Exhibition Brezhnev era and not only. Life is the opposite

On September 30, in the All-Russian Museum of Decorative, Applied and Folk Art, within the framework of a special program of the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, the project “The Brezhnev era and not only. Life is the opposite. ”

Yang Zhen Zhong. “Red Venus sitting in a corner”, 2010 Stainless steel, car paint. 220 * 208 * 118 cm

The project represents artists of different generations and discursive attitudes (formulated or only guessed), but united by symbolic time and place - the USSR of the "Brezhnev" era, transforming into a "young state" under the name of the Russian Federation. Vyacheslav Sysoev, Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe, Igor Meglitsky, Alexey Belyaev-Gintovt, Timur Novikov, Dmitry Plavinsky, Viktor Tikhomirov, Vladimir Mironenko (Comrade U) - one’s artistic trajectory in one way or another correlates precisely with this crucial stage in the country’s recent history. The works - graphic, pictorial, in mixed media - of "our authors" are held together in a single statement by the representative of the People’s Republic of China - Yang Zhenzhong / Yang Zhenzhong.) His two-meter sculpture - a sparkling red stainless steel star - Red Venus Sitting in the Corner - enters into a dialogue with subtle ironic images that are saturated with the works of Russian authors - whether it be large-format painting or chamber graphics.

Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe. "Member of the Politburo Sergey Leonidovich Sokolov" (series "Politburo"). 1991. Photography, mixed media. 29.7x21 cm

The crisis of the society of “developed socialism” was expressed in its “bourgeois” degeneration - when the egoism of the “private good” became self-sufficient and turned into a powerful driving force. Graphic - "caricature" - the work of Vyacheslav Sysoev 1960-80’s. - immersed in the element of Soviet life, in which the construction of socialism perfectly rhymed with the daily struggle for domestic comfort and privilege. The metaphors, elegant and unusually accurate, lead the artist to the main dilemma of late Soviet society: is it possible to reverse the transformation of the "Soviet bourgeois" into a citizen. A citizen focused on public life, on the “public good” - and not on the monopoly of deficit, utilitarianism, observance of public rituals, etc.

Vyacheslav Sysoev. “Untitled”, 1961-1992. Canvas, oil. 60x80 cm

In the early 1990s a new generation of artists finds themselves in a situation of dismantling the old system - including young authors being responsible for the renewal of society. Through their work, there is a search for a balance between independence from power and the corporation and inclusion in a single whole. Mamyshev-Monroe in a series of works by the Politburo (1991-2002), following the inversion logic of the era, changes the members of the Politburo into women - very fashionable, pretty Soviet women, with good makeup, in hats, in headscarves, and in fashionable glasses. The irony about the shaken authority of the Soviet establishment here is paradoxically complemented by social cohesion, which gradually emerges from this artistic make-up.

Curator:

Yang Zhenzhong / Yang Zhenzhong (PRC)

Participants (artists):

Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe
Timur Novikov
Vyacheslav Sysoev
Dmitry Plavinsky
Alexey Belyaev-Gintovt
Igor Meglitsky
Victor Tikhomirov
Vladimir Mironenko
Leonid Rotar
Yang Zhenzhong / Yang Zhenzhong (杨振 中)