"BAROQUE: semiology of grandeur"
2007-10-06 until 2007-11-04
Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Moscow, , RU Russian Federation

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, in conjunction with “Krokin Gallery”, presents “Baroque: semiology of grandeur”, a challenging intellectual show aiming to redefine the concept of Baroque in the turbulent currents of the XXI century culture. The list of participants is drawn up with some of the most respected names upon contemporary Russian arts-scene. All of them have provided artworks in a wide array of media that in one way or another reference the style, the spirit and the meaning of Baroque, as defined in traditional critical literature, as well as modern cultural discourse.

Participants: Yury Avvakumov, Konstantin Batynkov, Dmitry Tsvetkov, Anton Smirnsky / Vasily Smirnov (FenSo project), Alexander Gradoboyev, Natalya Turnova, Nikolai Nasedkin, Platon Infante, Sergey Chilikov, Alexei Politov / Maria Belova, Alexei Belyaev-Gintovt, Konstantin Alexandrov, Andrei Filippov, Alexander Florensky / Olga Florenskaya, Kirill Chiolyshkin, Valery Koshlyakov, Farid Bogdalov, Sergey Kostrikov, Sergey Shehovtsov, Alexander Konstantinov, Alexandra Mitlyanskaya, Lena Heydis, Vladimir Anzelm, Sergey Shutov, Olga Chernysheva, Alexei Kalima, Yury Shabelnikov, Dmitry Prigov, Svyatoslav Ponomarev, Dmitry Shubin, Nikita Gashunin and more.

According to the curators, the Baroque serves as an appropriate metaphor for current social, political and cultural affairs that directly determine the present-day human condition. Its relevance is justified by inevitable analogies with irrationality, erotic tension and expressive exaggeration of Baroque that spring to mind when one thinks of cultural globalization, rise and fall of empires, ready-made sex, controversial foreign policies, clashes with terrorism and violent big city riots – in brief, all those cataclysmic phenomena that undermine age-long humanist values.

Each artist has found his or her own set of visual symbols and motifs to reflect upon the idea of Baroque echoing in contemporary culture. At that, the show also aims to represent the works as one synthetic whole, creating a novel interpretation of a “grand style” – an integral concept of traditional Baroque.

IMAGE
Sergey Shehovtsov
Column (2007)

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