Vadim Zakharov
01 Feb - 05 Mar 2006
VADIM ZAKHAROV
"Lessons in the boudoir"
In 2006, Vadim Zakharov will have been active as an artist for 25 years. To mark this anniversary, Stella Art Gallery, New Art Foundation, and the Interros Bookpublishing Program are presenting a retrospective exhibition of Vadim Zakharov at the State Tretyakov Gallery and at Stella Art Gallery. Vadim Zakharov has been an active participant of Moscow unofficial art scene since 1978 and has become one of the key figures in Moscow Conceptualism. His multi-faceted activities as an artist, publisher, archivist, collector, and book designer have resulted in dozens of exhibitions and publications. Vadim Zakharov's work has been presented at many major international exhibitions (including the 49th Venice Biennale and "Moscow-Berlin 1950-2000" in Moscow and Berlin). Since 1989, Zakharov has been living and working in Moscow and Cologne. His Monument to Theodor W. Adorno was unveiled at the Adornoplatz square in Frankurt am Main to mark the centenary anniversary of the birth of this outstanding philosopher. Zakharov's work is part of the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Frankfurt am Main, the Deutsche Bank Collection, and the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which recently showed the large-scale exhibition of Russian art "Russia!" This exhibition also included Zakharov's installation "The History of Russian Art." Vadim Zakharov's creative position balances on the borderline between cultural tradition and the search for a new, contemporary language in art. In his works, one can recognize allusions to Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Proust, Gogol, Rilke, Cezanne, Malevich, and many other representatives of high culture, as well as the Japanese and Chinese cultural traditions. The project "Lessons in the Boudoir" was prepared by Vadim Zakharov in 2003 and will find its first realization at Stella Art Gallery in February 2006. This project consists of a series of real lectures, held by leading critics, art historians, and philosophers in the absolutely intimate setting of a boudoir, in the presence of a super model, without any other spectators. Placing the Word and Beauty into a relationship of eternal opposition, "Lessons in the Boudoir" casts the Girl and the Lecturer as two equally important heroes of one and the same narrative. The spectator who watches their video-taped dialogue will not know what or who is more important in the situation at hand. Two to three lectures are planned for the exhibition's duration. The resulting footage (and the footage of subsequent lectures) will then be published at video editions. Those "Lessons in the Boudoir" that have already been held will be on show at the Stella Art Gallery. The retrospective exhibition at the State Tretyakov Gallery will present more than sixty editions, installations, photographs, videos and artistic collaborations since 1978. The exhibition will be divided into seven sections: actions, performances, and adventures; editions; installations; photographs and videos; painted works; objects and, last but not least, collaborations. As the first retrospective exhibition of Vadim Zakharov in his home country, this show will indubitably be one of the most significant cultural events of the year. For this reason, the project is taking place under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication of the Russian Federation and the Moscow House of Compatriots of the Moscow Municipal Government. A retrospective catalogue on Vadim Zakharov's work will appear in time for the exhibition's opening. The catalogue is fully bilingual (Russian-English).
© All r.r. Stella Art Gallery 2005
"Lessons in the boudoir"
In 2006, Vadim Zakharov will have been active as an artist for 25 years. To mark this anniversary, Stella Art Gallery, New Art Foundation, and the Interros Bookpublishing Program are presenting a retrospective exhibition of Vadim Zakharov at the State Tretyakov Gallery and at Stella Art Gallery. Vadim Zakharov has been an active participant of Moscow unofficial art scene since 1978 and has become one of the key figures in Moscow Conceptualism. His multi-faceted activities as an artist, publisher, archivist, collector, and book designer have resulted in dozens of exhibitions and publications. Vadim Zakharov's work has been presented at many major international exhibitions (including the 49th Venice Biennale and "Moscow-Berlin 1950-2000" in Moscow and Berlin). Since 1989, Zakharov has been living and working in Moscow and Cologne. His Monument to Theodor W. Adorno was unveiled at the Adornoplatz square in Frankurt am Main to mark the centenary anniversary of the birth of this outstanding philosopher. Zakharov's work is part of the collections of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Frankfurt am Main, the Deutsche Bank Collection, and the collection of the Guggenheim Museum in New York, which recently showed the large-scale exhibition of Russian art "Russia!" This exhibition also included Zakharov's installation "The History of Russian Art." Vadim Zakharov's creative position balances on the borderline between cultural tradition and the search for a new, contemporary language in art. In his works, one can recognize allusions to Dante, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Proust, Gogol, Rilke, Cezanne, Malevich, and many other representatives of high culture, as well as the Japanese and Chinese cultural traditions. The project "Lessons in the Boudoir" was prepared by Vadim Zakharov in 2003 and will find its first realization at Stella Art Gallery in February 2006. This project consists of a series of real lectures, held by leading critics, art historians, and philosophers in the absolutely intimate setting of a boudoir, in the presence of a super model, without any other spectators. Placing the Word and Beauty into a relationship of eternal opposition, "Lessons in the Boudoir" casts the Girl and the Lecturer as two equally important heroes of one and the same narrative. The spectator who watches their video-taped dialogue will not know what or who is more important in the situation at hand. Two to three lectures are planned for the exhibition's duration. The resulting footage (and the footage of subsequent lectures) will then be published at video editions. Those "Lessons in the Boudoir" that have already been held will be on show at the Stella Art Gallery. The retrospective exhibition at the State Tretyakov Gallery will present more than sixty editions, installations, photographs, videos and artistic collaborations since 1978. The exhibition will be divided into seven sections: actions, performances, and adventures; editions; installations; photographs and videos; painted works; objects and, last but not least, collaborations. As the first retrospective exhibition of Vadim Zakharov in his home country, this show will indubitably be one of the most significant cultural events of the year. For this reason, the project is taking place under the patronage of the Ministry of Culture and Mass Communication of the Russian Federation and the Moscow House of Compatriots of the Moscow Municipal Government. A retrospective catalogue on Vadim Zakharov's work will appear in time for the exhibition's opening. The catalogue is fully bilingual (Russian-English).
© All r.r. Stella Art Gallery 2005