Elena Elagina and Igor Makarevich have been desccribed recently as the soul of “Moscow Conceptualism”. But beyond that the two artists have developed a immense body of work. Moving from a naive artistic position — meaning a simple dialectial relation of the artist on one hand and the work / creation on the other — to a complex phenomenological position. They make the spectators point central to their work and move simultaneously as artistic subjects “inside” the body of their creations. This means they themselves become representations inside their own symbolic field.
The exhibition in the KHM in Vienna will establish a multi layered approach of the two artists towards the collections of this museum. The spaces will not be used as “white cubes” — which means places where the art of the two artists will be shown. The halls will not be emptied. The artists fit in their works in the emptieness between the already presented objects of art. At the same time commeningt and completing the already existing iconological concept of the museum. One part will react directly to single artworks as the “Tower of Babel” by Breugel. Another part will parallelize the developement of the artistic personality shown by Dürer to their own liberation from the traditional concept of art and artworks. The last part will reflect the concept of the “cabinet” one of which is also part of the collections of the KHM.
The project was supported by the Mercury Group.
