" Baroque " at Moscow Museum of Modern Art ( MM0MA)

Saturday, 06 October 2007 10:23

MOSCOW - The Moscow Museum of Modern Art, ( MM0MA) in conjunction with “Krokin Gallery”, presents “Baroque: semiology of grandeur”, a challenging intellectual show aiming to redefine the concept of Baroque in the turbulent currents of the XXI century culture. The list of participants is drawn up with some of the most respected names upon contemporary Russian arts-scene. All of them have provided artworks in a wide array of media that in one way or another reference the style, the spirit and the meaning of Baroque, as defined in traditional critical literature, as well as modern cultural discourse.

According to the curators, the Baroque serves as an appropriate metaphor for current social, political and cultural affairs that directly determine the present-day human condition. Its relevance is justified by inevitable analogies with irrationality, erotic tension and expressive exaggeration of Baroque that spring to mind when one thinks of cultural globalization, rise and fall of empires, ready-made sex, controversial foreign policies, clashes with terrorism and violent big city riots – in brief, all those cataclysmic phenomena that undermine age-long humanist values.

Each artist has found his or her own set of visual symbols and motifs to reflect upon the idea of Baroque echoing in contemporary culture. At that, the show also aims to represent the works as one synthetic whole, creating a novel interpretation of a “grand style” – an integral concept of traditional Baroque.

The Moscow Museum of Modern Art was opened in December of 1999.

The project has been initiated and executed by Zurab Tsereteli, president of the Russian Academy of Art, whose private collection constituted the core of the Museum assemblage. The Museum of Modern Art is located in Gubin's mansion, the monument of architecture of the 18th century designed by noted Russian architect Matvey Kazakov. The Museum contains works of art from the first decades of the 20th century till these days. Similar in the character of the 20th century, the exposition is based in contrasts and correlations of artistic trends and events in Russia and abroad, as well as aimed at showing the integrity of the development of world culture and specifying the role of the Russian art in it.

Visit Moscow Museum of Modern Art at : www.russianmuseums.info/M2631