Let me say one thing upfront. I am not an artist or an art critic. Its probably good to keep that in mind, when you read the following. Last Sunday we decided to pay a visit to the new Winzavod Bazar. I was actually pleasantly surprised about the products offered and handcrafted goods. It was a real little market, Camden or Berlin style, just much much smaller (but it has potential). Its one of these moments, when you see something so familiar, but you are happy to see it in Moscow, since it hasn’t been there yet and its a clear sign of progress.
On our way out we decided to have a iced coffee at Zurzum and after to visit Cara & Co’s concept store. The owner of Cara & Co tells us about her new store in Berlin and how she made better prices for the Moscow shop (go check it out, its worth it). After we are browsing some of the galleries and we stumble over an exhibition called Absolut Creative. Obviously the Swedish Vodka company is somehow involved in this and usually I don’t like when advertising and art get too close to each other in the art space. I’m ok when advertising uses art, I am actually promoting this, but I don’t think its a good thing, when advertising itself gets into the art scene, other than being a supported, a sponsor.
In this case Absolut was not only the sponsor and initiator of the exhibit, but they also tried to make Absolut the subject of it. No, not Vodka, probably that would collide with Russian advertising laws, but Absolut as a term itself. Even more surprisingly this exhibit wasn’t free (one would expect that), but you have to pay 150 Rub to see the art work.
All in all it was a very disappointing show. There were a few good art pieces, like Bartenevs installation, but most of it was boring. It was not engaging enough. Missing the emotion. Its probably the same old story and I hear the artists and the curator cry out already: “You don’t get it, you are not an artist”. Ha ha, at least its not the usual: “You don’t get it, you are not a Russian!”. Well, it was my favorite subject for discussions with the artists of the THING group in New York, while I worked there and I’ll throw it out here again: “Do I have to be an artist or art critic to be able to understand art (or judge it)?”. I believe not. I believe art is public. I believe its made for the people and not for collectors, curators and most of all art critics (who actually live from writing about it). I believe art must entertain, it must stimulate my brain and initiate some kind of reaction or process, may it be a thought or a conversation with my friend. If it doesn’t do that, its boring. Then I can look at the technique used, how complicated it was to craft that thing. And yes, taste is different. Some piece of art does it for me, while its boring for someone else and vice versa.
To come back to Absolut creative, it was an absolute boring and none stimulating experience (apart from 2 pieces). Its not worth my time, my 150 Rubels and it wouldn’t even be worth writing about it, if there wouldn’t be these 2-3 pieces of art that made it OK. These pieces show me (the none art critic normal person interested in art), that there is more. That they could have been better, if they would have tried harder.
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