Image courtesy of MMOMA

Evgeny Antufiev at Moscow Museum of Modern Art

Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents the Immortality Forever project, a solo exhibition by Evgeny Antufiev, a winner of the 2009 Kandinsky Prize. The large-scale research of the phenomenon of Russian culture using different media is a total installation, which will occupy the entire 3d floor of the venue at 25 Petrovka Street.

Image courtesy of  MMOMA

The matter of the essence of Russian culture conjures up mixed images from Pushkin’s fairy tales, artworks by Kandinsky, the Ballets Russes of Diaghilev, which do not give a complete picture, but only actualize the problem. In an attempt to find the answer, Evgeny Antufiev carries out artistic analysis of common cultural symbols and animates them in his exhibition. At the beginning of his research, the artist turns to images of major figures of Russian culture, i.e. Leo Tolstoy and Anna Pavlova. The artist spent several years in field trials, visiting places important for their lives and work, collecting artifacts and asking descendants of those who met them. 

Image courtesy of MMOMA

The author skillfully weaves private family stories in the context of the exhibition, thus immortalizing them forever. Folk embroidery, made on vintage fabrics taken from the mother’s chest, is preserved in its originality framed under glass, closing from the outside world. Antufiev collects elements of Russian culture, scattered around the world, and combines them with the help of historical memory. This synthesis is a new vision, utopian in nature, but at the same time completely real. Video art, embroidery, prints, photos and objects form a complete picture, which raises the question of the true essence of the cultural code and determines what its immortality is.

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