Translated material
Progressive nostalgia
Ilya Kabakov is bringing works about the USSR to Russia
Artistic life in Moscow has reached a boiling point, comparable only to the turmoil of our Biennale of Contemporary Art. True, instead of the polyphony of the international exhibition, we will listen to the monologue of a great artist. Meet Ilya Kabakov, the most famous Russian artist in the West, coming to us.To be fair, let’s say that this is not his first exhibition in Russia. In 2004, through the efforts of the Stella Art Gallery and the State Hermitage Museum, the exhibition “An Incident in the Museum” was shown in St. Petersburg. Several installations and projects left a feeling of well-thought-out chaos. In the context of the reputable organization that is the Hermitage, this looked like a bold intrusion of reality into the fabric of museum ritual. It is also important that the exhibition became an indicator of the seriousness of the private gallery’s intentions: bringing Kabakov is the same as taking the Davis Cup to a debutant tennis player.
History repeats itself. The most impressive section of the Kabakov retrospective is the official debut of the Center for Contemporary Culture at the Bakhmetyevsky Garage (CCCM), run by former model and Abramovich friend Daria Zhukova. “Alternative Art History,” consisting of three exhibitions by artists invented by Kabakov, will occupy the entire center.
But that's not all. At Winzavod, viewers will see two installations from 1992 - “Toilet” and “Life of Flies”. The Marat and Yulia Gelman Gallery will present “The Game of Tennis,” a dialogue between Kabakov and the philosopher Boris Groys, framed as a philosophical debate and a sports match at the same time. Finally, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts will show the only installation made specifically for the Moscow exhibition - “The Gate”.
None of Kabakov’s contemporaries came to their homeland surrounded by such a dense cloud of contradictions and omissions. He is well known and terra incognita at the same time. This is a consequence of a strict and consistent policy of communication with the press and cultural figures. Back in Soviet times, many of Kabakov’s colleagues were offended that he “took away all the interesting foreigners” (according to one of the artists of the 70s generation). Kabakov’s book of memoirs about the Soviet period of life and work was criticized for being too harsh and trying to belittle the value of the work of his closest friends. Kabakov rarely gives interviews and answers only those questions that he considers necessary to respond to. He opposes the excessive commercialization of the art world and is organizing an exhibition with the money of businessman Roman Abramovich, who makes purchases at the world center of art trade - the Art Basel Miami Beach fair. Kabakov does not like the fact that traditional museums exhibit contemporary art: these are games with value and price tags. Nevertheless, one of the exhibitions of his retrospective will be held at the Pushkin Museum.
Finally, the artist and the organizers of the exhibition made an extremely interesting, one might say, specific selection of works. Most of them are directly devoted to the archeology of Soviet life. Garage's "alternative art history" consists of fictional heroes of 20th-century Russian art. Charles Rosenthal, Ilya Kabakov and Igor Spivak share an interest in figurative painting and variations on the theme of socialist realism, mixed with a fair amount of signature conceptualist metaphysics. Portraits of milkmaids are torn by black holes and geometric figures in the spirit of Malevich’s architects. Figurative compositions that would decorate a museum of gifts to Stalin regularly fall into white nothingness. The “toilet” at Winzavod was once considered an example of the exploitation of Soviet poverty. Finally, even “The Gate,” judging by the descriptions, is related to the nostalgic escape into culture characteristic of times of stagnation. They will most likely form a semantic pair with the Gothic gates of the Italian courtyard of the Pushkin Museum.
One of Kabakov’s old works was called “Whose Fly Is This?” In relation to his retrospective, the appropriate question is: “Whose story is this?” Now society is playing a giveaway game with Soviet history: it seems that everything was bad, but on the other hand, it is much better than in post-perestroika times. We still have not formulated answers to many questions. And in particular, what is Soviet art - a propaganda dummy or a special path? For many, many, Kabakov’s “Alternative Art History” may seem basic: the project itself contains a strange ambiguity that does not allow the project to be considered an unambiguous satire. The same thing will happen with the “Toilet”. Once upon a time, to intelligent viewers he seemed like an offensive piece of nonsense. In today's political climate, an installation can become a reason to exclaim: “But we make rockets!” The demand for nostalgia is high. Kabakov's retrospective can become both a continuation and a commentary. Let's see.
After all, Kabakov’s reputation in Russia is built precisely on such works. Many people think that he works exclusively with the texture of the Soviet era. This is not entirely true. Kabakov often relies on the experience of communal - conflict - existence, on the poverty of language and everyday life. However, the results often do not directly relate to the Soviet past. At the 2007 Venice Biennale, for example, the installation “Manas” was woven into the fabric of the main exhibition - a subtle, intellectually rich work. She referred to both constructivist and revivalist utopias at the same time. It's a pity that we won't see such works. In any case, Kabakov’s exhibition will be the intellectual adventure of the year.