I
nternational Exhibition Project
THE GREAT SILK ROAD:
YANGTZE / VOLGA / DANUBE
Organizers:
Creative Union of Artists of Russia
European Center of Fine Arts
Russian Academy of Arts
Volga Region Department of the Russian Academy of Arts
supported by The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation
Leader and author of the project: Konstantin Khudyakov
Curator of the project: Arseniy Steiner
Project Coordinators:
Igor Bondarenko, Elena Prekopova, Svetlana Kuznetsova
The curatorial group: Svetlana Kuznetsova, Sergey Denisov,
Ivan Kolesnikov, Evgeniy Romashko, Uwe Goldenstein
Design: Sergey Denisov / Ivan Kolesnikov
Project Director: Konstantin Akimov
Partners:
European Foundation of Slavic Literature and Culture
European Academy of Security and Conflictology
Berlin Selected Artists (Berlin, Germany)
Ministry of Culture of the Saratov Region
Saratov State Art Museum named after A.N. Radishchev
Moscow Exhibition Hall "Gallery A3"
Museum of Russian Art Liu Minxiu (Harbin, China)
Confucius Institute of the Far Eastern Federal University
Society of Russian-Chinese Friendship
This project is designed to show to the spectators the latest trends in contemporary art of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, Russia and China. Speaking about this, the organizers are guided by the artistic process of the last 15 years, when significant changes took place within the socio-political and cultural reality, which also found expression in the field of visual arts. This project is the result of close observation of the art scene in 2000-2017 - a period when art, which was the radar of the political and social situation at the turn of the century, loses this function, yielding to the speed of the reaction to the information flow of social networks.
The idea of globalization, which seized the world, gave rise to some new topography in the current art field. Today, the artists focus more on experiencing the present moment. It is an art that recognizes dangers and speaks openly about them. Artists do not write manifests more, but prefer individual methods of work. Under the current conditions, there is no underground - to close in an ivory tower, in saving isolation - it is already impossible. The function of art today is not to change society, but people. The art is seeking for dialogue.
The organizers of the project, following the methodology of the European humanist of the 17th century Jan Amos Komensky, author of the famous textbook-encyclopedia "The world of sensory things in pictures," challenge contemporary artists to: reflect the world of nature and social relations through their creative works in order to obtain a variety of artistic revelations and points of view on the same topics. The project is an attempt at least partially to restore the holistic perception of the world around us.
The artists were offered within the given framework to reflect in their works 100 topical themes for today: 100 works are created by Russian artists, 100 themes are created by European artists and 100 themes are created by Chinese artists. The structure of the exposition of the exhibition and the art encyclopedia, in which the works of artists from Russia and the works of foreign authors are given on the same topic, give the opportunity to compare creative approaches and obtain unusual creative dialogues.
The traveling exhibition "Great Silk Road: Yangtze / Volga / Danube" includes 150 works of artists from Russia, China and countries of Central and Eastern Europe, grouped in equal shares on 50 theme-objects.
Route sheet of the traveling exhibition:
Harbin, China, the Museum of Russian Art Liu Minxiu (July 6-20);
Saratov, Russia, SSAM named after A.N. Radishchev (August 8 - September 3);
Moscow, Russia, IEC "A3 Gallery" (September 15-30);
Bratislava, Slovakia, European Center of Fine Arts (November 23 – December).
The total volume of the international exhibition research project: 300 works by contemporary artists from Russia, China and countries of Central and Eastern Europe will be presented in a trilingual art encyclopedia.
Volga Region Department of the Russian Academy of Arts