The exhibition “El Lissitzky – Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Utopia and Reality” compares and contrasts a representative selection from the work complexes of two of the most significant figures in Russian art during the past hundred years.
Utopia and Reality
The exhibition “El Lissitzky – Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. Utopia and Reality” at Kunshaus Graz is a dialogue between two Russian artists over several generations and almost a century.
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- 07 March 2014
- Graz
El Lissitzky’s work is shown in seven chapters, covering his revolutionary ideas for an entirely new art, his schemes for redesigning everyday life in a radically changed society, through to propaganda for Stalin such as the giant red star at the centre of the exhibition.
Ilya Kabakov engages in a dialogue with the visionary of the Russian avant-garde, El Lissitzky, who with his designs was key in shaping the lexicon of form of a period of upheaval, placing art directly in the service of social reform.
Both artists stand for two generations that followed each other, one for the implementation of communist visions – the other for its deconstruction.
On show in the Kunsthaus Graz is a version of the 2013 exhibition displayed in the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven. In more than 40 original works by El Lissitzky from 1919-1930, as well as in impressive reconstructions of his models as spatial total works of art, generally comprehensible geometric forms become tangible as constructivist and at the same time political visions. In contrast, the installation and painted works of Ilya Kabakov, who has collaborated with his wife Emilia since his move to the USA, draw a picture of failed utopia reality, paired with conceptual metaphysics.
The utopian architecture of the Kunsthaus inspired the artists to a stroll through two opposing worldviews, arranged in semi-circles. Unlike in Eindhoven, where the works were organised in themes in a linear space and placed with juxtaposing work themes, universes are created in the Space01 parallel to one another, as well as a deconstructing clash of fictions, realities and time periods. The artists’ works are sub-divided into six themes, ranging from the awakening of space through to unrealised utopia, and ultimately converge in one communal, large, central room.
until May 11, 2014
El Lissitzky – Ilya ed Emilia Kabakov
Utopia and reality
curated by Charles Esche, Ilya Kabakov and Emilia Kabakov
Co-curators Peter Pakesch, Katrin Bucher Trantow and Willem Jan Renders
Kunsthaus Graz
Space01
Lendkai 1, Graz