On Saturday, a massive multi-million-pound art center near the Kremlin opened its doors to the public in an ambitious push to promote Russia as a modern art destination - but experts fear a crackdown on free expression will limit how far it can go. Explicit political undertones were curiously lacking from Moscow's most stunning modern art venue in a decade, opened by Russia's richest man.
Leonid Mikhelson, who owns Russia's largest private gas producer and is a well-known art collector, is the driving force behind the rehabilitation of GES-2, a decommissioned power plant across the river from the Kremlin. On Wednesday, President Vladimir Putin was granted a private tour of the facility, despite his lack of interest in contemporary art. Mr. Mikhelson's V-A-C Foundation, named after his daughter, commissioned Renzo Piano's architecture firm, which designed the Shard in London and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, to transform the derelict power station into Moscow's next architectural marvel.
A massive exhibition space, a cinema, a music hall, workshops for artists with hi-tech equipment, a library, state-of-the-art recording studios, and more are all housed within the 225,000 sq ft (20 000 m2) complex, which is covered by a soaring glass roof. The structure is partially powered by solar panels on the roof, with a system to collect and filter rainwater for reuse, and the distinctive smokestacks have been changed into ventilation conduits.
Mr Mikhelson has not divulged the cost of the center, but large-scale projects by Mr Piano's firm normally cost hundreds of millions of euros. All public events and activities will be free of charge as well. Ragnar Kjartansson, one of the world's most sought-after modern artists, has been given free liberty by GES-2 for the next three months. He's worked on two projects, including a "living sculpture" in which he and his team would re-shoot 98 episodes of "Santa Barbara," the first American soap opera to be shown in post-Soviet Russia, in front of a live audience.
"We're recreating the fall of the empire (as well as) capitalist aspirations that followed with 'Santa Barbara' as an idea of what capitalism looks like," he told as the players were putting on their make-up on what used to be the power station's floor. In Russia, "Santa Barbara" has become a cultural phenomenon. It provided them with a way out of the gloomy realities of an economic crisis in the 1990s. Similarly, others consider Mr. Kjartansson's work as a diversion from the current challenges plaguing Russia's art sector, which includes the detention of several artists. Mr. Kjartansson claimed that his work had "no political edge," but added that "some of the best political art was done here, in Russia." The opportunities presented by GES-2 have piqued the interest of Russia's creative community. Mr. Kjartansson's second exhibition, inspired by Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, brings together his work with that of lesser-known local artists who are happy to be included. However, it is understood that GES-2 would not feature the cutting-edge radical art for which Russia is known.
According to Simon Mraz, co-author of a forthcoming book on Russian contemporary art, "anything 200 meters away from the Kremlin will scarcely be some kind of subversive, underground venue." A few private institutions controlled by Russian tycoons have dominated contemporary art in the country. "The proprietors of those foundations have vast riches that are entirely dependent on the Kremlin's will, which is attentively scrutinizing those persons... "What you see at the MoMa or the Louvre - there was no place for compromise in those artworks," he added.
Jean Dubreil