Translated material
Think like a museum!
Ilya Kabakov in the museum, garage and factory
The retrospective of Ilya Kabakov is a chain of interconnected events. Some of them are purely aesthetic: the actual works of Kabakov, who previously did not spoil Russia very much with exhibitions, although the host country had the desires and opportunities. Other events can be called social. First of all, this is the opening of the Garage center for contemporary culture, which is headed by the friend of businessman Roman Abramovich, Daria Zhukova.In the summer, “Garage” was already opened unofficially. The exhibition of archival photographs dedicated to the masterpiece of architect Konstantin Melnikov was accompanied by a declaration of intent. The list of future exhibitions included the collection of billionaire François Pinault and a large accompanying program. At Kabakov’s exhibition “Alternative Art History,” everyone can see that the center has taken the matter seriously. There is a bookstore with publications about art, opened by the co-owner of the excellent “Phalanster” Boris Kupriyanov. This is a serious alternative to other metropolitan stores selling expensive Western publications, although there is a markup in the center. The center, which is very good, also showed touching concern for the young viewer: a toy book was published for Kabakov’s exhibition. It is clear that acquaintance with Western analogues has benefited the center.
True, thanks to the attractive names of the owner of Garage and its main sponsor for TV and the yellow press, the Kabakovs found themselves in the background. In addition, the main spectacle in the center should be recognized as the Bakhmetyevsky Garage itself - a huge (one and a half Manege) hangar with an intricate composition of windows and facades. Kabakov faced the difficult task of conquering space. And he coped with it brilliantly.
"Alternative Art History" showcases the creative paths of three fictional artists - Charles Rosenthal, Ilya Kabakov and Igor Spivak. Rosenthal was a student of Kazimir Malevich, moved to Paris and died in 1933, being hit by a car. The other two enter into dialogue with Rosenthal. “Ilya Kabakov” flourished in the 70s, Spivak in the first half of the 90s. All of them are essentially doing the same thing - crossing socialist realism in its most junky, Ahrrovian version with Suprematism and abstraction. The works of the non-existent trinity are placed in a space completely opposite to the expanse of the Bakhmetyevsky garage. The viewer finds himself in an endless labyrinth of claustrophobic museum walls, painted in the sad colors of plum, peas and semolina.
The feeling of happiness that captivates the viewer at the exit from the labyrinth (in front of us is the expanse of the garage as it is) can convince even the most mossy skeptic that the avant-garde is wonderful. Perhaps this is why Kabakov built “Alternative Art History”. Of course, he tries to answer the question that comes to the mind of any visitor to the Tretyakov Gallery, trying to connect together the halls of the Russian avant-garde with the halls of socialist realism. How did it happen that the leading art laboratory, where every gesture was a discovery, turned into the gnarled cudgel of a Soviet dream factory? Vladimir Paperny and Boris Groys have already given their answers. Kabakov is interested not in analysis, but in synthesis. It should be admitted that the result is approximately the same as if you cross a snake with a hedgehog. The work of Rosenthal, Kabakov-2 and Spivak is, as a result, deprived of both the specific, but sometimes powerful aura of socialist realism, and the admiration for the philosophy of non-objectivity in the avant-garde. This is, of course, a calculated failure, an expected failure. It is not for nothing that Kabakov occupies a high place in the hierarchy of contemporary art. The artist knows its main principle: the life of the work occurs outside its boundaries. The works themselves are only pointers to economic, political, and personal contexts in the end. They should not cause a desire to look at and delve into the image. Kabakov creates works-signs that indicate the direction of the viewer’s thoughts.
Most of all, “Alternative Art History” resembles Kabakov’s early installation “The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment.” There is a certain irony in the fact that huge amounts of money were spent on creating an analogue of that very apartment, sadly hung with Soviet posters. The number of almost identical works quickly causes an internal protest: “We understand, we understand, why repeat it again and again?” The visitor to the Garage accordingly finds himself in the role of an amateur astronaut. True, there is also “The Red Car” waiting for him, an installation on a high podium in the center of the space remaining from “Alternative History”. As a modernist sculpture, “Red Car” fits perfectly into the “Garage”, which, by the way, was built for trolleybuses.
At Winzavod on September 17, Kabakov was revealed to the viewer in four spaces at once. In the “White Workshop” there is a huge and very complex installation “The Life of Flies”, worthy of a separate article. True, all we see are copies made almost on a printer. This turns looking at the installation and reading texts (the halls are dim) into a rather pointless activity and harmful to the eyes. Can be replaced by reading the directory.
The basement of the same workshop was given over to an interesting exhibition of photographs of the famous Yuri Rost. Rost photographed Kabakov shortly before the artist left for the United States. The photographs are accompanied by texts by Rost. For those for whom personal communication with the artist is not possible, this is the best way to get to know Kabakov the man. The Marat and Yulia Gelman Gallery presents the installation “The Game of Tennis”. On the blackboards are quotes from the artist’s dialogue with the theorist Boris Groys. Their inept tennis play is shown on monitors. And finally, the opus magnum - the installation “Toilet” (1992). After the show at Documenta in Kassel, many took the installation to heart and accused Kabakov of slander and distortion. Now this hybrid of a station toilet and a country house feels, oddly enough, cozy. Even the smell of a compost heap makes the viewer think of a carefree country life. And the idea of combining life and activity does not seem so outrageous in the era of IKEA. The housing problem ruined Muscovites once and for all back in the 1930s. Although in the “Toilet” there are no analogues to the life of the “Winzavod” audience, there are many places in Russia where personal space is about as tight as in Kabakov’s installation.
The “Gates” in the Pushkin Museum were the first to open, but they are worth looking at last. Several pseudo-symbolist paintings in the signature “no” style are accompanied by a remake - a wooden gate. You cannot walk through them: the installation is surrounded by museum ropes. The director of the Pushkin Museum, Irina Antonova, did not come to the opening - perhaps this means something. The gates do not set one in a philosophical mood. Their smoothness and high cost of material makes us recall the most important of today's arts - European-quality renovation. Returning to the social significance of Kabakov's retrospective, let's say: Moscow gave itself a kind of European renovation and invited guests - museum directors, journalists, and artists from all over the world came to see Kabakov. It’s great that we were invited to watch too.