L'art en histoire - Exposition, expérimentation et utopie

·1 hr 15 min·5 clips

How did a 1915 Russian avant-garde exhibition turn spectators into actors of an artistic utopia?

This episode features a lecture by art historian Elitza Dulgerova on Russian avant-garde exhibitions from 1900 to 1916. Dulgerova begins by questioning art historical methodologies that focus on exhibitions rather than individual artists or artworks. She introduces her research on group exhibitions in the Russian Empire, which were dominant due to the absence of large salons like those in France. The lecture centers on the hypothesis that exhibitions allowed artists to supplement their artworks, operating on three levels: spatial unity, public engagement, and temporal acceleration. Dulgerova first discusses Serge Diaghilev's exhibitions for the 'World of Art' journal in the early 1900s, highlighting his critique of traditional exhibitions as vulgar marketplaces and his innovative decorative arrangements that created a unified impression. She then analyzes the 1907 'Blue Rose' exhibition in Moscow, described by contemporaries as a synesthetic experience with flower scents and invisible music, which deeply influenced Kazimir Malevich. The lecture moves to the 1915-16 futurist exhibition '0,10', where Malevich's Suprematist works were displayed in an irregular, floating arrangement to extend the pictorial space. Dulgerova contrasts this with Vladimir Tatlin's 1916 'Magasin' exhibition, held in a shop and featuring artworks made from everyday materials, which challenged notions of artistic value. She also examines Mikhail Larionov's cycle of provocative exhibitions like 'Jack of Diamonds' and 'Target', which played with temporal expectations and public scandal. The lecture concludes by noting how these experimental exhibitions were later memorialized in a 1931-32 Soviet exhibition that simultaneously denounced and paid homage to the pre-revolutionary avant-garde. Throughout, Dulgerova uses primary sources including exhibition catalogs, photographs, critical reviews, and artists' writings to reconstruct these ephemeral events.

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