Two artists have withdrawn their works from state-backed museums, and the curators of the Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale resigned in protest.
Moscow
Posted inArt
A Moscow Museum’s Ecological Rallying Cry
The Coming World is an ambitious portrait of a dark future in which the world has run out of its resources, but still hasn’t found a way to “Planet B.”
Posted inFilm
Cinematic Visions of Dante and Video Games Come Together in Russia
The Moscow International Experimental Film Festival creates an experience of genuine kino pravda.
Posted inNews
Police Raid Major Moscow Theater, Detain Artistic Director over Alleged Embezzlement
Artists rallied outside the Gogol Center in support of Kirill Serebrennikov, an outspoken critic of Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church.
Posted inArt
A Soviet Monument’s Enduring Power Over Russian Artists
MOSCOW — The kinds of memories that our museums and monuments trigger are never about remembering the past as much as they are about imagining the future.
Posted inArt
Louise Bourgeois’s Anxieties Find a Home in Moscow’s Art Garage
MOSCOW — Should you find yourself among the fountains and fields of Gorky Park, and should you wander into the vicinity of the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, and should you be a serious, no-bullshit arachnophobe, look down at your feet and return the way you came.
Posted inNews
A Public Art Project Casts a Shadow Over Moscow, Crimea, and Ukraine
A towering statue of Vladimir the Great is causing a great deal of anger in Moscow and beyond.
Posted inOpinion
Artists Confront the Uncomfortable Legacy of Lenin
This week, two men made headlines when they doused the tomb of the Soviet Union’s first leader Vladimir Lenin with holy water while reportedly shouting “Rise up and leave!”
Posted inIn Brief
Gogol on the Go: Moscow Metro Riders Get Free eBooks
Muscovites may now download books by Russia’s literary giants for free while they wait for the subway. Thanks to an initiative of Moscow Metro, the city’s public transportation authority, riders can download ebooks to their smartphones and tablets by scanning a QR code on the subway platform.
Posted inNews
Moscow Architectural Icon’s Future Will Be Decided by an App
The fate of the Shukhov Tower, an early architectural tribute to Communist Russia, could be decided by ordinary Moscovites with smartphones. Designed by Constructivist architect Vladimir Shukhov, the radio tower was erected on Lenin’s order in Moscow in 1922 as a monument to the October 1917 Revolution.
Posted inNews
What’s Happening to Culture in Europe?
The latest news from Europe this week is that everything is falling apart — at least in terms of arts and culture. And it’s depressing.
Posted inArt
Creating Communal Space in Moscow
How much is one minute of your time worth? Two rubles (6 US cents), perhaps? That’s what the founders of Tsiferblat think. Tsiferblat, or “clockface” in English, refers to a set of open-to-the-public, almost-free spaces that have recently popped up all over Eastern Europe. The concept is quite simple: you receive access to a communal space for a fee of 2 rubles per minute, all while carrying around a vintage-style clock. There’s free tea and coffee, comfortable chairs and wi-fi. There’s even a kitchen.
