From the Exhibit Spaces of Ca’ Foscari at the Cultural Flow Zone (CFZ) to the Russian Pavilion of the Venice Biennale, many are the appointments to discover throughout the Biennale to fully embrace the cultural vivacity of Venice. The Centre for Studies on Russian Arts (CSAR) brings about an elaborate homage to contemporary art with "Tempo di Biennale" through many initiatives.
Valery Koshlyakov. We have never stopped building utopia
May 12th-July 29th, daily from 10am to 6pm, closed on Tuesday
Where: Ca' Foscari Esposizioni, Dorsoduro 3246
In collaboration with the Russian Impressionism Museum, Moscow
Curator: Danilo Eccher
Scientific Direction: Silvia Burini, Giuseppe Barbieri
Administrative Office: Fondazione Università Ca' Foscari Venezia
Scientific Office: Segreteria scientifica: CSAR
Opening: May 11th at 6pm in Campiello Squellini and Rettorato
Press preview: May 10th in presence of the artist and the curator
It is a wide review curated by Danilo Eccher of the artist who is being regarded as one of the most respected and interesting voices of contemporary Russian art, and who comes back to the Venice Biennale where his work was displayed in 2003. Koshlyakov, who lives between Paris and Moscow, has been exhibited in many prestigious venues: in Italy at the MACRO, in France at the Centre Pompidou in Paris and, naturally, in most of the major public Russian museums such as the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow or the State Russian Museum in St Petersburg. He has also exhibited his works in the Louvre in Paris, the Guggenheim Museums in New York and Bilbao, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow and the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington DC. The Venice show features works which allude to the Italian city and its famous Palazzi, but the architecture of palaces and their interiors, whether Muscovite or Venetian, will be the exhibition’s backbone. Koshlyakov’s large paintings resemble, rather, stage scenery, as if we were in the audience at a play entitled The Seven Sisters of Moscow, in which the starring roles were played by Moscow’s famous Stalin-era skyscrapers, exemplars of socialist classicism. In a sense, we can talk about "gigantism" in Koshlyakov’s work: a paradoxical gigantism which employs a variety of recycled media, including cardboard, packing tape, plastic, and metal. His magnificent "panoramas" hence generate an impressive space that captivates the eyes and imaginations of viewers.
INTERVIEW WITH THE CURATOR
