MOSCOW.- Video is the art medium of the global village. Since its birth about 40 years ago in the United States, it has grown to become the leading genre in today’s art production and the one that best allows to integrate art into the world context, rather than a regional one.
“History of Russian Video Art. Volumes 1, 2, 3” is a large-scale project offering a comprehensive overview of the evolution of video art in Russia since its origins in the mid-1980s till today. In its essence, this is an educational project because it allows the audience to get acquainted with a part of the history of Russian contemporary art which is still not well known, though its culture relevance is of primary importance. Video appeared at the same time when contemporary art emerged from the semi-clandestinity of the underground and was shown in the first independent contemporary art spaces. As a matter of fact, video permits – better than any other medium – to get an uncompromised picture of the artist working in the crucial years of passage from Soviet to post-Soviet. Video was new the same way the concept of contemporary art was new for the wider public; it had no tradition to revolt against or to conform with. It was the territory of pure experimentation and was not influenced by the commercial strategies of the art market. In other words, it was the medium of total freedom through which artists could speak up their minds and give voice to their inner feelings. Through the years, progressively becoming more multifaceted, video kept giving an uncompromised reflection of the true picture of the artist.
“History of Russian Video Art” is structured into three parts, each one centered on an exhibition. “Volume 1” opened in January 2007 and covered the very early years of video as an art practice in Russia (1985-1999). The second installment will present the period of full acceptance and maturity of video (1995-2005) and the third one, planned to open in spring 2010, will deal with the most recent production (2000-2010).
“Volume 2” is going to take place on the premises of the
Moscow Museum of Modern Art at Ermolaevsky lane. There will be about 40 works on display (single-channel videos, multi-channel installations, interactive installations, video sculptures, and so on), representing the best of the production made in the decade under scrutiny.
“Volume 2” will also include a section dedicated to the critical analysis of the very first video works made in Russia, which were exhibited in “Volume 1”. This part explains in simple words why video is important in contemporary culture and what contribution each single work gives to the art discourse.
Participants: AES+F, Yuri Albert, Viktor Alimpiev, Kirill Asse, Yuri Avvakumov, Vika Begalska, Bluesoup, Blue Noses, Sergey Bratkov, Aleksandr Brodsky, Gor Chahal, Aristarkh Chernyshev and Vladislav Efimov, Olga Chernysheva, Mariya Chuykova, Anna Ermolaeva, Escape Program, Semen Faybisovich, Lyudimila Gorlova, Dmitry Gutov, Aleksey Isaev, Vitaly Komar and Aleksandr Melamid, Irina Korina, Nina Kotel, Elena Kovylina, Oleg Kulik, Misha Le Jen, Anton Litvin, Vladimir Logutov, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Andrey Monastyrsky, Irina Nakhova, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Pavel Peppershtein, Provmyza, Radek group, Aidan Salakhova, Vladimir Salnikov, Aleksey Shulgin, Sergey Shutov, David Ter-Oganyan, Leonid Tishkov, Tobreluts, TOTART, Vasily Tsereteli, zAiBi, Vadim Zakharov, Marian Zhunin, and more…
While the exhibition is on, meetings with the artists, master classes and guided tours are planned to take place.
