Garage Museum of Contemporary Art archive

Acquired from the artist

Acquired from Alexey Veselovsky

According to the artist this book is based on observations of the movements and forms of clouds. The sketches and texts describe the diversity of the sky and also the feelings and reflections of the artist. As Marakulina notes, “Clouds are a universal educational substance, visual information that can be perceived differently depending on the condition of the observer. Cloud Student is a notebook of observations or a textbook written by a student.” 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 According to the artist this book is based on observations of the movements and forms of clouds. The sketches and texts describe the diversity of the sky and also the feelings and reflections of the artist. As Marakulina notes, “Clouds are a universal educational substance, visual information that can be perceived differently depending on the condition of the observer. Cloud Student is a notebook of observations or a textbook written by a student.” 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

Cloud Student

The book contains drawings by Andrey Dmitrenko which are interspersed with the text: “I wrap you all in the hypnotic scent of a flower that bloomed on these sheets of paper.” Envelopes with seeds are glued into the book, a metaphorical promise that if it has to go through catastrophes and destruction “grass will sprout.” 

 The book uses paper, vintage paper, tracing paper with the artist’s photographs printed on it, artificial leather, colored varnish, pigment printing, and flower seeds. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 The book contains drawings by Andrey Dmitrenko which are interspersed with the text: “I wrap you all in the hypnotic scent of a flower that bloomed on these sheets of paper.” Envelopes with seeds are glued into the book, a metaphorical promise that if it has to go through catastrophes and destruction “grass will sprout.” 

 The book uses paper, vintage paper, tracing paper with the artist’s photographs printed on it, artificial leather, colored varnish, pigment printing, and flower seeds. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

I Will Sprout Grass Through These Sheets of Paper

Artist Lera Lerner collected 23 stories of real people who she met on the street and who come from marginalized social groups but are involved with creative practices that Lerner considers make them artists. The story of each person is presented as a small book or artifact reflecting the essence of their creative practice. The stories are “put away” in pockets that are sewn onto a real shirt, which makes the book like a (literal) found archive of street art. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 Artist Lera Lerner collected 23 stories of real people who she met on the street and who come from marginalized social groups but are involved with creative practices that Lerner considers make them artists. The story of each person is presented as a small book or artifact reflecting the essence of their creative practice. The stories are “put away” in pockets that are sewn onto a real shirt, which makes the book like a (literal) found archive of street art. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

City of Displaced Persons

From the early 1970s Nikita Alexeev, one of the key artists of Moscow Conceptualism, created drawing series, artist’s books, and comic albums, investigating the interaction between text and image. His ABC Your first book, published on the initiative of printing studio Piranesi LAB, continues this tradition by combining intellectual play and artistic experiment.

The publication is a set of separate, screenprinted pages, on each of which are depicted two objects that begin with the same letter of the English alphabet. The preface by Nikita Alexeev and Irina Gorlova is included separately. Five books of the edition of 35 were hand colored by the artist. The other 30 books each contain two randomly selected colored pages that are not repeated in the others. Alexeev suggests that future owners color the rest of the letters.

Inspired by Alexandre Benois’ Alphabet in Pictures (1904), Alexeev creates his version of absurd, unexpected “surrealist pairs” that contrast in terms of scale and meaning. This is not simply an alphabet book but a hedonistic game of associations in which the sun that migrates from page to page is an immutable leitmotif.

From the early 1970s Nikita Alexeev, one of the key artists of Moscow Conceptualism, created drawing series, artist’s books, and comic albums, investigating the interaction between text and image. His ABC Your first book, published on the initiative of printing studio Piranesi LAB, continues this tradition by combining intellectual play and artistic experiment.

The publication is a set of separate, screenprinted pages, on each of which are depicted two objects that begin with the same letter of the English alphabet. The preface by Nikita Alexeev and Irina Gorlova is included separately. Five books of the edition of 35 were hand colored by the artist. The other 30 books each contain two randomly selected colored pages that are not repeated in the others. Alexeev suggests that future owners color the rest of the letters.

Inspired by Alexandre Benois’ Alphabet in Pictures (1904), Alexeev creates his version of absurd, unexpected “surrealist pairs” that contrast in terms of scale and meaning. This is not simply an alphabet book but a hedonistic game of associations in which the sun that migrates from page to page is an immutable leitmotif.

Your first book

Mayana Nasybullova investigates the mechanisms of identity, nostalgia, and the transformation of iconic symbols of personal, collective, and historical memory. In the project Last Testaments Publishers, which she began in 2018, the artist creates ceramic books that are postapocalyptic artifacts seemingly left for future generations. Referencing archaic techniques, she ironically rethinks the possible end of the world. 

 The book Untitled is made of clay tablets with imprints of plants and plastic packaging, interleaved with fabric pages with embroidered text. These “fossilized” casts, traces of an era that has disappeared, are arranged in a single sequence of living and artificial, natural and technogenic. The texts include snatches of phrases: “the switch is broken,” “the air tastes strange,” “animals, laughter, and cold,” “and there’s no such love,” “it’s a shame and thank God,” reinforcing the atmosphere of a postapocalyptic chronicle. As in other books in the series, Untitled balances between seriousness and irony, reminding the reader of the sacred nature of knowledge and the importance of its preservation and transmission.

 Mayana Nasybullova investigates the mechanisms of identity, nostalgia, and the transformation of iconic symbols of personal, collective, and historical memory. In the project Last Testaments Publishers, which she began in 2018, the artist creates ceramic books that are postapocalyptic artifacts seemingly left for future generations. Referencing archaic techniques, she ironically rethinks the possible end of the world.  

 The book Untitled is made of clay tablets with imprints of plants and plastic packaging, interleaved with fabric pages with embroidered text. These “fossilized” casts, traces of an era that has disappeared, are arranged in a single sequence of living and artificial, natural and technogenic. The texts include snatches of phrases: “the switch is broken,” “the air tastes strange,” “animals, laughter, and cold,” “and there’s no such love,” “it’s a shame and thank God,” reinforcing the atmosphere of a postapocalyptic chronicle. As in other books in the series, Untitled balances between seriousness and irony, reminding the reader of the sacred nature of knowledge and the importance of its preservation and transmission. 

 Untitled

This 26-meter‑long scroll comprises an uninterrupted abstract drawing of interwoven lines symbolizing the movement of time and history and also social movements associated with the countries of Southeast Asia in the second half of the twentieth century, which is the subject of many of Novikov’s projects. 

 The scroll is made on rice and bamboo paper using Chinese ink and Japanese acrylic and is kept in a handmade tube. The publication also includes several A4 sheets imitating bureaucratic documents written in an imaginary language. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 This 26-meter‑long scroll comprises an uninterrupted abstract drawing of interwoven lines symbolizing the movement of time and history and also social movements associated with the countries of Southeast Asia in the second half of the twentieth century, which is the subject of many of Novikov’s projects. 

 The scroll is made on rice and bamboo paper using Chinese ink and Japanese acrylic and is kept in a handmade tube. The publication also includes several A4 sheets imitating bureaucratic documents written in an imaginary language. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

Weapons of the Weak

The book is based on documentary material about the village of Kucher in Udmurtia, the artist’s birthplace, which is special to her. It shows the celebration Village Day, in which residents and former residents who have returned for one day to their home village, gather at a long table, talk about life, problems, and joys, and drink, eat, sing, play, and recall the heyday of the village and their youth. 

 Village Day takes place on Parents’ Day, the day of remembering the dead, when people go to the cemetery and then stay for a short while. This book is about threads, connections, memory, family, and one’s roots; about how a sparsely populated, disappearing village comes back to life on the “day of the dead;” about the close links between pagan rituals and Christian traditions. The book also includes another subject connected to the artist’s family tree: archive materials which are in dialogue with the overall narrative. 

 The book comprises 38 unbound drawings made using India ink and accompanied by a printed text on sheets of tracing paper. The sheets are wrapped in several layers: a folder with a cutout, a sleeve for the folder, and a case for storage. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 The book is based on documentary material about the village of Kucher in Udmurtia, the artist’s birthplace, which is special to her. It shows the celebration Village Day, in which residents and former residents who have returned for one day to their home village, gather at a long table, talk about life, problems, and joys, and drink, eat, sing, play, and recall the heyday of the village and their youth.  

 Village Day takes place on Parents’ Day, the day of remembering the dead, when people go to the cemetery and then stay for a short while. This book is about threads, connections, memory, family, and one’s roots; about how a sparsely populated, disappearing village comes back to life on the “day of the dead;” about the close links between pagan rituals and Christian traditions. The book also includes another subject connected to the artist’s family tree: archive materials which are in dialogue with the overall narrative.  

 The book comprises 38 unbound drawings made using India ink and accompanied by a printed text on sheets of tracing paper. The sheets are wrapped in several layers: a folder with a cutout, a sleeve for the folder, and a case for storage.  

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

Village Day

Acknowledgements are usually part of a scholarly monograph. While working on a dissertation about the contemporary history of the Republic of South Africa (Kruchinsky is a professional Africanist), Vladislav copied the acknowledgements from the sources he used and used them to compile a long and somewhat absurd text. 

 The narrative in Vladislav Kruchinsky’s book is that of scholar. We cannot say for sure who that person is or what are their interests. The narrative moves from standard acknowledgements to a reflection on the position of artists today, who have to live from grant to grant without any hope of making a living. The publication consists of brochures with a text in English and a series of drawings illustrating the adventures of the unknown character/scholar/artist Acknowledgements. 

 The text of Acknowledgements is printed in a separate brochure, to which are appended nine watercolor illustrations in mounts. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 Acknowledgements are usually part of a scholarly monograph. While working on a dissertation about the contemporary history of the Republic of South Africa (Kruchinsky is a professional Africanist), Vladislav copied the acknowledgements from the sources he used and used them to compile a long and somewhat absurd text.  

 The narrative in Vladislav Kruchinsky’s book is that of scholar. We cannot say for sure who that person is or what are their interests. The narrative moves from standard acknowledgements to a reflection on the position of artists today, who have to live from grant to grant without any hope of making a living. The publication consists of brochures with a text in English and a series of drawings illustrating the adventures of the unknown character/scholar/artist Acknowledgements.  

 The text of Acknowledgements is printed in a separate brochure, to which are appended nine watercolor illustrations in mounts.  

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

Acknowledgements

The book was a result of the artist’s idea to create sculptures from stars that have shed their outer layers and to give planetary nebulae a form reminiscent of a hare’s silhouette (a nice‑looking animal that is recognisable even from afar). This enterprise does not contradict the laws of physics, but it cannot be achieved at the current stage of technological development. 

 The book is based on a series of drawings and paintings by Rostan Tavasiev made in 2020 and 2021. They are reproduced in  the Catalogue of Art Projects using digital printing and are adjacent to scientific descriptions of nebulae could be created based on existing binary star systems. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy.

 The book was a result of the artist’s idea to create sculptures from stars that have shed their outer layers and to give planetary nebulae a form reminiscent of a hare’s silhouette (a nice‑looking animal that is recognisable even from afar). This enterprise does not contradict the laws of physics, but it cannot be achieved at the current stage of technological development. 

 The book is based on a series of drawings and paintings by Rostan Tavasiev made in 2020 and 2021. They are reproduced in  the Catalogue of Art Projects  using digital printing and are adjacent to scientific descriptions of nebulae could be created based on existing binary star systems. 

 The book was created as part of the Garage Library project Single Copy. 

Catalogue of Art Projects in Outer Space. Planetary Nebulae

1. Открытый доступ

Мастер

Ivan Novikov was born in Moscow. He graduated in easel painting from Moscow State Surikov Academy of Fine Arts and from the program Contemporary Art and Criticism at BAZA Institute (Moscow). He also has a Master’s degree from Manchester University (UK). Since 2015 he has been a member if the editorial board of Moscow Art Magazine. He is the co‑founder of the independent space Krasny Center (Moscow). He has had solo exhibitions at Moscow Museum of Modern Art, pop/off/art Gallery (Moscow), Zarya Center for Contemporary Art (Vladivostok), and other venues.

Novikov Ivan

Asya Marakulina was born in Perm. She graduated from Professional Lycee No. 1 as a computer graphics artist (Perm, 2006), the Faculty of Arts of St. Petersburg State University as an animation artist (2015), and studied at the PRO ARTE Foundation’s Young Artists’ School (St. Petersburg, 2015). She has taken part in group exhibitions, including Not a Museum. Laboratory of Aesthetic Suspicions (Novaya Industriya Art Space, St. Petersburg, 2014), Form of the Invisible (PERMM Museum of Contemporary Art, Perm, 2015; Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2016), Prospekt Nepokorennykh (Moscow Museum of Modern Art), 2017), and the 2nd Garage Triennial of Contemporary Russian Art (Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2020). She is the recipient of the Credit Suisse and Cosmoscow Prize for Young Artists (2018) and a special prize of the Sergey Kuryokhin Contemporary Art Award (2019). She is a member of the association of Viennese artists IG Bildende Kunst.

Marakulina Asya

Nikita Alexeev was born in Moscow. From 1964 to 1967, he studied at Moscow Middle Art School of the Moscow Surikov State Art Institute and then at 1905 Moscow State Academic Art College in the Department of Industrial Graphics and Advertising. From 1973 to 1976, he studied at Moscow Printing Institute in the Faculty of Artistic and Technical Design of Print Products (he did not graduate). From 1976 to 1983, he was a member of the group Collective Actions. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977). He was one of the organizers of MANI (Moscow Archive of New Art). From 1982 to 1984, he was co‑founder and director of APTART Gallery, which was located in his studio apartment in Moscow.

Alexeev Nikita

Vladislav Kruchinsky was born in Moscow. He graduated in Oriental and African Studies from the Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow, 2010) and has a Candidate of Historical Sciences degree from the same university (2016). He works on the history and anthropology of South Africa. He teaches in the Department of Indo‑Iranian and African languages at Moscow State Institute of International Relations. From 2010 to 2019, he worked at the Center for Research into the Countries of Southern Africa of the Africa Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. From 2011 to 2013, he was a guest researcher at the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and in 2014 at the University of the Western Cape (Cape Town). In 2020, he ran a course on urban anthropology at the Higher School of Economics (Moscow).

Kruchinsky Vladislav

Rostan Tavasiev was born in Moscow. He graduated as a jeweler from Karl Fabergé Professional College of Decorative and Applied Arts No. 332 (Moscow, 1998) and from the Graphic Design Department of Stroganov Moscow State Academy of Arts and Industry (2007). In 2002, he completed the course New Artistic Strategies at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (Moscow). He has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including the 4th Krasnoyarsk Biennale (2011), Generation XXI. The Gift of Vladimir Smirnov and Konstantin Sorokin (State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, 2020), and others.

Tavasiev Rostan

Tatyana Faskhutdinova was born in Mozhga (Udmurtskaya ASSR). She graduated from the Institute of Art and Design at Udmurt State University (Izhevsk, 2012) and studied in Sergei Orlov’s Experimental Contemporary Painting Studio (Izhevsk, 2010). She has participated in symposia and exhibitions of contemporary art in Izhevsk, Nizhny Novgorod, and Moscow. Since 2009 she has been a member of the art group CheBeR.

Faskhutdinova Tatyana

Andrei Dmitrenko was born in Vladivostok. He works with textiles, embroidery, drawing, installation, and video. He graduated from Far Eastern Federal University (Vladivostok, 2014) and BAZA Institute (Moscow, 2021). He has had solo exhibitions at Arka Contempoarry Art Gallery (Vladivostok, 2016, 2018) and Zarya Center for Contemporary Art (2017, 2019).

Dmitrenko Andrei

Mayana Nasybulova was born in Serov (Sverdlovskaya Oblast). She graduated from the Department of Monumental and Decorative Sculpture of Novosibirsk State Academy of Architecture and Art (2012). She participated in the 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art (2016), the 1st Garage Triennial of Russian Contemporary Art (Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2017) and exhibitions including Nemoskva is Just Around the Corner, Manezh, St. Petersburg, 2020).

Nasybullova Mayana

Lera Lerner was born in Leningrad. She graduated from the Faculty of Soil Biology at St. Petersburg State University (2012) and the PRO ARTE Foundation’s Young Artists’ School (St. Petersburg, 2015). She has taken part in numerous group exhibitions, including Not a Museum. Laboratory of Aesthetic Suspicions (Novaya Industriya Art Space, St. Petersburg, 2014), Life of the Living (Arsenal, Nizhny Novgorod; National Center for Contemporary Arts, Moscow, 2016–2017), Intervention: Follow Instructions or Don’t (General Staff Building, State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, 2018), Bureau des transmissions (Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, 2019), and Open Borders (Ploshchad Mira Museum Center, Krasnoyarsk, 2019). She is the founder of the Imaginary Museum of Displaced Persons.

Catalogue of the Collection

Sort by