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Accidental policy
History has ironically placed Museum of Russian Political History in the mansion that belonged to Matilda Kshesinskaya, mistress of the last Russian emperor and wife to one of the grand dukes. The building that once witnessed ballerina’s glamorous parties now houses an exhibition telling about “the fight for the better communist future” and displaying a scale model of the “Taking of the Winter Palace” and a “bolshevik’s room”. The beauty’s life strangely entwined with politics – since she had been close to those involved in “the art of governing”. Young artists who managed to infiltrate the “body” of the mansion and the museum exposition with their works also created an accidentally political exhibition. The projects presented demonstrate a reaction to the house past, as well as to the objects that until recently used to be sacred – THE exhibits of the Soviet museology – and are now being covered with patina and dust, becoming archeological relics. Museum life evoked meditation upon the past and the present, upon the times passed, upon values: infinite and momentary Upon the idea that politics is one of the world’s most changeable values. The judges and the defendants swap over, private history always gets to be more important than that of the society and Kshesinskaya’s shadow come floating in the air. The exhibition tells us of power-signs becoming cogs in a machine counting off time; it shows we may not only make them move but also “domesticate” them, make more aesthetic. With chewing gum serving as an ideal symbol of power being spread over pavement and gluing politicians’ words together. It demonstrates how heroes of the Revolution are replaced by real-life heroes and they both look very much alike and diorama of the Winter Palace reminds not only of October 1917 but also of the festive fire-works. The authors try to understand: what does politics mean for history and reality and whether it is at all important.
Project curator: Vladislav Efimov (Moscow)
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2012 • [май]
Санкт-Петербург,
Петропавловская крепость,
Невская куртина,
левая сторона
(ППК)
[карта]
Телефоны:
(812) 233-0040,
(812) 233-0553,
Факс:
(812) 233-0040
e-mail:
office@proarte.ru
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