location: Performances in different locations , "Paradise", Maly Manege, curator Jurij Nikitsch date: Jul 21th - 31st "Paradise" exhibition Jul 27th-Aug 08th material: yellow gaffers tape photographer: Karin Desmarowitz
Performances in public space 18.July Sunday: "Speakerscorner" at Puschkin Monument, 1-6 pm 20.July Tuesday "cushion square" Basilius cathedral, sidewalk, 12 - 4 pm or instead novi Arbat, sidwalk 22.July , Thursday "I love You, I love You not", Bus from Oktjabriskaija all the way along Leninskiprospect to Goethe institut 9 - 10 am and 4-6 pm 23.July , Friday: "smoky zone" on top of the rondell infront of Lubijanka 1 - 6 pm
"Yellow Square", Red Square, White Square of Malevitch,... I will put several Yellow Squares in terms of exterritorial locations within public space of Moscow. Exterritorial spaces to open up for the freedom of performances and installations espcially at restricted areas. For example sitting at Red Square is not allowed, I will sit there. The documentation of these pieces I bring into Maly Manege within the exhibition "Paradise", curated by Georgij Nikitch. As well I bring three more "Yellow Squares" into Manege for non censored Video work, literature and speeches ad opinions of Russian artists for the duration of the exhibition. Especially for this indoor "Yellow Squares" Russian friends are creating work to present it there. For example as well the collector Tatanja Kolodzej will make a statement on a collectors life in Russia today. 21st of July 'till 8th of August, Maly Manege
My associations begin with a carpet, which is in the East a parable, a symbol for paradise. The complete arrangement, geometry, animals, plants, everything is a parable for wealth, that unfolds in oases, little islands around fountains. There in this closed frame the art of Islam flourishes up to its perfection. Poets write about the inner life of human beings, their love, mourning, flowers of a enchanted garden. The carpet becomes a wall, warmth, decoration, an underlay. From the form of the rectangle my associations ramble to the square, the most regular form of a rectangle, a shape very relatively used for carpets. This concentration of form, which is circling the center point and embodies a strong magic in this concentration, brings me to Malevich and his Suprematism, his black and white square. The abstract freedom, he tries to find, follows a strict formal-energetic economy to build organized structures. His paintings are models of reality. This reality exists, although it can not be grasped by common means. But not only new ways of realization should be opened. As the old methods and concepts influenced the picture of the world and the acting of people, the new idea of Suprematism should be able as well to change the human society by changing the picture of the world.
In my Yellow Squares little personal freedoms are realized. They find their frame within the Yellow Square. In public space, a symbol for society, small anarchistic gaps are created by "Smoky Zone", "Speakers Corner", "I love You, I love you not" or "Cushion Square". They breathe a sigh of relief, a knowledge of freedom. In Maly Manege I will present within the Yellow Squares texts, videos, films, statements of contemporary artists in Moscow.
General Introduction to "Interfering Dialogues" In 1998 I was the first time working in Moscow in public space. I was invited by Kolodzej Art Foundation USA, which belongs to the collector Tatjana Kolodzei, who is an important collector in Russia. During this period I was working with my project ART : HOME -- LESS. I got to know the art scene in Moscow and St. Petersburg, especially I was connected to the former dissident scene, exhibiting in Spider&Mouse Gallery as a connecting point of the different groups. I was performing as well in TsarskeTselo (curator Jurij Sobelev), exhibiting in Witebesk and was represented by Gallery Overcoat at the art fair in Odessa. Since than I found a lively friend especially in Tatjana Koldodzei, her daughter Natasha and her sister Alla. Her collection includes several works of mine. As well I made friends with artist, curators, gallery owners and so on. In 2001 I returned to Russia in a group show called "2115km", curated by Dr. Inge Lindemann. The show at the Museum of Contemporary Art took part in the frame of the presentation of the Bavarian government in Moscow.
Now in 2004 I am invited by the Goethe Institut Moscow within the German Russian cultural year to work in Moscow again. Prepraring my work in January 2004 I realized that all the promises of Perestroika are near to be lost in a very conservative movement. So I decided to work with these background informations. I am invited for a group show at Maly Manege (curator Jurij Nikitch), which is a group show called "Paradise". This "Paradise" host my dodumentation of four outdoor performances in public space. As well there will be three open spaces, which contains video work, writing and free speech of every Russian artist who wants to present his/her work. The same time I am invited by Guelman Gallery for a solo exhibition and by Spider&Mouse Gallery to exhibit an installation.
Each of the three exhibitions represent three different levels of the art scene in Moscow. Because of this the three levels to connect was a challenging term for my concept.
