Esoteric,
dense and Russian
Kathimerini,
25.10.2009
A Russian
collection of works of contemporary art. A private and a young one. Stella Art Foundation
(founding year: 2004) starred at the last Venice Biennale, occupying the famous
Ca' Rezzonico palace and presenting selected parts of its collection next to a preview
of the celebrated Pinault's Collection. This self-assurance of the Russian foundation
proved to be justified to a considerable degree: the exhibition at the Venetian
palace was a success.
What is
the distinctive feature of this collection, according to what we saw in Venice, and now also in Thessaloniki (in the building of the National
Bank's Educational Foundation on Vasilissis Olgas Str.)? In our opinion, it is
its "Russianness." Although it also contains artwork of famous Western
artists, such as Robert Mapplethorpe, Alex Katz, Spencer Tunick, Joseph Kosuth and
others, the collection's core and its main power are the pieces of the most significant
Russian artists of our days.
Oleg
Kulik, Ilya Kabakov, Igor Makarevich and a whole constellation of other artists
from Russia and other former Soviet republics are represented by mature works rooted in
the multiple traditions of the Russian
art that are unique in many respects: from diverse and inexhaustible avant-garde
art of the revolutionary
period through the long tradition of the Russian lyric art and Moscow
conceptualism of the 1970s.
Thalea
Stefanidou, curator of the exhibition entitled Subjective Visions, selected some
exceptional pieces from Stella Kesaeva's collection and skillfully arranged them
in the eclectic building of the National Bank's Educational Foundation: a middle-class
house with small rooms and ample decorations. The arrangement, with intense chiaroscuro
and independent rooms communicating by opposition or sequence, reminded us of exhibitions
of contemporary art in Venetian palaces, so densely decorated and self-sufficient.
Here, too, the environment didn't oppress the exhibited works but, rather, integrated
them and emphasized their most interesting features.
Walking around
the silent house that keeps memories from Thessaloniki's
rich Jewish past, one encounters reflective, dense and esoteric works demonstrating
vigour, depth and breadth of present day's Russian art.
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