Garage Library continues its series of lectures and public discussions on subjects covered by the Museum’s publishing program. The current lecture marks the release of Joseph Backstein’s book Articles, Dialogues and Exhibitions, published as part of the GARAGE PRO series.
Art historian Milena Orlova will talk about exhibitions of Russian art from the period between the 1980s and 1990s, when curatorial practice was just starting in Russia. The lecture will cover such figures as Joseph Backstein, who organized exhibitions at Butirskaya Prison and the Sanduny Bath House; Viktor Misiano, a curator at the Contemporary Art Center at Yakimanka from 1992 to 1995; Andrey Erofeev a head of New Trends in Art Department at The State Museum of Decorative-Applied Art of the Peoples of the USSR (currently Tsaritsyno Museum-Reserve); Oleg Kulik curator and art director at Regina Gallery from 1991 to 1993.
Experiments by the first Russian curators will be studied in the context of underground art festivals of the Soviet times, alongside the birth of the gallery business in Russia and the emergence of the first independent art groups (Klub Avangardistov) and exhibition spaces (Hermitage Amateur Society).
The lecture will be introduced by the compiler of the book, Alexandra Shestakova.