyday activities in to your personal performance, discovers the magical potential of creativity. And then Anastasia Bogomolov and Anna and Vitaliy Cherepanov can arrange your documenta in Kassel. Kassel they find on the South of the Chelyabinsk region, where there are also Paris and Berlin, Leipzig and Fershampenuaz… It’s the names of the villages inhabited by Cossacks-Nagasaki, bravely fought in Russian campaigns during the Napoleonic wars. In memory of military glory of their village were named after towns where they participated in battles. In this Ural Kassel, in the open field, the artists and spend their festival. And who’s to say that this is not the documenta? Document though, because the video captured, documented.
Another way to “invasion” of art in everyday life demonstrates a project curated by Vladimir Seleznev “Park of culture and rest”. Live in this Park of wood sculptures by artist retired Nikolai Akimov from Vyksa, embossed graffiti created by Anna and Vitaliy Cherepanov because of its outmoded of Trapez, the old “Oka”, which is a wheel – sound DJ set (group “Sever-7” offers a “Sound walk”), paintings by Egor Fedorichev, in which the “game” with a still-life turns into a brutal abstraction… It’s not so much an invasion, as the processing of old things, trees, images. In short, it’s a lesson that as a poetic praised Baudelaire in “the Fault of the rag-pickers”. This poetic practice in the 21st century takes on a shade of environmentally benign recycling. But now, alive the mystery of transformation zryashnoe matter in a supernatural way, whether from a children’s cartoon, or fairy tale of Bluebeard. The artists also appear modest workers Chronos patiently “perelitsovyvaya” matter of the past like an old coat.
Herman Transfiguration in the curatorial project “Material resource”, at first glance, it is matter puts at the center. Alexander Melnikov is shooting a new video over old TV shows 15 years ago, in which the visual “noise” given the age of the film. Alexander Nikolsky explores “the optics of the material.” Mitya Glavanakov creates the image of “Swamp” similar to moonshine, but proved a local digital communication platform that connects all with all. In the end, in this story it is the work of the artists is the “material resource” that creates large total installation. Their acquaintance, communication and teamwork is the main result that will remain after the exhibition closes.
the Project of the Transfiguration partly in common with the theory of the production of art. Rhyme to the last can be found in “Factory album” Dmitry Korotaev, the artist from Izhevsk. In his installations on the bottom shelf – a small, slightly peeling a bust of Mayakovsky. Because the installation is quite intimate, the gesture of “work-artist – proletarian poet,” looks poster, and lyric. The same as the “Factory album.” In the album pictures on the right, text on the left. Images – any images, photographs, illustrations, snapshots of friends. Found objects rated with a pencil. The texts – notes for themselves. For example: “the Plant is when you bring your watch not online, not on the clock of the Moscow Kremlin, and on the clock at the factory gate”. In the drawings – parallel someone else’s life. In the texts – observations on himself and the factory life. Texts and drawings are juxtaposed on the facing pages by accident. “Factory album” the only place where they meet. However, not only where the borders of LEF and conceptualism.
in short, do not believe what is here “again, nothing happens.” More going on than can be told. Come and you will see. Not-quite not far off.
