Evgeny Antufiev. Untitled. Dried plants, 21х29 cm. 2014. Evgeny Antufiev. Untitled. Dried plants, 21х29 cm. 2014. Evgeny Antufiev. Untitled. Video frame. 2010. Evgeny Antufiev. Untitled. Embroidery, 102х73 cm. 2013. Evgeny Antufiev. Untitled. Embroidery, 70х44 cm. 2013. Evgeny Antufiev. ‘Anna Pavlova’ rose grown by the artist. 2015.

* Special project of VI Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art

Moscow Museum of Modern Art presents the Immortality Forever project, a solo exhibition by Evgeny Antufiev, a winner of the 2009 Kandinsky Prize. The large-scale research of the phenomenon of Russian culture using different media is a total installation, which will occupy the entire 3d floor of the venue at 25 Petrovka Street.

The matter of the essence of Russian culture conjures up mixed images from Pushkin’s fairy tales, artworks by Kandinsky, the Ballets Russes of Diaghilev, which do not give a complete picture, but only actualize the problem. In an attempt to find the answer, Evgeny Antufiev carries out artistic analysis of common cultural symbols and animates them in his exhibition.

At the beginning of his research, the artist turns to images of major figures of Russian culture, i.e. Leo Tolstoy and Anna Pavlova. The artist spent several years in field trials, visiting places important for their lives and work, collecting artifacts and asking descendants of those who met them. By means of custom-made porcelain replicas of the Pavlova dessert from Moscow restaurant menus and collected postcards with a picture of Leo Tolstoy’s grave, Antufiev ironically reminds us of the amazing phenomenon of worship of objects and projection of the cult of personality on them. The rose «Anna Pavlova», personally grown by the artist, is an attempt to make the dancer’s image physical.

The author skillfully weaves private family stories in the context of the exhibition, thus immortalizing them forever. Folk embroidery, made on vintage fabrics taken from the mother’s chest, is preserved in its originality framed under glass, closing from the outside world. Prints, created by the artist’s grandmother following doctor’s orders after a stroke, occupy a separate hall in the exhibition. Thus, the drawings, seemingly childish and clumsy, reveal the whole story of life, made of personal memories.

Antufiev collects elements of Russian culture, scattered around the world, and combines them with the help of historical memory. This synthesis is a new vision, utopian in nature, but at the same time completely real. Video art, embroidery, prints, photos and objects form a complete picture, which raises the question of the true essence of the cultural code and determines what its immortality is.

About the artist:

The artist was born in 1986 in Kyzyl. In 2009, he graduated from the Institute of Contemporary Art. He was the winner in the «Young Artist. Project of the Year» category of the 2009 Kandinsky Prize. He lives and works in Kyzyl and in Moscow.

Selected solo exhibitions:

2014 — «Twelve, wood, dolphin, knife, bowl, mask, crystal, bone and marble — fusion. Research of materials». Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
2013 — «Twelve, wood, dolphin, knife, bowl, mask, crystal, bone and marble — fusion. Research of materials». Collezione Maramotti, Reggio Emilia, Italy.
2012 — «Research of materials: absorption». Regina Gallery, Moscow.
2011 — «The Shining» (together with Ivan Oyun). Gallery White, Moscow.
2010 — «Bones». Gallery White, Moscow.
2010 — «Wings of Horror», Navicula Artis Gallery, St-Petersburg.
2009 — «Myths of My Childhood», Loft Project ETAGI, Globus Gallery, St-Petersburg.
2008 — «Objects of Protection», Start Platform, Winzavod, Moscow.

Selected group exhibitions:

2012 — «Garden of Eden». Palais de Tokyo, Paris.
2011 — «Ostalgia». New Museum, New York.
2009 — «Handmade». Proun Gallery, Moscow.