Exhibition by Sergey Meytuv "Cabinet tragedy or aesthetics of abandoned rooms"

During the month from March 27 to April 27, 2014, an unusual exhibition of the famous artist Sergei Meytuv will be held in the space of the Open Stage project on Povarskaya (in apartment No. 18). The exhibition “Cabinet tragedy or aesthetics of abandoned rooms” is an attempt to bring the true spirit of the past into the apartment with the help of its famous installations. The curator is the art critic, member of the board of the Association of Art Critics Georgy Nikich.

“When I first entered this apartment, I felt at home. Neither residents, nor furniture, nor the cozy smell of the old communal apartment, but… the mystery behind every turn of the corridor, the shadows, the stucco turned green and crumbled with time and moisture, the remains of wallpaper with traces of paintings and photographs that once adorned these walls. And I lived nearby in the same old house, and it was happiness. And this happiness will not return, ”says Sergey Meituv.

The opportunity to exhibit their paintings in this apartment - empty, abandoned, but so lively - is an enormous fortune for the artist. Not a single gallery could contain the amount of sadness that Matuw concluded in this series of works. And this apartment, completely unsuitable for exhibitions, could. Why “cabinet tragedy”? What are these works about? What is the “cabinet” of artist Meituv in general? The “cabinet” is the place where the archaeologist (teacher of zoology, old hairdresser, artist… etc.) was last seen. In other words, this is a transition space, ”Sergey explains.

“We tried to make a non-modern, homely, warm exhibition, where the viewer can feel part of that time, sitting down on a sofa in his grandmother’s room, sitting at a table under a cozy lampshade or drinking wine in the kitchen,” says Sergey Meytuv. All work is the fate of people; creatures who did not have time to live their lives to the end. And I really want the viewer to touch those things that the artist likes and that are interesting to him.

Historical note: The building on 20 Povarskaya was built in 1914 by order of the famous metropolitan lawyer Joseph Kalmeer. The project of the apartment building was completed by architect Valentin Dubovskaya, who was considered one of the prominent representatives of the Moscow school of architecture of the early twentieth century. The interior decoration of apartments, the area of which varies from 237 to 318 m2, was carried out with the direct participation of the artist Ignatius Nivinsky. Joseph Kalmeer imagined the house as the “House of Art". After the revolution, the apartments of wealthy residents were given as communal apartments.

In Soviet times, the house on Povarskaya was a famous place. Interesting people often gathered here on the top floor in the apartment of Boris Messerer and Bella Akhmadulina: Vladimir Vysotsky, Marina Vladi, Fazil Iskander, Vasily Aksenov, Venedikt Erofeev and others. It was these meetings that triggered the idea of creating a Samizdat almanac called the Metropol. In the 90s, the theater was occupied by the Anatoly Vasiliev Theater, and later by the Directorate of the Open Stage Project.

Personal site of Sergey Meytuv http://meytuv.ru/

Moscow State Budgetary Institution of Culture
"Open Stage"
Booking tickets: (495) 690-17-58
Phone for inquiries: (926) 527-07-26
Website: www.o-stage.ru