Exhibition-game "Life of Wonderful Things"

The Museum of Moscow opens the exhibition-game "Life of Wonderful Things", which presents the works of young artists from the creative workshop DEZ No. 5. Among the exhibits - a life jacket from everything, a bear of truth, Duma furniture, re-educators of microbes and other large-scale art objects.

The wonderful things presented at the exhibition are a kind of bridges between the bright world of childhood and the complex world of adults. All exhibits are grouped around seven concepts: meaning of things, mutual / understanding, protection, therapy, empowerment, purification and ideology. At the same time, each object involves children and adults in an intellectual game - the idea of many works cannot be solved the first time. Thus, the “therapy” section turned out to be not only the semantic, but also the quantitative center of the project. It contains works that protect against illness and psychological trauma - a kind of "therapeutic squad" that distracts and soothes. Here you can find a "conflict extinguisher", "negotiating table", "first aid funnels" and "pacification shell".

“Children are constantly in search of new knowledge and new communication. Adults would like to do the same, but not everyone succeeds yet. The exhibition shows that the dialogue between children and adults, art and society, the museum and the rest of the world is not so much real as it is potential. The artistic, cultural and sociological aspects of our project complement each other for the professional viewer, and everyone else is guaranteed joy from forms, fantasies and plots, ”says the curator of the exhibition Georgy Nikich.

In each section of the exhibition, the curators have placed objects from the collection of the Museum of Moscow, which complement children’s works. In the "protection" section, next to death’s "life jacket from everything", "personal space" and "anti-rain", you can see Anatoly Kokorin’s graphics dedicated to the aerostatic defense of Moscow. And in the “ideology” section, where young authors presented images of the future (“alive to paradise”, “immortelle”, “to communism”), the Museum of Moscow exhibits late Soviet posters and documentary photographs that form a complex image of people’s real life in the context of ostentatious achievements and utopian expectations.

The exhibition is not at all childish, but rather hopes, aspirations and fears inherent in any age. In the phrase "Life of Wonderful Things", the main thing is the word "life", positive intonations, spontaneity and humor. Complex compositions of meanings - art and museum, make it possible to understand this project as problematic, historical, and entertaining, but, undoubtedly, lively and exciting.

“An exhibition dedicated to the centenary of VKHUTEMAS has just finished at the Museum of Moscow, and the exhibition of DEZ studio No. 5 will become its logical continuation, since many principles of the studio’s work are similar to the ideas and principles of the teachers of the Higher Artistic and Technical Workshops: attention to materials and functionality, striving future, novelty and a truly creative approach to form and content, ”notes the curator of the exhibition Polina Zhurakovskaya.

DEZ studio №5 appeared in Moscow in 1986 thanks to the artist and architect Mikhail Labazov. In the first years of the studio’s work, future famous architects, artists and designers were engaged in it, now their children also come here. Together with the teachers, the pupils of the studio become real artists, capable of inventing and creating extraordinary art objects. Every year they present their artistic statements at the final exhibition. In 2021, The Life of Wonderful Things is being held at the Museum of Moscow.

The original works in DEZ No. 5 are created not from materials classic for art - paints or clay, but from everyday materials such as scotch tape, cardboard, wire, fur, papier-mâché, aluminum tubes, foam rubber, cellophane, enamel and varnish. At the same time, they look significant and large-scale - this effect is achieved by a special combination of functionality and freedom of expression, large dimensions and the use of welded structures.

DEZ team # 5: Alexandra Vasilkova, Alexander Egorov, Maria Ivanenko, Mikhail Labazov, Evdokia Labazova, Natalia Nalich

Music: Pyotr Nalich
Video: Pavel Labazov