Made in hell

On March 3, the exhibition “Skin Fruit” was opened in New York-the first curatorial project of the classic of neo-pop art Jeff Kuns . The exposition was visited by the New York correspondent TOP 10 Vladimir Dolgov.

Paul McCarthy. Without name (Jack), 2002, object

The DNY of the leading world collectors of contemporary art, the Greek magnate of Dakis John, became known at the end of last year. Then one of the largest museum scandals of recent years flared up in the United States. The stumbling block was the complex relationship of the museum as a public institution with private capital. With the light hand of several New York bloggers and legislators of public opinion on the art community, a wave of dissatisfaction with “museum corruption” crawled, the opinions that modern American museums participate in the market process of filling prices for the works of individual artists. In the American press, real battles were fought, which discovered many problem points of the modern art process, but the exhibition from the Greek billionaire collection nevertheless opened on March 3 and attracted great attention, not least thanks to the scandal that preceded the discovery. For the first time in its life, the exhibition was supervised by one of the most successful artists of our time - Jeff Kuns , whose work is also in the huge collection of Dakis John.

Paul McCarthy Paula Jones, 2007, object

The project received the difficult to translate “Skin Fruit” - “skin fruit”, which refers to an antique worldview and a very popular paradigm of anthropocentrism in contemporary art, according to which a person and its bodily are a “measure of all things”. Immediately after the opening of the exhibition, the press hastened to criticize both the new museum and Jeff Kuns, and the project itself. The newspaper New York Times even called the project of the First main Mainstrom exhibition of the very anti-Mainstream museum of the city. But the viewer was interested in the performance and banal narrative narration of the project - on the Internet, stormy debates around the individual exhibits of the exhibition and the curatorial potential of Jeff Kuns. Kuns is scolded mainly for being a famous artist, he himself does not know well the work of contemporaries (the work of old masters prevail in his personal collection), as well as for the inability to take away - the exhibition, they say, turned out to be too extensive. True, there was only one of his own work among the curator among the work that got into the exposition ... I must say that such an interest for the tired spectacles of New York is a very impressive result.
The ultra -modern New Museum (New Museum) founded in 1977, which houses the exhibition, is located in the Bowry area with predominantly low -story buildings. The project of the current premises of the museum, which opened in 2007, was developed by two Japanese architects - Cazuo Sedema and Ryu Nishizawa, who built similar galleries in their homeland. The snow -white box, or rather, boxes, in the form of which a multi -storey building of the museum complex is built, are not consistent with the surrounding architectural landscape. In total, a pair of quarters from the museum is a pretty decent green Prince Street, where the creative part of the East-Sayd-Middle class lives: a cup of coffee is already worth at least three dollars, and the audience seemed to go off the covers of glossy magazines. From the observation deck on the seventh floor of the New Museum, skyscrapers of the upper and lower Manhattan are partially visible. But the museum itself is located in a rather depressed place - between the nondescript building of the rescue army (where many years have been unsuccessfully trying to socialize local drunks, drug addicts and prostitutes in the circulation) and a dirty store of used restaurant equipment. The museum literally rises above the surrounding city, as the very art - over a sinful and wretched reality.

Facade of the New Museum, Installation of Hugo of the Rodinon "Hell, YES", 2007
On the facade of the museum building, the slogan "Hell, Yes!" Flaunts - "Hell, yes!" This is the work of the Swiss artist Khudonon, which decorates the building of the new museum since its opening in 2007 and has since become a kind of symbol of shocking and conflicting art exposed to the museum. In the case of the Jeff Kuns project, the slogan on the facade sounds especially relevant, because the exhibition tells about the problems, torment and sins of modern man. An interesting feature of the museum space is that the exhibition halls do not contact each other. Inspection of the exposure usually begins with the upper floor. This is a huge empty white room with a glazed panoramic window with two inconspicuous exits to the observation decks. The floor below is another Putnaya white room. At the window there is a single white wood bed, covered with simple linen. The space has a barracks, non -residential appearance - I do not want to sit down or lie down. This ascetic bed is the work of Corner Bed Robert Gober, created by the artist in 1987. Entering this hall, the New York spectator is forced to recall his own bedroom. This is a kind of illustration of the main tragedy of modern American society - loneliness ... Everyone is successful and rich, but drearyly unhappy, in this world there is no place and time for human warmth and comfort.

Tim Nawble and Sue webster-the owners of the universe, 1998-2000, sculptural group
The exhibition "Skin Fruit" demonstrates more than a hundred works of fifty international artists, and almost every exhibit finds some kind of response in the soul. The project has many sculptural works - the Greek collector clearly experiences an increased interest in the plastic of the human body. “Aluminum girl” Charles Ray, a hyperrealistic sculpture of a naked schoolgirl, is so bright and pure that it almost does not arouse sexual appetite. This is a strange sterile beauty is no longer girls, but not women. A scandal even broke out on the Internet: fighters with racial discrimination reproached the curator that, having placed a sculpture of a beautiful white -skinned girl into the center of the exposition, and thereby humiliated the dark -skinned ones. Absurd, of course, but this is very American absurdity. In terms of preparation of imaginary American tolerance, Jeff Kuns is just a genius. The white man is biologically predisposed to strive for a white woman - this is exactly what everyone is afraid to say today, and this is exactly what the project “Skin Fruit” tells about this. But the curator did not ignore the dark -skinned woman. A beautiful high black Amazon is decorated with gold sparkles and holds a gun in his hand.

This is the work of 1999 by the artist Lisa Lowe, called the Super Sister, the anemic white visitors to the museum look from the bottom up at the aggressive scam, and can not contrast her with a white schoolgirl. Behind the schoolgirl - the work of Powell Altar "Crucifixion Schedule". A bicycle saddle was attached to the wooden cross. Nearby is a wooden staircase and a screen, on which a canvas bombed bandage and a thorns of the crown are thrown. A black man (presumably, Jesus) climbs the stairs, sits on a bicycle saddle, and then goes down. This work, obviously, is that American Christianity is a pure performance performance. The American Jesus is no longer a sufferer, not a savior or a God -man, but a black curly strong man - an energetic fighter with slavery. He clearly visits a fitness club, he is relevant and political correct. And the thorns are just part of the scenery.
The large Auverbach canvas, a large, with ink and acrylic paints, depicts the finest drawings of the Kama Sutra poses. Tauba Auerbach shows the viewer a funny porn frame, and in the corner of the work two drunken aunts are depicted that fell asleep, devastating the bottle and not reaching the snack. Aunts, in all likelihood, see dreams based on Kama Sutra. All this evokes thoughts about the eternal problem of sexual dissatisfaction. In any American bookstore today, there are a lot of publications on how to achieve a full orgasm, how to increase the penis or chest. The market of these services is billionth. Everyone is suggested to us every day that our sex is not sex, our orgasm is not an orgasm, that we must be at the level of champions, not the townsfolk. Actually, only in a drunken dream and many residents of Manhattan find real satisfaction. It seems that this, it seems, wanted to tell with her work a thin and thoughtful artist of Taba Auerbach. The topic of sex and perversions is present on almost every exhibition floor. This is also a video work of the Canadian author David Altstem, in which the blonde in underwear photographs in the careless poses of the girls lying on the floor. This is the installation of the den of the knee of a heap of black penis, the shadow of which on the wall with proper illumination resembles the outlines of the two -faced Janus ...

Pavel Althamer, Nomo, 2009, sculpture
After an hour and a half, the exposition was examined by my head, and I left. But in front of my eyes stood one museum caretaker, a tall slender homosexual. He smiled happily, looking at the endless string of visitors, obviously realizing that he found what he needed in his life, and the visitors, looking at him, were somehow very sharply aware of what to look and sought ... At the lowest level of a stylish museum-a buffet with aromatic coffee and fresh pants. The people at the tables are sitting and thinking. Still, Jeff Kuns picked up a good exposition, he managed to push visitors to his thoughts about his life. Reflections are so intimate that no one is discussing anything, everyone is silent and stunned crunching with warm slingshots.

March 3 - June 6
“Skin Fruit” - work from the Dakis John, Curator - Jeff Kuns , participants: Pavel Althamer, David Altmezha, Ganny Anthony, Tauba Auerbach, Matthew Barney, Ashley Bickerton, John Boc, Maurizio Kattelan, Pols of Chan. Dan Kolen, Nigel Cook, Roberto Cuoji, Natalie Dzhurberg, Haris Epaminonda, Urser Fisher, Robert Gobert, Matt Hrian, Mark Grotyan, Adam Helms, Jenny Holler, Eliot Handley, Mike Kelly, Terens Koch, Jeff Kuns, Lisa Lowe, Nate Louman Mark Menders, Paul McCarthy, Dave Müller, Takashi Murakami, Tim Nobble and Sue Webster, Cadie Noland, Chris Officials, Seth Price, Richard Prince, Charles Ray, Tino Sigal, Cindy, Cindy Sherman , Kiki Smith, Christian Solou, Kara Voker, Jillian Viarying, Jillian Voering, Andro century, Franz West, Christopher Wol

New Museum, New York, Ny 10002 212.219.1222