In continuing the New Ruins series of outdoor projects, Manege and curator Maxim Ima present the third in the series of joint outdoor exhibitions. The aim of the project is to study non-standard approaches in contemporary art, to search for new visual forms, and to move from discourse into open experimentation.

How often do we contemplate the existence of this ubiquitous material, found everywhere from building facades to the screens of the smartphones in our pockets? In this new exhibition, contemporary artists work with this material connected to almost everything that we are used to interacting with every day of our lives – glass.

Participants in the previous exhibitions projects of the New Ruins series have already created art on huge concrete columns and granite stones graffitied using hammers and chisels, raising themes of eternity, monumentality, and the spirit of the times. The exhibition Glass is somewhat of an antipode, and yet continues this dialogue, but now in the language of transparency and fragility. The aesthetic allure of street art moves into the background, yielding its place to the concept of and attempt at re-examining the significance of this particular material.

Exhibition curator Maxim Ima often uses graffiti art techniques and invites selected artists to try to integrate them into their art. This process creates unexpected possibilities for creativity, challenging both the viewer and the artist.

“In the 'New Ruins. Glass' project, artists use scratching as the foundational approach. It is one of the most vandalistic forms of graffiti, consisting of scratching words or images into a surface. Today this technique seems rather primitive, and in recent years it has been on the wane, thanks to the availability of a multitude of better instruments for making one’s name known. The main objective of this exhibition is not to justify the destruction of property and not to push the idea that the viewer is seeing real street art in the urban setting. It is more to provide the opportunity to see the phenomenon of scratching in a different, better light. One cannot deny the existence of this artistic method, but we must also bear in mind the context of its application.”
Maxim Ima, project curator

Each of the artists had available to them glass and various materials with which to scratch. The scratching technique requires that the artist take a certain, special view and have the skill to execute his or her idea in a monochromatic composition in the complete absence of a colour scheme. This artistic method is a good test of one’s ingenuity and professionalism.

Curator: Maxim Ima
Artists: Vladimir Abikh, Andrey Berger, Marina Koldobskaya, Nadezhda Kosinskaya, Pokras Lampas, Vitaly Pushnitsky, Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai, Yury Shtapakov, A.D.E.D., Nikita Dusto, GIWE, Sergey Xeat8, Vandal Karlos, 0331c
Exhibition dates: June 22 – August 31, 2021
Partners: AGC, Peredvizhnik

The exhibition New Ruins. Glass is held in the open area by Manege’s back facade. The project is organised as part of the Museum Line programme brought to us by the team at the Central Exhibition Hall with the purpose of creating open cultural spaces, searching for new plastic forms, and developing a creative urban atmosphere. As an actual platform for the presentation of contemporary artistic ideas, Museum Line unifies vibrant, timely street installations presented one after another.

Anna Yalova, Manege Central Exhibition Hall’s deputy director for development, is the head of the Museum Line programme.