Europian Atelier

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  Europian Atelier | 2010

"Europian Atelier", 2009. Chipboard, wood. 800 x 310 x 130 cm. Courtesy: Moscow Museum of Modern Art For many years the Central House of Artists (TsDKh) was the capital's undisputed cultural center. It's opening was a step towards reapproachment with Europe. This is born out both by the building's design and the fact that it was precisely in the TsDKh that Soviet viewers first encountered the great Europian artists of the twentieth century - Kiefer, Baselitz, Beuys, Tinguely, Kounellis, Rosenquist, Uecker, Lupertz, Dali. The issue of the Russian artist's self-identification in the Europian space today and the recognition of Russia as a Europian country are for me subjectively bound up with the fate of Moscow's largest exhibition hall,which is now threatened by demolition. My installation is an architectural model of the TsDKh at Krymsky Val. The choice of material was important for me: Soviet furniture of the seventies is a reference to the building's aesthetic and ideological origins. The combination of threadbare domestic furniture and cold, progressive architectural neo-modernism is a metaphor for Russia's perennial yearning for Europe.