The Second Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art takes its title—“A Beautiful Night for All the People”—from a 2017 experimental novel by the mathematician Roman Mikhailov, who surrendered control of his plot by employing a process-based language that allowed for multiple narratives. Likewise, this year’s Triennial sees curatorial control giving way to chance. The 60 artists who were presented in the first Triennial, held in 2017, chose the artists presented in this one. It’s a beautiful portrait of the diverse contemporary art in today’s Russia—a country with 100 languages and 11 time zones! Recently debuted at the Triennial was Andrey Kuzkin’s astonishing Prayers and Heroes. It consists of three imposing gray walls, each niched with hundreds of small cells in a tight grid formation. Inside each cell is the small sculpture of a kneeling man, made from bread. It’s a material ennobled by incarcerated Russians, who have traditionally worked bread into chess pieces and figurines. In Kuzkin’s work, the triptych altarpiece, the Gulag, the Siege of Leningrad, the Soviet suppression of art and artists—all are expressed in bread. —L.J.
The Arts Intel Report
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
Second Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art: A Beautiful Night for All the People
When
Sept 11, 2020 – Jan 17, 2021
Where
Andrey Kuzkin’s “Prayers and Heroes,” 2016–2019, is made of bread, salt, PVA glue, metal, blood, and fiberboard. Photo courtesy of the artist and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art.
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Until Mar 1, 2025