Artists and writers in Russia under Stalin were forced to create according to the government-imposed "socialist realism" style. Those who didn't were sometimes imprisoned or killed, so many artists had to remain underground or face the consequences. Kate Fowle, chief curator at the Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, told The Art Newspaper, "For 70 years, people destroyed their own histories...you had to get rid of it to be able to carry on without getting into trouble." For the first time ever, a collection of non-comformist art will be made available to the Russian public in an uncensored library at Garage in Moscow this December.
The collection will include 10,000 volumes, including rare books, catalogues, unpublished texts, and photographs that tell the stories actively hidden from the country and the world for so long. Sasha Obukhova of Garage says that it's very important for students to finally have access to these materials, because "they’ve been working not with a history, but with legends." The library and archive will have an annual budget of $500,000 and the permanent gallery in the new Rem Koolhaas-designed building in Gorky Park will host shows that center around pieces from the collection.
Given the nature of the library and current censorship laws in Russia, showing some of the materials could pose issues for the museum. "It is much more difficult to deal with the art from the 1990s to 2010s, since artists from younger generations have criticized recent Russian authorities," Obukhova said. Another issue that they are facing is that some of the materials were made of trash and are decomposing after all these years. The collection and conservation efforts are not easy, but they are important and necessary.
[via The Art Newspaper]
