my all time hero

In my continuing saga of missing fantastic artists who are visiting Moscow, I failed to notice that William Kentridge was giving a performance at Garage yesterday. But never mind, because the exhibition - Five Themes - which is a traveling show from the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art*, presents a truly breath-taking and brilliant selection of his work to date; covering sketches, animations, made objects, films, 3D projections and multi-screen installations, all showing his obsessive versatility, fantastical imagination and - often clownish - humour.  He should be as famous as, I don't know, artists like Gerhard Richter and Jake/Dinos Chapman  (or maybe he is and I was just foolish to only discover him accidentally a few years ago).

And somehow his work seems particularly relevant right here, right now. Both because it sits outside much western contemporary art, being not conceptual, intellectual and self-referential but graphic, metaphorical and narrative-based (that is, much more like contemporary Russian art) and because it has a way of incorporating politics that is very engaged and explicit without being didactic - something other (rather more inward and personal) artists here could learn from.

So - a must see if you happen to be in Moscow before 4th December 2011.

* To be properly accurate, from the San Francisco Museum, together with the Norton Museum of Art.  Show curated by Mark Rosenthal.

getting in with the in-crowd

Feeling v. pleased with myself for managing to blag into the biennale opening. Just marched up to security and said the artist Susan Hiller had invited me. This was - in its way - a complete truth. At the end of her talk, I asked the artist if she could tell my where her work was being exhibited.  This is because there is absolutely no information on the biennale website about things like that (no programme of events either; its all a guessing game, to the extent that on opening night the whole of the ArtPlay area was full of very posh, very lost, looking people asking plaintive directions.)

To which she replied (and I quote) 'you should come to the opening, it's tonight.' So I did. And before I knew it the nice woman organiser was apologising for the lack of me having an actual ticket, and shepherding us to the front of the queue.

the 4th

The 4th Moscow Contemporary Art Biennale has crept up from behind, or rather, everything is happening very suddenly without much warning. It turns out that ArtPlay where I work, is one of the major exhibition sponsors; that really famous (and fabulous) artists are speaking in this very building one after another; and that the next door building - which was a complete wreck until yesterday - has been finished practically overnight and now houses some amazing contemporary art, both international and Russian. And will do so until 30th October 2011.

Thus, it came to pass that I found out the day before that Issac Julien, Susan Hiller and Rebecca Horn were all down to give talks right here (along with many others). An amazing treat.


Photo of Issac Julien introducing Ten Thousand Waves at BHSAD, Moscow. Susan Hiller is showing Witness (2000) and Rebecca Horn Moon Mirror Journey (2011) at the Biennale.

more beautiful people

Found myself at a cocktail reception yesterday evening. Organised by Christies, the event was presumably aimed at promoting the art auctioneers to Russian art collectors again - a sign that the financial crisis is seen as on its way out here. Slightly miscellaneous artworks on the walls by Andy Warhol, Cindy Sherman, Claude Monet, Ilya Repin and Lucien Freud among others; but mainly I was staring at all the beautiful people (and the scrum of photographers).

My problem being that I never recognise celebrities on my own home-ground, let alone Russian ones. So no idea who these women are, just love/want their poise and style.

Meanwhile I showed my lack of class by wearing jeans, getting VERY over-excited at the Chanel No.5 goodie bag and going on to Moo Moo* for dinner.


* Moo Moo/ му му is one of two main chains of buffet-type 'cheap-n-cheerful' Russian food restuarants, decorated in a 'Russian village'/ cow motif style. The other is 'Mongolian style', called Elki Palki/ёлки палки.

10-of-the-best 9: Museum of Architecture

Finally found my way to the Schusev State Museum of Architecture today - a brilliantly tumbledown and miscellaneous, artifact-filled set of buildings (an old aristocratic estate) just next to Biblioteka Lenina metro station. For those interested in the subject there is a stunning exhibition of architectural drawings and photographs of 1930s Stalin-approved projects by the State architecture department Mosproekt -1 (finishes 10 February 2011); some conceptual work from, I think, architectural students; and then a show of photographs in what is rightly called 'the ruined annexe' where the temperature inside was colder than outside, but the space is extraordinary.

Like many provincial English museums, the place is staffed by old ladies, all of whom were extremely helpful. I recommend a visit, if only to see the (unfortunately rather picturesque) effects of underfunding of museums like this in Post-Soviet Russia.

For Soviet/Russian architectural groupies, the museum also has virtual exhibitions.