The Strange City. For the event's sixth edition, Russian-born artists celebrated internationally for their large-scale projects and installations, will invite viewers to lose themselves in the maze of an imaginary town.
Curators: Jean-Hubert Martin,
honorary director of the Musée
national d’art moderne, Paris /
Olga Sviblova, director of the MAMM
For the event’s sixth edition, Russian-born artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, celebrated internationally for their large-scale projects and ambitious installations, will invite viewers to lose themselves in the maze of an imaginary town: “The Strange City”.
The exhibition
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Born in 1933 in Dnipropetrovsk
(ex USSR), Ilya Kabakov is a major
figure on the international art scene.
In the 60s, he began a work on daily
life in Russia and since then his
installations, sculptures and paintings
have been exhibited around the world.
Also born in Dnipropetrovsk, in 1945,
Emilia Kabakov graduated from the
Faculty of Music and studied Spanish
literature at the University of Moscow.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have worked
together since 1989 and live in Long
Island, New York.
A total Installation
The artists have taken up the
Monumenta challenge with the
creation of a utopian and mysterious
city, both monumental yet intimate.
This new installation is inspired from
the Renaissance, Romanticism and
modern science, and is the synthesis
of a long artistic career. Infused with
the artists’ Soviet origins,
The Strange
City
takes visitors on a journey
through dream and reality. This year,
Monumenta takes on the form of
an initiatory journey in which Kabakov
questions the human condition and
“the great visions of progress, science,
and human upliftment that could
have led to the brink of disaster.”
(Ilya Kabakov)
Created by the ministry of Culture and
Communication in 2007, Monumenta
invites an internationally renowned
contemporary artist to take over
the 13,500 m² Nave of the Grand Palais
with an artwork specially created for
the event. After the success of the first
five editions entrusted to the German
painter Anselm Kiefer in 2007,
the American sculptor Richard Serra
in 2008, the French artist Christian
Boltanski in 2010, the Indian-born
British artist Anish Kapoor in 2011,
and the French creator Daniel Buren
in 2012, it is the turn of Russian-born
couple, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
to take on the Nave.
The event is organised by Rmn-GP with the support of the French Ministry of Culture and Communication in association with Multimedia Art Museum Moscow.
The exhibition is made possible by:
Novatek, la Fondation d’entreprise Total, JCDecaux, Bug Juice, Banque Neuflize OBC, Boston Consulting Group, LVMH / Moët Hennessy. Louis Vuitton, Warner Music Group and the Blavatnik Family Foundation.
And the Gallery Thaddaeus Ropac (Paris-Salzbourg) and the Gallery Lia Rumma (Milan-Naples).
The album:
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov,
MONUMENTA
2
0
1
4, L’Étrange Cité
,
Réunion des musées nationaux –
Grand Palais. Price: €
12.90, 88 pages.
Published in French, with English
and Russian translations at the end.
‘Enter here, USA, 2013’
Meeting with ILYA & EMILIA KABAKOV
14 May 2014, 6.30 pm Grand Palais, Auditorium
Press contact:
Elodie Vincent 01 40134761 elodie.vincent@rmngp.fr
Florence Le Moing 01 40134762 florence.lemoing@rmngp.fr
Opening: 10 May 2014 6.30 p.m.
Grand Palais
254/256 rue de Bercy 75577 Paris CEDEX 12
From 10 am to 7 pm (Mondays, Wednesdays and Sundays)
From 10 am to Midnight (Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays)
Closed every Tuedays
Nuit européennes des musées (17 may): free entrance from 8 pm to Midnight 6€; concession 3€