 © Yuri Avvakumov Depository of Dreams Alexander Brodsky, Olga Chernysheva, Ivan Chuikov, Yuri Avvakumov, Ilya Kabakov, Vitaly Komar, Oleg Kulik, Dmitri Prigov "Depository of Dreams" brings together the work of eight internationally renowned Russian contemporary artists who explore a panoply of collective and private dreams and visions, conditioned and informed by the Soviet ideological utopia. The exhibition takes the form of an installation, where the viewer can access drawings, prints, photographs, paintings and albums by browsing through the storage system of a semi-abandoned depository. The artists in the exhibition represent the major independent art movements in post-World War II and post-Soviet Russia. On show are 1970's "Moscow Conceptualists" (Ilya Kabakov, Ivan Chuikov, Dmitri Prigov), "Sots Art" (Vitaly Komar), 1980's "Paper Architecture" (Alexander Brodsky and Yuri Avvakumov), as well as more recent works by notorious performance artist Oleg Kulik, and well-known social documentary artist Olga Chernysheva. The depository will reveal iconic pieces by Moscow conceptual artists such as Ilya Kabakov's album "Mathematical Gorsky", 1974, from the series "Ten Characters", Ivan Chuikov's "Window" painting, and Dmitri Prigov's series of drawings "Phantom" Installations. Yuri Avvakumov, one of the founders of the "Paper Architecture" movement presents a series of prints designed as ironic reminiscence of Tatlin's constructivist Monument to the Third International, developing like a scaffolding around the skeleton of Mukhina's Monument to Worker and Farmer, the popular icon of Socialist Realism. United around essential characteristic of Russian culture as a culture of hidden meanings, the artists in the exhibition all converge on the idea of the archive as a way to make tangible the true essence of their history. In essence "Depository of Dreams" is such archive. Exhibition: 30 November - 20 December 2006 Gallery hours: Tues-Fri 11 am - 6 pm, Sat 11 am - 5 pm White Space Gallery St Peter's Church, Vere Street GB-London W1G ODQ Telephone +44 (0)207 399 95 71 Email info@whitespacegallery.co.uk www.whitespacegallery.co.uk |
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