ART CITIES:Moscow-Ilya & Emilia Kabakov
The most recognizable Russian contemporary artists on the international scene, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are known for their paintings, objects, albums, books, models, drawings, also the artists construct room filling installations that tell stories of our pursuit of happiness, moments of doubt, and the hope that everything will turn out all right in the end.
By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art Archive
The theme of flight appears throughout the Kabakovs’ work. From the solitary flies in Ilya’s early paintings, it has been associated with the possibility of escape, whether from the oppression of the Soviet Union, or more generally from the harsh reality of life. The angel is an enduring symbol that has appeared throughout the history of art. For the Kabakovs, the angel is a stateless being that is free from earthly and bureaucratic constraints. In Moscow, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov present “How to Meet an Angel” for the first time. This large-scale installation inscribed into the landscape consists of an intricate ladder supported by several structures and rising into the sky. On the ladder a modestly dressed figure is visible, with hands extended toward the sky in the hope of meeting an angel. The figure may be waiting in vain, but as the audience will learn from the performative part of the project that created specifically for the show at Garage, the encounter is possible. For the installation the Kabakovs said “On a large empty space, best of all in a distant rural place, the erection of a very tall ladder vertically upward is begun. The ladder should reach a height of 1100 metres. Today’s material (light alloys) permit the creation of a structure with the necessary durability and stability. A person who has resolved to ascend to the top of the ladder should be prepared to spend more than 2 days to do so. However, once he is near the top he finds himself high above the clouds, alone within conditions of wind and inclement weather; he thus creates – it will absolutely arise – that crisis moment when, upon request for urgent help, the appearance of an angel will turn out to be inevitable”. Artists in the Soviet Union were obliged to follow the officially approved style, Socialist Realism. Wanting to retain his independence, Ilya Kabakov supported himself as a children’s book illustrator from 1955 to 1987, while continuing to make his own paintings and drawings. As an ‘unofficial artist’, he worked in the privacy of his Moscow attic studio, showing his art only to a close circle of artists and intellectuals. In 1985 Ilya created “The Man Who Flew Into Space from His Apartment” in his Moscow studio. It was his first whole room, or total installation, a carefully choreographed staging of objects, lighting and text that immerses the viewer within the artwork. Ilya was not permitted to travel outside the Soviet Union until 1987, when he was offered a fellowship at the Graz Kunstverein, Austria. The following year he visited New York, and resumed contact with Emilia Lekach. Born in 1945, Emilia trained as a classical pianist at Music College in Irkutsk, and studied Spanish Language and Literature at Moscow University before emigrating to the United States in 1973. Ilya and Emilia began their artistic partnership in the late 1980s, and were married in 1992.
Info: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Gorky Park, 9/32 Krymsky Val St., Moscow, Duration: 6/6-31/10/2019, Days & hours: Mon-sun 11:00-22:00, https://garagemca.org
