Exhibition of Russian and Chinese contemporary art: SPbU
The New Museum has opened an exhibition of the contemporary art “China – Russia”. This is the first part of the ambitious project undertaken by the Diagilev Museum of Modern Art at SPbU. Several days before the exhibition opened, the curators from Russia and China answered our questions at the press-conference.
The Director of the Diagilev Museum of Contemporary Art at SPbU Prof Tatiana Iurieva said: “It is an important project for SPbU as it is about and for young people. They are absolutely new and unique generation of broad-minded artists. They are very knowledgeable and skillful, full of ideas, well-educated, and it is especially important for us, their teachers. I was eagerly anticipating the moment when the young generation would let us know about them, and to that end I have developed this project”.
The contemporary Russian art is represented by the “Russian Puzzle”, which reflects the spirit of a game where each player can make a contribution and reveal what can be lost in interpreting the position of Russia in the world today. So, it is mainly about communication problems, misunderstanding and patchy nature of consciousness.
The exposition does not aim to reveal how Russian and Chinese art overlap, said SPbU Associate Professor Gleb Ershov, a curator of the project “Russian Puzzle”. “The exhibition shows a cross-section of the contemporary art. These artists share one thing: they have been brought up in the world with blurred borders: Chinese art resembles European, and Russian art is similar to Chinese. That is the essence of integrity test: you look at each other and see what you have in common”, — said Gleb Ershov.
The Chinese art was represented by sixteen artists working in various genres from abstract art to portrait painting, from landscape to fantastic realism. Many of them are worldwide recognized artists: video-art is represented by an artist participating at the 57th Venice Biennale. Fen Chengo, Chinese curator’s assistant, compared the paintings with blossoming flowers in spring. “The exhibition is a celebration of young Russian and Chinese artists, manifestation of the romanticism, enthusiasm and desire to create. They depict how they see the outer world and reveal their inner world, — said Fen Chengo. — Hopefully, the exhibition will make its contribution to enhancing Russia-China collaboration within and beyond cultural and artistic scope”.
The exhibition “China – Russia” is the first part of the project “Three poles of the multipolar world. China. Russia. USA” initiated in 2015 by the Diagilev Museum of Contemporary Art at SPbU. The curators are Director of the Museum Prof Tatiana Iurieva and Beijing Prof Pen Fen. We can see the second part “Russia – USA” of the project “Three poles of multipolar world” as early as November this year, said Tatiana Iurieva.