PROGRAM Olivie 9 september -11 october 2010 REAL ART Сurators: Bogdan Mamonov, Sergey Popov Vladimir Salnikov, Nina Kotel, Bogdan Mamonov, Sasha Leech, Boris Smelov, Nikolay Kasatkin, Ivan Lukinyh, Olga Chernyshova, Sasha Sokolov, Tasia Korotkova, Alexander Pogorgelsky, Katya Rogkova. Gruntovka 9-20 september 2010 GOLDEN POT Petr Maslov Curator - Bogdan Mamonov   3 july -1 august 2010 Rare Species Curator - Arseny Zhilyaev Participants: Alexandra Sukhareva, Sergey Ogurtsov, Anna Titova, Valentin Tkach, Irina Steinberg, Ivan Plusch, Evgeniy Antufev, Arseniy Zhilyaev, Egor Koshelev, Alina Gutkina, Andrey Kuzkin, Andrey Parshikov, Darya Pyrkina, Elena Yaichnikova, Nicolas Audureau, Anastasia Shavlokhova, Aleksey Masliyaev, Maria Chehonadskih, Daria Atlas, Dmitry Potemkin. The issue of society development has always been of acute interest for contemporary art. In modern historical situation such questioning has only altered its form. For the Russian and, previously, Soviet art the particularities of social interaction often designated the esthetic stance of an artist. In many ways, it was the life environment that assigned the direction of artistic search. Soviet underground was based on zealous commitment of the artists to their work and strong personal ties. In a sense, such type of subjectivity is an analogy to austerity of religious practices. It was only through dedicated service and self-negation that the practitioners could gain access to the Higher Truth – i.e. to the “honest” kind of art. Later on, the monastic self-negation, asceticism and “sectarianism” of the underground were replaced by what art critic and curator Viktor Miziano termed “tusovka”. With the development of horizontal friendly relationships, the artistic community comes out of underground and awakens to social life, and a new form of relationships assumes institutionalized functions. As before, friends still make shows rather for friends, however, art community experiences an acute hunger for new audience. Asceticism often transforms into its opposition – anarchism and bodily transgression. Friendship as a condition of “honest art” production is now fused with social mechanisms gradually mutating to business communication. At this date, we can state without much exaggeration that oil euphoria of the zero years and related changes disturb the continuity in Moscow art community. Today the Russian artists exist within the boundaries of freezing world which system dates back to 1990-s. Most institutions, as before, are engaged in a friendly activity, however existing in a form of stiffening economic gypsum. Communication is substituted by silent presence of self-referent speaking. The artists become LJ- friends, facebook friends and friends in other web resources. Historical narrative splits into many local narratives. Thus, a new type of communal relationships and “friendships” is being forged, which is at once more flexible and more uninvolved. The gloomy silence of the total communal optics is therefore juxtaposed with the practices of on-line communication. If one believes artistic subjectivity may serve a model of historical subject, we may see possible directions of the development of art, but socio-political sphere as a whole. “Rare Species” consists of personal statements of young members of the artistic community that are invited to meditate on their personal story: when and how they became artists or decided to be engaged with contemporary art. This decision is in a way analogous to the entry in network community. It would not be an exaggeration if we say that usual process of psychological identification is performed in a similar way. External attributes are internalized. The things devoid of meaning acquire significance, be it the history of art, personal or societal narrative. Thus, the exhibition becomes essentially an open-ended experiment. What do the participants regard as the turning point/event in their professional lives? A degree of intimacy allows us to define a certain historical punktum after that a certain line between participation and non-participation, engagement and non-engagement (in the capacity of an artist, critic or curator) will be already passed. Each participant is free to choose any method of representation. However, there is a common thread that runs through all of the contributions. Thus, the polyphony of persons approximately at the same time (most participants were born in the 1980-s) chose contemporary art as the main vocation may transform (or not) into an image of emerging artistic community that normally manifest itself in individual works or statements. We are happy to invite you to the opening of the exhibition on July 3 at 4 p.m.