Garage Museum of Contemporary Art

Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art

10 Mar - 14 May 2017

Master Figure vector of Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art
Photo: Alexey Naroditskiy
© Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
GARAGE TRIENNIAL OF RUSSIAN CONTEMPORARY ART
10 March - 14 May 2017

Presenting works made by more than 60 artists from across the country, Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art captures the zeitgeist of some of the most active and influential creative figures of the past five years, offering insight into the diversity of social tendencies that constitute the underexplored Russian art scene.

A curatorial team of six members of Garage Program Department traveled through the country's eight federal districts, visiting more than 40 cities and towns, crossing eleven time zones, in climates that range from the subtropical to subarctic.

Working with Garage`s regional network of specialists in each local context, the Triennial curators met with over 200 artists, ranging from 19 to 69 years of age. From this research, they identified seven vectors - Master Figure, Personal Mythologies, Fidelity to Place, Common Language, Art in Action, Street Morphology, and Local Histories of Art - through which the current art life of the country can be broadly understood.

These tendencies range from a strong identification with urban and natural environments and a drive to create elaborate mythological worlds, to the use of art practice as activism, or as a mechanism to participate in international discourse. Often isolated and working in the absence of established cultural infrastructure, what unites the widely different artists selected for the exhibition is a sense of resourcefulness and a powerful belief in art as a way of life.