Moscow Museum of Modern Art celebrates its 20th birthday with a flamboyant art show
The projects continues the line of anniversary exhibitions of MMOMA — “Open Day” (2009 — 2010) and “Fortune Museum” (2014 — 2015). The main theme of these projects is to show MMOMA’s collection in a new way as well as its historic building in Petrovka, 25 created by a famous architect Matvey Kazakov.
1999
Since its opening in 1999, MMOMA has held more than 100 exhibitions, becoming one of the most prominent Russian museums. The curating team has chosen Prince’s song ‘1999’ as this show’s soundtrack.
Exhibition’s turning point is an artwork “Everything Is Going To Be Alright” by British artist Martin Creed — for a few years this neon writing welcomes the visitors of MMOMA at the entrance.
In the exhibition’s design neon goes inside: a party vibe was created with the help of different light scenarios in stiff enfilades of the mansion
Grids of luminescent lamps reference the so-called Y2K style that as well as MMOMA came up between the millenniums. This esthetic, both eerie and alluring, was born in contradictions between old and new, analog and cyber world. That is the way the MMOMA’s collection is, where paintings of 19th century are mixed with media art.
The exhibition occupies 20 halls (one for every year of MMOMA’s existence), each hall has its own curator. Due to its anniversary, museum has invited professionals from different fields to rethink the collection. There are experts from expected theatre and fashion as well as surprising like digital technologies and perfume.
The exhibition has 20 co-authors — Zurab Tsereteli, Bernard Blistene, Martin Creed, Mikhail Alshibaya, Alyona Doletskaya, Andrey Malakhov, Vladimir Mukhin, Olga Treivas, Diana Vishneva, Alisa Khazanova, Fedor Konyukhov, Ilya Lagutenko, Andrey Artemov, Oleg Voskoboynikov, Frederic Malle, Kirill Serebrennikov, Keti Chukhrov, Fedor Smolov, a voice assistant Marusia.
Each hall is designed in collaboration with their authors — the exhibition design itself became the curator’s portrait.
Bureau’s founder Olga Treivas has curated the hall ‘Architecture’. Its key theme is the Cartesian grid as the starting point of any structure.
The choice of rattan shows that the origin of this system lies in traditional crafts like weaving: there’s is no future without past. Futuristic Soviet kinetic art as well avantgarde pieces by Alexander Rodchenko and Yakov Chernikhov support this idea.