Julia Ioffe’s now viral image of “The Boy on the Bicycle,” Moscow, May 6, 2012.
In 2005, the Berkeley-based collective Retort published Afflicted Powers: Capital and Spectacle in a New Age of War, an extended tract that examined the ways that, in a political culture increasingly dominated by images, the way to fight one spectacle is with another. The collective provocatively conclude that the terrorists of September 11 succeeded in temporarily dismantling image culture, substituting the image of the burning towers for what was an image of triumphant capitalism.
The events of recent months have proven how select images – such as the Girl in the Blue Bra – can take on their own lives, in some ways overtaking the historical and political narratives in which they were born.
The past week, Russian protests have raged, but using adapted techniques, more attuned to the impact of social media. (In other words, the provocation is more one of the “city strollers,” who dare police to try to arrest them, digital cameras and Twitter streams at the ready.) This type of non-spectacular protest has been difficult for the mainstream media to describe. One image, however, has been put forth as a defining image for these days was taken off the cuff by writer Julia Ioffe. She describes the process in a recent New Yorker blog, beginning:
Over the past couple of days, I’ve been asked many times, by people from around the world, how I came to take a photo of the boy on a bike with training wheels, facing a row of Russian riot police. That story is simple: it was a complete accident. What is harder to explain is how the image fits into the larger picture of what has been happening in Russia in the past few days.
What Ioffe goes on to describe hardly fits the peaceful, “Occupy” strategies of the current protests, but it is definitely worth a read.
As we continue to watch the events unfold in Moscow, we are very grateful to Ioffe and her colleagues for their continued, balanced views on what is happening.
Patrons are arrested at Jean Jacques, Moscow, during the Days of May
The past few days, the art world has made records with New York auctions, while Frieze New York reaffirmed that the art market was showing no signs of stopping (even if that meant taking a ferry.) If anything, now all eyes are on Hong Kong.
Not all eyes, actually. Ours have been transfixed to the barrage of Youtube videos and Facebook links pouring out of Russia these last few “Days of May” (as they’re being touted.) While we had intended to dedicate this post to the Berlin Biennale, we’ve found ourselves compelled to cover actual politics and not just its theater.
Alas, while that last statement is intended as slightly tongue in cheek, it doesn’t acknowledge the very theatrical elements to the protests and riots staged in Moscow right now. When those in the city doesn’t understand what’s going on, how much harder to convey to those abroad? We have compiled a few pivotal images and clips, to give a sense to what is going on during some very momentous days, from Putin’s May 6 inauguration to today’s “Victory Day.”
Here is a video of Putin’s cortege as it makes its way through an evacuated Moscow. Terrible musical accompaniment aside, the images of the empty city are terrifying in their own right, which explains the spate of memes comparing the inauguration to other events:
The inauguration ceremony itself was a clash of opulence against Putin’s unmoving features (which Jon Stewart was quick to call out in his Daily Show coverage.) The inimitable Julia Ioffe was present and recorded her observations in a witty, but chilling piece for the New Yorker. ”To say that the Andreev Hall, the site where Putin was about to swear his oath to protect the Russian constitution, was gilded would be like calling Times Square “well-lit.” ” Ioffe writes. (Stewart suggested the building resembled “the inside of Donald Trump’s anus.”)
However you prefer to describe it, the footage of the event deserves witness, if only to understand the image that the Kremlin is hoping to project.
Then there’s the matter of Bolotnyi, the embankment home to the Red October Chocolate Factory. The opposition had requested permission to host a million man march; they were permitted to bring 5000. When far greater numbers gathered, the special services police force – known as the OMON, particularly necessary after recent polls proclaimed up to 87% of the standard police force did not support Putin’s recent actions – was waiting. While Openspace’s Konstantin Rubakhin has produced an entire gallery of video documenting the conflicts, this anonymous video gives an idea on how the relatively peaceful beginnings quickly got heated:
A participant is restrained by Russian riot police during the “march of the million” opposition protest in central Moscow, May 6, 2012. REUTERS/Denis Sinyakov
In the wake of “Bolotnyi” (already its own rallying call, and these AP photos may explain why), protests have quieted, but continued. The most recent NYTimes update is tellingly titled: “Protestors in Moscow Walk Softly, Carry No Sticks.” Authors Michael Schwirtz and Andrew Kramer point towards the social media-saavy tactics of the protestors, including “dilemma protests.”
The evolving tactics in Moscow are not novel. In his primer on nonviolent protest, Gene Sharp described a dilemma protest as performing an action so inchoate and unorthodox that police are trapped. If they let it happen they are encouraging it, but if they arrest people they risk looking either silly or arbitrary and unjust, which is the point.
An example of such tactics can be found in this video, which shows the OMON targeting and arresting a group of protestors otherwise just milling around Pushkinskaya Ploschad, one of the central public spaces in Moscow. When the cops-for-hire attempt to arrest an older woman with ailing knees for the non-offense of sitting down in a public park (around the 7 minute mark), the entire crowd springs to her defense. Or rather, they spring to her online witness, each shoving a digital camera or cell phone in her direction while one man tries to reason with the OMON. While this moment captures the impact of social media – we have V Kontakte, and we’re not afraid to use it – it would prove pivotal for other reasons; in the unfolding minutes, members of the OMON who refused to arrest the non-law-breakers were themselves arrested by their peers, for non-compliance.
A still from Novaya Gazeta’s video coverage of the “protests” at Pushkinskaya
Latifa Echakhch, Tumbleweeds, 2012, part of the Frieze Projects program
In what has been trumpeted as “New York’s Billion Dollar Art Week” (a figure that may need tweaking after Edvard Munch’s The Scream fetched nearly $120 million alone on Wednesday), Frieze Art Fair New York has been more than holding its own. Not only has it convinced people to make the journey to Randall’s Island (formerly known mainly for its home for the criminally insane), it has been selling out. And not just the entry tickets.
The newest addition to the fair calendar – sandwiched as it is between ArtBrussels and Hong Kong – has galleries scrambling to come up with saleable inventory. “We just brought pieces that were hard to travel and hard to sell,” Michelle Maccarone offered, perhaps in reference to the log cutting across her booth, courtesy of Oscar Tuazon (a Baibakov Art Projects alum.) “But the thing is, these are the pieces that are selling out first!”
Part of the reason for this success may be how the giant white tent has been customized for optimal viewing. In other words, this is a fair where you actually get to see the art (and not just the crowds, the gallery staff or its furniture.)
Bob Nickas, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Okwui Enwezor, Connie Butler, Craig Garrett, Susanne Cotter, Massimiliano Gioni, Bice Curiger and Daniel Birnbaum at the MoMA launch for Defining Contemporary Art
Actually seeing the art has become something of a novelty, which is why Phaidon’s recent Defining Contemporary Art is such a welcome endeavor. Edited by Craig Garrett, the book charges 8 of today’s most preeminent curators to each select 25 pivotal works from the last 25 years. The title put an emphasis not on a conclusion, but on the process of defining; selected works were not to be seen as “masterpieces,” but rather as entrypoints.
This week, the Friday night book launch at the MoMA was the first time Garrett managed to get all 8 contributors into the same room. Daniel Birnbaum, Connie Butler, Susanne Cotter, Bice Curiger, Okwui Enwezor, Massimiliano Gioni, Bob Nickas and Hans Ulrich Obrist each spoke about the general nature of the book before offering their take on one work selected by someone else.
Susanne Cotter’s text on The Way Things Go for Defining Contemporary Art
As Garrett explained, one of the rules was that artists were not to be included twice, but an exception was made for Fischli+Weiss, who have made such varied projects, all of such critical impact. There were other moments of note during the presentation (Nickas suggesting that if Marina Abramovic were serious about her Seven Easy Pieces, she would have ended with Bas Jan Ader’s In Search of the Miraculous), but the constant references to the Swiss duo were the most poignant.
For more information about the book, including bios of the contributors and a promotional video, check here.
An image of the May 1 march in New York, courtesy of Artlog
Yesterday, the Occupy Movement sought to kick off a “Spring Awakening” with a May Day General Strike, which took place in multiple cities across the country. In New York, reports placed the crowds on the 4 mile march down Broadway from 10,000 to 25,000; it all culminated with a concert by JD Samson & Men, who openly acknowledged the Occupy movement’s incorporation of immigrants and workers rights into its previous agenda, calls for financial accountability.
After a polite nod in Occupy’s direction, however, the New York art world has turned back to its auctions. Frieze/Armory Show comparisons are inevitable, but one thing the latter fair has always had in its corner is that it takes into account the auction schedule. And this week is a major one, with Edward Munch’s The Scream (1895) expected to bring in $80 million (leading to much speculation as to who has that kind of cash to drop. According to New York Times Carol Vogel, the British firm Ladbrokes is saying “As for who will buy The Scream, bets are 5-to-2 that it will be a Russian, 3-to-1 an Asian or European and 4-to-1 an American.” Artwriting at its finest.)
Christie’s isn’t one to sit silently by, however. For the highlight of its Post War and Contemporary Art Evening Sale (slated for May 8), the house is offering Yves Klein’s FC-1 (Fire Color 1), from 1962. The piece – made with alchemic processes, including actual fire (Christie’s has produced a film to explain) – is widely hailed as the most important work of Klein’s to ever go up to auction and is rumored to fetch upwards of $40 million.
Yves Klein, FC1, 1962
These works may be grabbing the headlines this week, but at least that will give commuters to Frieze something to read on the water boat over?
In the wake of this, there appeared in the Financial Times, Georgina Adams’ curious interview with a slightly-less photogenic but equally formidable new patroness: Elena Baturina. While to the art community, she may be yet unknown, those who’ve so much as glanced at a Russian paper in the last, oh, ten years recognize her as the controversial wife of the even more controversial former mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, who was ousted for exactly the type of corruption that was rumored to land his wife as the only woman on Russia’s roll call of billionaires. Baturina’s real estate and construction companies have been accused of directly profiting from Luzhkov’s decisions (such as the much-protested demolition of Khimki forest, a recurring discontent that surfaced long before these elections but whose countless victims, alas, don’t make quite as compelling the Artchronika cover as Pussy Riot.) Now in exile with her husband in Europe, Baturina is rumored to be seeking new investment opportunities. As Adams’ article reveals, among these opportunities, she is also developing the humanitarian-minded creative think tank, Be Open.
According to Baturina’s blurb on the Be Open website, the charity conglomerate aims to “build solutions for the future.”
Working in the construction industry, I collaborate with architects and designers all the time. I enjoy their alternative vision, sensitivity to human needs and restlessness – a desire to keep improving on what we have, to fashion us a better world. I want to garner this energy and responsiveness to direct it at really big issues. I am also aware of an emerging generation of creatives who deserve more attention; and I want to help them get it.
Timed to coincide with International Design Week, “Verge” brings together five artists “on the edge of art and design,” and all, incidentally, from XL’s stable: Irina Korina, Mikhail Kosolopov, and Alexey Buldakov (all featured in Baibakov Art Projects’ first project, invasion : evasion) as well as Sergei Shekhovtsov and Electroboutique. Critic Valentin Diaconov penned the catalogue essay (a decision he wryly acknowledged on his social network pages.)
Aleksei Savrasov, The Rooks Have Come Back, 1871
As Baturina tells Adams, the exhibition is only the first in a planned program of sponsorship for contemporary arts (though Baturina confesses that she’s more a fan of the classics, citing Aleksei Savrasov.) As Adams reports:
Her idea is to stimulate innovation and “good design”, and so contribute to a better world: “I am convinced that human ideas and thoughts are often influenced by the visual. If people are shown horrible things then they become aggressive and horrible themselves. But beauty, on the other hand, brings a peaceful society.”
While one can see how this kind of hopeful optimism can come across in Savrasov’s rooks, Buldakov’s bookshelves – chainsawed through in a process captured in Dmitri Venkov’s film The World of the Other – may pose a little more challenge. It will be interesting to follow how the development of Be Open, particularly in its partnership with Selina and the Moscow scene.
Alexey Buldakov, A Slight Correction in Design (detail), 2008, courtesy of Baibakov Art Projects
Toasting the Revolution, curated by Daria Irincheeva, Family Business Gallery, New York
Today is the last day of ”Toasting the Revolution,” a show of six young Russian artists curated by artist (and Baibakov Art Projects’ former intern!) Daria Irincheeva at Family Business, the new pint-size Chelsea space of Italians-at-large, Massimiliano Gioni and Maurizio Cattelan, which made headlines with Hennessy Youngman’s come one, come all project a few weeks ago.
In her press release for the show, Irincheeva wonders:
Can the Russian nation, move beyond their self-proclaimed suspicion towards happiness, guilt towards levity and paradoxical frigidity without just the crutch of vodka in hand and song in heart? Can instead Russia move towards real open and free communication and expression? Perhaps not, but that is clearly not stopping these 6 artists….
The artists in question? Ivan Brazhkin, Aleksandra Galkina, Alexander Povzner, Anastasia Ryabova, Sergey Sapozhnikov and David Ter-Oganyan. (Those who’ve caught some of Ter-Oganyan’s recent curated exhibitions – such as On/Off at the 2011 Moscow Biennale – should recognize these names.)
Garage Gorky Park reenvisions the 1960s era restaurant, Vremena Goda (“Seasons of the Year”) a derelict concrete structure (not to be confused with the renovated restaurant of the same name, where the Garage hosted a dinner during ArtMoscow 2011.)
According to OMA’s statement, the building will have 5,400 square meters, divided into two stories, with the trimmings one found in the Bahkmatovsky Garage: an auditorium, cafe, bookstore and childrens’ center, among them.
Rem Koolhaas commented: “We are very happy to work on turning the almost-ruin of Vermena Goda [sic] into the new house for Garage. We were able, with our client and her team, to explore the qualities of generosity, dimension, openness, and transparency of the Soviet wreckage and find new uses and interpretations for them.”
Among the “Soviet wreckage” are murals and red brick walls which the team hopes to preserve. The project is aimed for completion already within 2013.
