Monumenta 2014: Ilya and Emilia Kabakov

[Кирилл Сызранский]

Exhibition Monumenta, with 2007 representing the world's largest work of artists in the nave Grand Palais in Paris, in 2014, total installation takes « Strange City » most famous conceptualist - Ilya and Emilia Kabakov . The union organizers were national museums ' Grand Palais in collaboration with the Moscow Multimedia Art Museum ( Mumm ) . Curator at the "country town " two : Honorary Director of the National Museum of Modern Art on the French side and the director of Mumm .

Monumenta will be held from 10 May to 22 June and promises to hit the Parisian public in the first scale. In the central nave area of 13.5 thousand m2 and a height of 35 m erect eight structures : a unique skylight that precedes exposure , « Empty Museum », «Manas »,« Center of cosmic energy »,« How to meet an angel ? », «Gates», which will be surrounded by a double ring of " walls " and two chapels at the outlet - Dark and White.

To finance is perhaps the most ambitious project Kabakov , took about € 4,5 million that were provided by ministries of culture of Russia and France , the Department of Culture of Moscow and a number of private sponsors who provided € 2,5 billion, namely : Novatek, la Fondation d 'entreprise Total, JCDecaux, Bug Juice, Banque Neuflize OBC, Boston Consulting Group, LVMH /Moët Hennessy. Louis Vuitton, Warner Music Group et la Blavatnik Family Foundation.


How to tell the curator Olga Sviblova idea installation « strange city » follows from the logic of creativity first Elijah, and in the last almost 20 years - Ilya and Emilia Kabakov ; all the buildings in some way refer to certain stages of their artistic development. Thus, the light- musical dome of an eye , the predecessor of the opening exhibition at the Grand Palais , was created for the scenery of the opera " St. Francis of Assisi " in 2003. The light from the dome plays on the gates in « strange city », surrounded by two rows of walls, which also serve as exhibition space : they housed four other works Kabakov .

Passing the gate , the viewer gets into the center of the exhibition « Empty Museum » with maroon walls and gilded with no works of art - only seating furniture , walls 12 oval flicker of light spots and plays the music of Bach . This space is conceived as a kind of reflection of the myth of the art , there will be the problem of perception and understanding of art .

Left of « Empty Museum » settle «Manas», according Sviblovo , an homage to the myth of a magical city in Tibet , where there are eight mountains, on the tops of which are objects that allow the world to see the boundary between the celestial and Dolny , craters and mountains between the entrance to the underworld. Over Manas, according to legend, is sometimes inverted mirage city. Another pavilion with 12 inputs and outputs - «Gates» - refers to the European and Christian world. For « Manas » should « Center of cosmic energy », and the right of it -« How to meet an angel ? », where the images collected Kabakov different types of meetings and how to ask the angels for help.

At the exit of the chapel waiting for two . White , outdoor light - a reference to the Rothko Chapel and Giotto , it will be fragments of white paintings, almost hidden behind the curtains 72 . Dark chapel from top to bottom will be closed to light huge paintings Kabakov and become its dialogue with the Renaissance and Baroque periods. After that, the audience will be invited to return to the beginning of the exhibition , which will take place around the dome of the cultural program of the exhibition Monumenta: lectures, concerts and film screenings .