location: Institute of Contemporary Art, solo exhibition date: 11.07 - 30.07 material: polaroid pictures, wood, fluorescent red, pink, green and yellow gafferstape, acrylic glass dimensions: the polaroid douple frame: 11 x 24 x 1 cm the tape relief:800 x 500 x 1 cm photographer: Karin Desmarowitz
There is a tradition in Russia to transform studios of emigrants into spaces of contemporary art. This happened with the former studio of Kabakov in Moscow, too. The director of the "Institute of Contemporary Art"; Mr. Josef Bakstein, a friend of Kabakov, who transformed the studio space into an exhibition point and meeting point of international and national contemporary art. He kept one corner of the former studio atmosphere alive by keeping the sofa, the table, the library, the collected things like a sculpture, even his mailbox.
This kind of art space and the special relationship to Kabakov, the Russian Beuys, I worked about and exhibited in an installation/performance in the Institute of Contemporary Art. "The memory corner"; of Kabakov I projected every detail as a tape through the relief towards the wall across the room. The environment itself got a distance in the relief. The space dimensions I expressed in different colors of tape in different layers. This part was my work about the pastens still present.
In the second step I pictured every detail of the former Kabakov possessions and worked over in polaroids. Then confronted them in a performance at the opening day with the faces of the young art scene visitors at the space.
The pictures of the objects and the faces, the character of the person correspondents to each other. I put together these, which made sense in form of a dialog.
So the todays generation is in a direct dialog with the spirit of the Kabakov objects, which are still remaining there as a reminiscence to this artist. The "POL - A - RIGHT" performance put the two parts together.