"Toasting to the Revolution" Exhibition
Family Business
This event has ended.
"Toasting to the Revolution" at Family Business Gallery brings together six young Russian artists in a show curated by Daria Irincheeva. Among their ideas is to comment upon Russia's present day socio-political environment. These artists along with many of their compatriots are fed up with the apparent corruption, disregard for basic civil and human rights and are greatly disillusioned by the perceived illegitimacy of the recent presidential elections. They present work with the fundamental question of whether art can bring change to their country. This, in an environment where much of the spirit for change is like the ancient Russian culture of toasting, where repeated pledges, proposals and salutations go on for several minutes. These passionate exhortations of precious thoughts and sentiments, that make poets, philosophers and revolutionaries of all, are often forgotten upon morning light when all that's left is a hangover's stench and one wonders what, if anything, can come of this?
Can the Russian nation, move beyond their self-proclaimed suspicion towards happiness, guilt towards levity and paradoxical frigidity without just the crutch of vodka in hand and song in heart? Can instead Russia move towards real open and free communication and expression? Perhaps not, but that is clearly not stopping these 6 artists whose work poses these questions in very different yet congruent ways. They find themselves in a transitional period in the gallery space. It's under renovation, it's not as it used to be and remains unfinished. During this renovation period, all underlying structural elements of the system are exposed. One can see its skeleton and all of its inherent strengths and deficiencies. In this disorder of construction, these artists work as utopian architects within a particular space where their plans are ephemeral, some of them with an anarchistic, nihilistic approach, others stuck in passive melancholic states, yet all reflect upon the road forward.
Media
Schedule
from April 19, 2012 to May 26, 2012
Opening Reception on 2012-04-19 from 18:00 to 20:00