THE MUSHROOMS OF THE RUSSIAN AVANT-GARDE
By IGOR MAKAREVICH AND ELENA ELAGINA

Presented by ARTiculate Contemporary Art Fund
Sponsored by GAZPROM Germania GmbH

At Club Row, Rochelle School, London E2 5th November- 22nd November 2008
Private view: Tuesday 4th November, 6pm-9pm


Pagan (Tatlin's Mushroom)
papier-mache, wood, enamel 

Pioneering Russian artists Igor Makarevich (b.1943) and Elena Elagina (b.1951) are to hold their first exhibition in the UK at Club Row, Rochelle School from 5th November. In the show they use the hallucinogenic magic mushroom as a metaphor for the irrationality that pervades modern culture in the same way as it pervaded ancient mystical practices. One of the central pieces of the show is a sculpture in which the iconic symbol of modernism, Vladimir Tatlin's tower, sprouts from the top of a fly-agaric mushroom, representing the visionary and utopian nature of the Russian avant-garde. A series of photomontages of buildings in Moscow emphasise the fungal characteristics of much twentieth century architecture. Such humour suggests that hallucinatory visions are not the sole province of shamans, lunatics or dropouts - they are a facet of modern life.

Makarevich and Elagina, partners both in art and in life, belong to the group of Moscow Conceptualists working alongside the internationally recognised artists Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov and Oleg Vasiliev, that produced a new language for art in Russia when links with the West were still closed. Their performances with the "Collective Actions" group during the 1970s and 1980s remain legendary.

The exhibition will present three objects, eight new paintings and a series of photo-collages. Though inspired by the Russian avant-garde masters Kasimir Malevich and Vladimir Tatlin, the theme of hallucination also relates to the politics of memory. When Elagina attended the academy she was taught by the avant-gardist Alisa Poret, student of the visionary painter Pavel Filonov - creator of psychedelic, fractured and hallucinatory images - and a pioneering performance artist in her own right. By then, "however, Poret had been reduced to extolling the primacy of Socialist Realism. "It was as if the whole avant-garde movement was just a hallucination", Elagina relates.

Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina have been exhibited in museums worldwide including the Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow; the State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; the Pompidou Centre, Paris; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Ludwig Museum, Cologne; the Akademie der Kunste, Berlin; and the Wilhelm-Hack Museum, Ludwingshafen.

The exhibition is curated by Nana Zhvitiashvili, Co-founder of ARTiculte Art Fund and a curator at the Department of Contemporary Art at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg; and Nadim Julien Samman, an independent curator pursuing doctoral research on the history of Russian post-communist art at the Courtauld Institute.

ARTiculate Art Fund:
The exhibition has been organised by ARTiculate, a London-based contemporary art fund, founded in 2007 by a group of private collectors with Russian backgrounds. The fund has been created to reflect the modern world and to promote cultural dialogue. As well as building a collection of international contemporary art, the fund will organise thematic exhibitions, support emerging artists and promote educational projects.

At present the collection includes works by internationally recognised and emerging artists from a broad geopolitical area and in a variety of media: Louise Bourgeois and Richard Prince (USA), Jonathan Meese (Germany), Kcho (Cuba), Mounir Fatmi (Morocco), Kira Wager (Norway), Igor Makarevich and Elena Elagina, Pavel Pepperstein, Olga Chernysheva, and Yuri Avvakumov (Russia), amongst others. The influence of the Russian avant-garde on contemporary art is one of the driving themes of the collection.

The key founders of ARTiculate have a broad range of experience in art and business and have built strong connections within the Russian community in Moscow, St. Petersburg and London:

Nana Zhvitiashvili, art historian, art therapist, and curator, Department of Contemporary Art at the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg. She has written a number of books on art and art therapy.

Lada Komarova has previously managed her own gallery of Russian contemporary Art, Solana, Chelsea.

Lyuba Galkina is a marketing consultant with over 15 years of blue chip experience working for multinational companies in Russia and Europe.

GAZPROM Germania GmbH:
As a German-based company with Russian roots and a European orientation, GAZPROM Germania actively promotes the intercultural dialogue between people and nations. For this purpose, the company acts as a link between Russia and Europe and advocates the creation of "new energies" from Russian-European relations.

"GAZPROM Germania intends to present a platform for European exchange with a view to strengthening mutual understanding among different cultures and relations between people, "says Hans-Joachim Gornig, Managing Director. In addition to supporting classical Russian culture, GAZPROM Germania sponsors contemporary Russian arts and artists, to acquaint the European public with the rich mosaic of present-day Russia.

Editor's Notes:
- The exhibition will continue at Sandmann Galerie, Berlin, 3rd December - 3rd January 2009
- The Mushrooms of the Russian Avant-Garde exhibition will be accompanied by a full-colour catalogue edited by Nadim Julien Samman. It will feature a curator's essay and contributions by Boris Groys (Global Distinguished Professor at NYU) and Joseph Bakstein (Commissioner of the Moscow Biennale)
- Panel Discussion: The Tradition of Paganism and Russian Avant-Garde, with

Prof. John Milner, Courtauld Institute, Joseph Bakstein and the artists and curators of the exhibition. This will be held on Monday 3rd November, 7-9pm.

For Press information and images:

Paget Baker PR (London)
Will Paget or Priscilla Granozio, Tel.: +44 207 323 6963, e-mail: Will@PagetBaker.com
Sophie Money, Tel.: 0787 640 2544, e-mail: sophie@pagetbaker.com

Nika Consult (Moscow)
Natasha Malafeeva, Tel. +7 (495) 790 3995, +7 (906) 708 3180
e-mail: malafeeva@nikaconsult.com

Club Row, Rochelle School
Arnold Circus, London E2 7ES
November 5-22, 2008
Tuesday - Saturday 11am - 6pm, Thursday 11-8pm