Review of the Russian Pavillion at the 58th Venice Art Biennale

Today, I want to share my extraordinary experience from visiting a did up exhibition "Lc. 15: 11-32" curated by The State Hermitage Museum and the General Director Mikhail Piotrovsky at the Venice Biennale.

The exhibition takes its name from the Gospel of Luke and the 'Parable of the Prodigal Son.' The painting on this theme by Rembrandt has become the main masterpiece of the Hermitage Museum and the central theme of an installation for the Pavilion by the famous film director Alexander Sokurov simultaneously representing one of the halls of the museum and an artist's studio surrounded by the turmoil and war of the modern world.

 I went through the two floors Pavilion decorated with dark mixed wood installations, shocking red lighting, and oversized video screens. My first expression wasn't pleasant; I found myself in the repulsive darkness; all nightmarish screams and movements made me depressed. I thought, why The great Hermitage museum represents Russia in an unwelcome way? Since 1985, the leading names as Repin and Malevich participated at the Pavillon, and today, I didn't expect to find that contemporary masterpiece with the "kind of awe," against of colorful and immersive installation of Icelandic Pavilion. 

But as long as I stood there, I changed my mind. In a while, I merged with the pain and courage of the Artist to present the idea of disturbing agitation and modern world information wars. The dark blind spots around the space transformed to me to the untruthful and unidentified information conferred today. I also found a presentation of Flemish school by the Artist Alexander Shishkin-Hokusai inventive and cut his extraordinary subtlety and attention to details. The Artist uses transitional technics, and the ability to go inside the hidden space changing the same section of installation over and over again by invisible mechanisms. 

You need to have a sense of courage to go through the interactive installations of Russian Pavilion, but I will recommend that. The exhibition Lc. 15: 11-32 will be open from May 11 to November 24. 

You can find more information on https://www.ruspavilion.com/pavilion-2019.