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Special guests
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Jeff Wall
event
site and dates
project description
The thing that distinguishes Jeff Wall’s projected slides, ensconced in aluminium frames, is the fact that this composition is so carefully staged, a composition in which every facial expression, gesture and element of decoration is important. Secondly, what critics remark on is the fact that Wall, on the whole, relies on French painting of the 19th century. It seems paradoxical as Manet, on whose works Wall’s iconography is often based, is considered the artist who put an end to the tradition of eloquence in painting. This paradox is becoming a defining aspect of the artist’s position after modernism. However, one cannot label Wall’s approach as postmodernist. In his most recent works he continues to show eloquent scenes from the trivial and/or cruel everydayness on the street and indoors: a street fight, a spilt tin of Jell-O, a victim of insomnia on the kitchen floor, somebody with a bloodied face and raincoat. Theses compositions, without a doubt, tell a tale of domestic and social tragedies, but the human figures are always devoid of expression and character, they find themselves captive to a state of rest- no matter how hard it is to describe or even imagine such a state. Even in the abstract, time and events are cruel. If there are events, this is only because there is time: and awareness of time is awareness of mortality.
co-organizers
- State Schusev Museum of Architecture
- Interior + Design
the project is supported by
- Embassy of Canada in the Russian Federation/ Ambassade du Canada en Russie
- Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada/ Ministere des Affaires etrangeres et
- Commerce international Canada
- Canada Council for the Arts/ Conseil des Arts du Canada
- Era foundation
 A full-length article about the project will be in the catalogue of the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art which is
coming out on the 1st March.
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