The Museum Night event program will open with a quest based on the art environment of the 1990s, developed by Garage Teens Team and based on Garage Archive Collection materials.
Garage Teens Team presents a quest which provides insight into the Russian art market of the 1990s, as it was just starting to develop. The quest is based on materials from a wide range of Moscow galleries, including TV Gallery, XL Gallery, Shkola Gallery, and Regina Gallery. It comprises several games, each inspired by the history or practice of one of the galleries. The section covering XL Gallery, best known for supporting emerging experimental artists, offers the unique opportunity to follow “an artist’s pathway” to a successful career in just 20 minutes. Regina Gallery, which organized its most challenging projects under creative director and artist Oleg Kulik, is represented in the form of debates—anyone willing to test their rhetorical skills and level of interest in performance art is welcome to join in. The legacy of TV Gallery—the Moscow home of international video art from 1991– takes the form of a test on the 1990s. The exhibitions that took place at Shkola Gallery are the basis for a detective story narrated via a Cluedo-like game in which participants are invited to find evidence relating to e exhibitions by Yury Babich, Alexander Roitburd, Sergei Shutov, and Alexander Rodchenko.
The rapid development of the Russian art scene in the 1990s was possible thanks to political liberalization. As a homage to those liberal times, participants are welcome to shoot an agitprop video promoting their own political party, inspired by Oleg Kulik’s Party of Animals.
September will see the publication of a special zine documenting the quest, designed in the style of Ptyuch magazine. This popular publication about youth subcultures was created by and addressed to the young people of the 1990s. Ptyuch is remembered for its arresting avant-garde pitch and passionate style, which we suggest rediscovering and experiencing one more time together.