The Tretyakov Gallery will present the facts due to which it canceled the Moscow Biennale

The Ministry of Culture called the exhibition inappropriate for the status of a museum site

The 9th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, which was supposed to open at the Tretyakov Gallery on November 7, has been cancelled. The exhibition had already been mounted when the organizers of the event received a verdict: a number of exhibits do not correspond to the status of the site chosen for the Biennale – the state museum of federal significance. The decision to cancel the project was made by the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation together with the management of the Tretyakov Gallery. What is wrong with the Moscow Biennale, the MK correspondent figured out.

“The Tretyakov Gallery is a treasure trove of Russian art. The desire to hold the project here, and not on a private or corporate site, must be accompanied by a responsibility for the artistic and ethical context of the exhibition. This requires respect both for the unique museum collection of the Tretyakov Gallery, and for its numerous connoisseurs, citizens of our country,” the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation said.

The department added that the management of the Moscow Biennale “violated contractual obligations”, namely, they failed to complete the installation within the agreed time frame and did not provide the necessary documents, which led to a violation of fire safety regulations. In response to this statement, the organizers of the Biennale posted a video showing that the exhibition was edited. On Monday, the Tretyakov Gallery promises to issue a detailed commentary on all the facts that led to the cancellation of the exhibition, outlining its position.

The exhibition of the 9th Moscow Biennale was named “Scenography of Feelings”. According to the description published just now, at the exhibition, the viewer must pass from tension through respect, nostalgia, surprise, infinity, faith, hope, calmness, historical memory … and eventually come to light and peace. Among the participants this time there are only Russian artists – there are 27 of them in total. Some of them are quite famous, such as the spouses Platon Infante and Daria Konovalova-Infante, Vova Perkin (student of Andrei Bartenev), Lada Raskolnikova (musician, director, last companion the legendary German Vinogradov) and Sergey Bugaev Afrika, who is on the list of confidants of the President of Russia. The last of these authors, by the way, is the only one who spoke about the cancellation of the project, calling “the main reason for what happened is the fear of the leadership of one of the main state museums.” What exactly is afraid of the Tretyakov Gallery, however, Sergei did not specify.

In particular, his work “Memory” is dedicated to the monuments to Soviet soldiers who were destroyed in Europe. The artist compiled a list of 102 demolished or desecrated monuments and made an installation dedicated to the affected objects. In addition, little-known authors from Lugansk and Donetsk participate in the Biennale. And it seems that the content of the biennale corresponds to the current political agenda. However, in reality, everything is different: photos of a series of strange multi-colored figures with outstanding male genital organs have already appeared on social networks, which are unlikely to fit into both political discourse and aesthetic museum discourse.

All the pitfalls of this story are not yet known. But there is still a scandal that happened at the previous projects of the Moscow Biennale. Then it was also about non-fulfillment of obligations. Three years ago, the participants of the 7th Biennale, held in 2017 in the New Tretyakov Gallery, wrote an open collective letter addressed to the participants of the next, 8th project – a warning: “The preparations for the exhibition were a disaster. Some of the works were in serious danger (in one case an artist had to withdraw his work during the opening), employees and technicians faced abuse and bullying, and the artists had to contend with extreme disorganization,” the appeal said. The commissioner of the Moscow Biennale, Yulia Muzykantskaya, was then accused of violating financial obligations (the fees to the artists were never paid). Two years ago, the Moscow Biennale turned out to be a modest exhibition, more like a salon than a conceptual project. And it did not look like a biennale format, which implies a festival scope and a curatorial statement. In addition, the theme of the Biennale is indicated about a year before its opening, the main semantic accents are announced in advance, but none of this happened. In general, the 8th project of the Biennale occupied a small part of the second floor of the New Tretyakov Gallery (West Wing). And in the same space, the current, 9th, biennale was now being made. And also secretly – there were no manifestos and announcements familiar to the biennale format.

And now the Moscow Biennale again plunged into a scandal. Why only now, when the project was mounted, it turned out that it did not correspond to the level? In theory, any “alien” project that is being done on the museum territory must be agreed with the site in advance. But, judging by the tone of the Tretyakov Gallery and the Ministry of Culture, expectations did not coincide with reality. Indeed, everything was done at the last moment.

Be that as it may, the exhibition is already being dismantled. The organizers of the biennale said they would not argue with the decision of the ministry and the museum.