From Russia with Love

14.07. – 23.09.2007

curated by Bärbel Vischer

Greetings from James Bond. Undoubtedly, the novel and screen hero represents an icon of the Western world. The title “From Russia with Love” – freely inspired of the cold war era – triggers a series of associations while historical courses and recourses as well as actual political developments touch one another. The title brings to various interpretations and can be read as a – selfi ronic – allusion to the western eye focused on Russian contemporary art..

A group of artists, living in Russia or abroad, deals with the actual questions around society, identity, culture and transformation and looks for the relations between defi nitions and interpretations of symbols and values. On one hand we can fi nd what has developed from Russian political and cultural inheritance, as the meaning of icons, the relationship between the individual and the collective, the masses seen as a body, or the analysis of social standards. On the other hand, there are reactions to world affairs from different perspectives, for example the problems of mass culture and economy, the utopia of technology, and the creation of modern myths.

Artists: Victor Alimpiev, Vika Begalska, Olga Chernysheva, Anna Jermolaewa, Anastasia Khoroshilova, Misha Le Jen, Vlad Mamyshev-Monroe, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Where Dogs Run.

deutsch
italiano

Victor Alimpiev „What is the name of the Platz?“, 2006 Video, 8’33’’

Vika Begalska Welcome, 2004, Video, 10’10’’

Olga Chernysheva March, 2005, Video, 6’38’’