Moscow Gets an Education in Art

The Moscow Times gives a detailed review of the Pinault/Garage show of Contemporary art:

curator Caroline Bourgeois worked closely with architects to expose the old, red brick walls and dazzling glass-and-metal ceiling. “We had a shock when we came here, it was really extremely beautiful,” she explained. “We said not to hide the space — we didn’t want to put walls in front of the viewer.” [ . . . ] The next section, “Society of the Spectacle,” is more diverse. Borrowing its title from Situationist theorist Guy Debord’s famous critique of consumer culture, it takes a phenomenological approach to entertainment through works that either examine it or outright celebrate it. Bourgeois’ intent, however, is to raise questions and doubt in the viewer’s mind by juxtaposing the works on their own. “I was very concerned that everyone could get something from this, whether or not they have the background in the theory,” she said. “Anyone can understand it on a different level.”

This is apparent in the far corner, which is taken up by three large and very different sculptures of hearts — one Tim Noble and Sue Webster work glittering with electric lights, one perfectly smooth Jeff Koons piece made out of stainless steel and a far cheaper piece by the relatively unknown Joana Vasconcelos largely comprised of plastic knives, spoons and forks. “I wanted to make a discussion of three very different kinds of representation,” Bourgeois explained. “The Noble and Webster is very rock ‘n’ roll, Koons is the perfect object. With Joanna, I was interested in the singularities. You can see it’s from Portugal and that it’s a very cheap object — you can do something very big with something that is nothing.”

In the home stretch, “Globalization,” Bourgeois expands the theme onto an international scale: Works from superstars like Bill Viola and Takashi Murakami are found together with lesser-known artists from Africa, Asia and South America. Again, the impression is an uneasy, gloomy one, thanks in no small part to the eerie music looping from Francis Aly’s “Song for Lupita.”