2010
2009
2007
2006
Location
About
| Matthew Bown Gallery Keithstrasse 10 10787 Berlin +49 30 2145 8294/5 mail@matthewbown.com U-Bahn: Wittenbergplatz Open 12-6, Tuesday-Saturday, during exhibitions |
7 Works by Andrei Kuzkin
15.07.10 - 11.08.10
Tuesday to Saturday, 12.00-18.00
Private view: Wednesday 14 July, 18.00-20.30
Press: Telegraph
Press: Mouvement (pdf download) (in French)
Press: gippius (in Russian)
Matthew Bown Gallery is proud to present 7 Works by Andrei Kuzkin, an exhibition by Andrei Kuzkin.
In 2008 the gallerist Matthew Bown acquired seven works from the first show by Kuzkin, held at the ArtStrelka Projects gallery in Moscow run by the late Olga Lopukhova. In May 2010 Matthew Bown decided to show these works in his gallery in Berlin. To his consternation, he discovered that the box containing the seven works by Kuzkin had been taken away by mistake two weeks earlier and delivered, together with genuine gallery rubbish, to the Neukölln waste processing centre. The box had been pulped within 48 hours.
In response to the destruction of the seven works, Kuzkin has created a new installation at the Matthew Bown Gallery. A mound of wood and paper rubbish from the gallery and the Neukölln waste processing centre sits in the middle of the floor. Seven empty picture frames are hung on the walls. During the vernissage, the gallerist sits on a chair in the corner to ensure that none of the exhibited waste is removed inadvertently. Also on display is the only remaining genuine relic of the event: a photocopy of the original receipt for the works, with description and price.
In fact, the process of creation and destruction initiated in this case by accident by the Matthew Bown Galerie is integral to Kuzkin’s work. Also forming part of Kuzkin’s show at the Matthew Bown Gallery is the video record of Time-Space Continuum, an action by the artist at the Stella Art Gallery, Moscow. Over a period of more than seven hours Kuzkin drew a single pencil line along a 9-metre length of gallery wall. The event had an extreme performative aspect: not once did the artist allow the pencil to lose contact with the wall. At the end of the performance, the artist erased the line from the wall, collected the residue that was rubbed off onto the floor and burnt it.
Andrey Kuzkin is recognised as one of the most interesting young artists to emerge recently in Moscow. His work may currently be seen at the Berlin Biennale on Oranienplatz.
