the raw, THE and
COOKED the pac kaged —The archive of perestroika art—
A multi-part exhibition, November 30 – January 6, 2008, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma • Näyttely, 30. marraskuuta 2007 – 6. tammikuuta, 2008, Nykytaiteen Museo Kiasma
▶ Studio K and the adjacent “Archival Room”, the Foyer Balcony and the Window Gallery, Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma
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HE RAW, THE COOKED AND THE PACKAGED is a multi-part exhibition with works of art, archives and historical accumulations from the Perestroika period – in different stages of their genealogy and association. The works and archives in question include paintings, photographs, sketches, slides, negatives, manifestos, official documents, letters and other ephemera as well as original 8mm “parallel” films, music, smells and further “raw” materials from the unofficial artistic cultures of St. Petersburg, Tallinn and Yekaterinburg. The time-frame stretches from the early 1980s until the early 1990s, bridging the period of dramatic and cataclysmic changes known to the world as Perestroika. The dates are wide of the political landmarks so as to allow one to see the entire process – from before to after the political (counter-) revolution. It should be pointed out that although the works and materials relate to figures safely seated in the pantheon of these art scenes and even internationally, it includes wholly “undiscovered” artists active in this period of social collapse and cultural explosion. How do you excavate an ‘alternative’ past, one which historians have not yet brought into existence, one which is ‘hidden’ from view by
influential gatekeepers, ‘lost’ in far-flung provinces far from the public eye? How can one ‘revisit’ history? These are questions which counter the simple question – but where is Moscow? - why are the “dregs”, the “garbage”, the “leftovers” of the 80s represented so prominently? Why then, is that horrific visage so beautiful? What turns a shower curtain or a soup can into a masterpiece? This exhibition investigates and
experiments with these social, cultural and philosophical processes. So the curatorial endeavour is by no means to (re)write the canon, but to investigate its assemblage, its cooking, packaging, unpacking, consumption and re-making. As the history of this crucial era is written and re-written in today’s once-again troubled political climate, the “books are cooked”, too, to suit the moment. This exhibition invites the audience to physically engage and enact the process of writing history itself – to “make up” our understanding of the past, to read and participate in writing the Newspaper-Catalogue, which will surely be tomorrow’s fish-wrapper but perhaps also the next century’s raw inspiration. THE RAW, THE COOKED AND THE PACKAGED is curated by Ivor Stodolsky, researcher and freelance curator and Marita Muukkonen, freelance writer and curator. The project is supported by the Nordic Council of Ministers. This exhibition runs parallel to the Aleksanteri Cultural Fora, which includes the Revisiting Perestroika - Processes and Alternatives conference organised by the Aleksanteri Institute of the University of Helsinki”, 29 November-1 December 2007.
Curated by Ivor Stodolsky & Marita Muukkonen
▶www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2007
For further information about the multiple parallel ALEKSANTERI CULTURAL FORA please visit http://www.helsinki.fi/aleksanteri/conference2007/cultural_fora.htm