Masha Shubina’s series “Lost and found” is presented in the exhibition “Aéroports – ville monde” at La Gaité Lyrique in Paris until May 21st, 2017.

The work of Masha Shubina, the icon of the young Ukrainian generation, is composed exclusively of self-portraits that she has declined in all her work for more than 10 years, announcing the era of selfie, before the existence of Facebook or Instagram.

Here the self portraits are funny and provocative but are raising complex and current topics. They are also perfectly executed: we can feel the long tradition of Ukrainian painting. Masha’s oil technique on different layers of tracing paper gives depth to the subject represented. The background is a real card from airplane with safety instructions.

What is to see in the “Lost and Found” series? A feminist woman assuming her freedom through her image? Would it be to question the self-identification of people, particularly in the former republics of the Soviet Union. Or a demonstration that identity symbols and national stereotypes remain deeply in the manipulation of our consciousness: we live the free movement of goods and people and borders are open but we still indicate our place of birth on the travel documents, although we do not have a link with that country; just like a traditional ukrainian scarf identifies the young woman who wears it, even if it is made in China. 

For Masha Shubina, this is also a manifest to bring back the natural colors stolen by different ideologisms: “Give us back the red, the color of bood and sun, that you have stolen for flags or Coca-Cola advertisment. Give us back the blue, the color of the sea, the sky and the eyes of the earth, taht you have stolen for police uniforms. Give us back the green, the color of the grass, that you have stolen for the banknote or to sell the nature of the earth.”

For Suite Russe Paris, which took place in the Ritz Hotel from Oct 18th to 20th, the Moscow-based artist Diana Machulina presented a project she wanted to realize for ten years: “The betrayal of intellectuals“.

Inspired by the eponymous book of Julien Benda, written in 1927, the installation is composed of four wall sculptures, portraits of revolutionary thinkers of the 19-20th centuries: Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin – as most known fighters with capitalism, Henri Lefebvre as the author of Critique de la vie quotidienne and Guy Debord as the author of The Society of the Spectacle) presented on wooden boards as hunting trophies, with horns.

The theme of Julien Benda’s book is the betrayal of the vocations of intellectuals. Benda criticizes their abandonning of altruistic and philosophical ideals to immerse themselves in the practical and material world of political passions.

Writing at a moment when ethnic and nationalistic hatreds were beginning to tear Europe asunder, Benda’s diagnosis was a prophecy that continues to have deep resonance today.

As in all her artistic projects, Diana Machulina depicts a serious subject with beautifully done artwork and documents our contemporary reality: the portraits of 4 intellectuals presented as hunting trophees, with their head in white color like ghosts from a brave past, illustrates with humour the theme of changing way of thinking.

This installation resonates with the Ritz Paris: the hunting trophees connect with the decor of the Hemingway bar and somehow the Ritz has appealed to many philosophers and intellectuals.

For the first time in Paris, Galerie Stanislas Bourgain has presented the third edition of its exhibition project Suite Russe. From Oct 18 to 20th, in a suite of the Ritz Hotel, the gallery has showed a selection of contemporary artwork by Russian an Ukrainian artists to collectors, curators and journalists, by appointment only.

For the occasion, the gallery unveiled a site-specific project by Diana Machulina, “The Betrayal of Intellectuals” (see following post). Other exhibited artwork included pieces by Vladimir Logutov, Sergei Kalinine, Yuri Pikul, Sasha Romashko, Alina & Jeff Bliumis, and Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich.

With Suite Russe, Galerie Stanislas Bourgain offers his guests a different and refreshing encounter with contemporary art from Russia and ex-USSR countries in a friendly and intimate environment, a peaceful rest from the urban life.

Suite Russe was launched in New York in May this year at Baccarat Hotel during Frieze New York, and then followed in Vienna at Sacher Hotel during the Wiener Festwochen.

To coincide with the participation of Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich in the Wiener Festwochen, Galerie Stanislas Bourgain made the second edition of Suite Russe in Vienna.

Fyodor Pavlov-Andreevich ‘s performance Carousel brings together different individual artistic wills in a collective unconscious intention. It rotates with nine performance artists inside. None of the performers knows what the others will show. And since a carousel must turn, it needs – in this case – volunteers from the audience to kick-start the performance.

Carousel performance was first shown at Faena Arts Center, Buenos Aires in 2014. It will be part of the Wien Festwochen from May 14th to May 22th, 2016

More information: carousel-festwochen

Galerie Stanislas Bourgain announces the launch of its new exhibition concept for Russian contemporary art: Suite Russe. For 24 hours during a artfair week, in a suite of a destination hotel , the gallery will organize private showings of a selection of its artists’ work to collectors, curators and journalists, exclusively, and by appointment only.

Besides of being one of the best Russian artist of its generation, Vladimir Logutov is also a brilliant curator and dedicates a great part of his time to curatorial work, as testifies the group show “No Time” he curated for the Smirnov Foundation as part of the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art in Sept 2015.

“The creative act is not performed by the artist alone; the spectator brings the work in contact with the external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”, wrote Marcel Duchamp.

Vladimir Logutov continues exploring this idea in his last series of artwork, “Meetings”, a project he started in 2007. It consists of a series of aquarels where he gives physical forms to his curatorial ideas. As Vladimir Logutov declares himself : his art is not “a painting in an exhibition” but an “exhibition in a painting.”

The exhibition “Encounters” is visible at the Regina Gallery, in Moscow, until January 25th, 2016.