Vadim
Zakharov, a leading figure of Russian Conceptualism, makes a comeback
at this year’s Venice Biennale as the sole resident of the country’s
National Pavilion. Curated by Udo Kittelman, another giant figure of the
European art circuit who is the current Director of State Museums in
Berlin, Zakharov reclaims Russia’s position in the international avant
garde, both as a great creative force and as an invaluable theorist and
thinker.
The
Russian National Pavilion, designed by renowned local architect Alexei
Schusev, is one of the oldest ones at the Giardini. In recent years,
however, it has shown signs of new life. Most recently, during 2012’s
Venice Architecture Biennale, the pavilion was entirely covered in QR
codes, coming to life as an edgy, interactive 21st century i-city and i-land
that turned it into a must-see for the inquisitive Biennale crowd. This
year, Vadim Zakharov (b. 1959) makes a Venice comeback to pick up where
his sumo-wrestling project left off in 2001; here, his long career as a
radical Conceptualist and thinker becomes the new point of attraction.
The
aim of this year’s Russian Pavilion is, according to the Commissioner
Stella Kasaeva, the ‘to bring Russian art out of isolation and secure
for it the attention that it deserves at the highest international
level’. Hence putting the Pavilion in the hands of a trusted
avant-gardist and theorist seems like a wise choice. In conjunction with
widely acclaimed German curator Udo Kittelman -- the first foreign
curator in the Russian Pavilion’s history -- the show is bound to
reflect both the artist’s prolific creativity as well as the general
radicalism and advancement of contemporary European spirit.
Keen
to explore the metaphysical and the unconscious, Zakharov imbues all of
his work with double meaning, developing his own artistic lingo.
Through a Dadaist/Surrealist maze of concepts and references, he seems
obsessed with continuity. Pastor Zond Editions,
the seemingly more grounded part of his work, consist of sixty titles,
themselves often integrated in his artistic projects, or meant to complement
them.
The artist broke into the Russian scene at the end of ‘70s, working both individually and as part of several avant garde collectives. Apart from his participation in the 49th Venice Biennale (2001), he took part in the Russia! exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York (2005). In 2009 he won the prestigious Kandinsky Prize. In the words of the curator and long-time collaborator Udo Kittelman, his work ‘...is marked by a unique outlook and independence of artistic thought. His constant role as thinker and protagonist of the Moscow Conceptualist movement from the end of the 1970s remains a hallmark of his work right up to the present’. And the present, in the eyes of Zakharov, is always a new adventure.
Russian Team
Artist: Vadim Zakharov
Commissioner: Stella Kasaeva.
Curator: Udo Kittelmann.
Venue: Pavilion at Giardini
By Danai Molocha
Published: The Culture Trip, 10/04/2013.
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