The Russian Contemporary Art on Red Square

At the main line of the department store on Red Square has been opened the GUM-Red-Line exhibition fully dedicated to the Russian Contemporary Art. The works of 15 Russian contemporary artists have been united under the main theme "One Family". The 15 pavilions are exhibiting big names of the Russian art scene: Pavel Pepperstein, Andrey Bartenev, Irina Korina, Oleg Kulik, Aidan Salakhova, the AES+F group, and others.

Igor Grebelnikov, the permanent author of the Kommersant magazine and former editorial director of «Harper’s Bazaar Art» and «the Dialog of Art» magazines, has given his comments regarding the current exhibition.

He highlights that the ambitious project, presented by the GUM, does not cross the «red line» between the acceptable and forbidden, in contrary it presents the Contemporary art, which has proved itself through time and established itself on the market. He further continues that more than half of the displayed artists have taken part at the La Biennale Di Venezia, one of the most famous and prestigious cultural organizations in the world. Moreover, the works of the presented authors are exhibited in the Museums and are parts of the private collections.

The exhibition will be on display till the end of May, and organizers expect about 3.2 million people to visit. For comparison, the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and Moscow's Kremlin Museums welcome around 900 000 and 2.9 million people a year. The wide audience of the main department store surpasses by far the number of visitors of the museums' exhibitions.

Those, who are entering the store from Nikolskaya street are confronted with the giant humanoids of Andrei Bartenev. They are Flagmen, the part of the project «Flagmen - The Landing of the Family Happiness Ship». The passers-by are left to wonder what is their relationship to the exhibits and what is the topic of «One Family» for them. For some, it might be the work by Vladimir Dobussarsky «In Our Homes», or the Forest series by Georgy Totibadze. For others seemingly simple photograph «Kira» by Semyon Faibisovich. The ground floor of GUM is open to anyone willing to reflect on this topic.