It's OK to change your mind!
Contemporary Russian art from the Gazprombank Collection
Villa delle Rose reopens to the public with an exhibition that draws attention to the contemporary art scene of Russia.
In conjunction with the exhibition Revolutjia. From Chagall to Malevich from Repin to Kandinsky, on view at MAMbo – The Museum of Modern Art of Bologna from the 12th of December, the venue in via Saragozza presents It’s OK to change your mind! Russian contemporary art from the Gazprombank collection, curated by Lorenzo Balbi (Art Director of the MAMbo) and Suad Garayeva-Maleki (Chief Curator and Collection Director of YARAT Contemporary Art Space in Baku, Azerbaijan).
Within this context and in line with the curatorial decision to host international projects at Villa delle Rose from 2018 – , It’s OK to change your mind! offers a possible interpretation of Russian contemporary art and a new vantage point for reflection on the legacy of the early 20th century avant-garde, through the works of twenty artists and one duo in various media, from the Gazprombank Collection.
While the Russian avant-garde of the last century called for concentrated action towards a certain goal, the artistic force today seems to be diffused and indeterminate. Many of the works emit an aura of being suspended in time and space in a state of perpetual expectation of a better future. Nostalgic sentiments describe a desire for a peaceful and more equitable society while the new Russian identity is being negotiated through juxtaposition of old traditions with the new global youth culture.
The title of the show, suggested by Svetlana Shuvaeva’s eponymous work and itself borrowed from a popular slogan of a multinational corporation IKEA, highlights the sense of play inherent within current artistic practice. The processes of achieving a new status quo remain fluid and manifold, and whether it is through repurposing our immediate environment or landing us on the moon the coming change will be OK.
The exhibition is accompanied by the catalogue in Russian and English languages. In order to escape the traps of manifestos and overdetermination in the catalogue, the curators decided to ask 20 artists and 1 duo a set of twenty-one questions, which frame their idea of the current tendencies within contemporary practice. The answers that emerged in the questionnaire highlight widely varied view points on the global problems and open a curious window into the minds of the artists.
Pavel Pepperstein. "For the blue headscarf !". 2011. Olga Chernysheva. "Waiting for the miracle". 2000. Courtesy Instituzione Bologna Musei. Photo: Matteo Monti.
Mikhail Rozanov. "Spile of Leningradskaya (Hilton) hotel". 2008. "High-rise". 2008. Alexandra Galkina. Triptych "Lipstick". 2009. Courtesy Instituzione Bologna Musei. Photo: Matteo Monti.
Arseny Zhilyaev. "Russia". 2013. "Peace is our ideal". 2013. Anatoly Osmolovsky. From the series "Hardware". 2016. Courtesy Instituzione Bologna Musei. Photo: Matteo Monti.