Surgery: Birth, Love, Meetings, Interests, Wishes

December 17, 2014 - February 15, 2015

The exhibition will become a sort of an autobiographical installation of the extraordinary Russian cardiologist and collector Mikhail Alshibaya.

The installation is made up of the art works that he has collected and favorite objects accompanying his personal history. The "Surgery" project has four parts. "Birth" unfolds through the history of Batum, Mikhail Alshibaya’s city of birth. The exhibits will include not only postal stamps printed by the British authorities during WWI but also authentic photographs of Batum in the period of British occupation, engravings, and paintings, reflecting the history of the city. The exhibits will also include material object such as the authentic general’s uniform of the Military Governor of Batum Cooke-Collis and other artifacts.

"Art" consecutively reveals the evolution of Mikhail Alshibaya’s art interests through works of artists Vladimir Pyatnitsky, Igor Voroshilov, Viktor Pivovarov, Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Petr Belenok, Nikita Alekseev, and Igor Makarevich.

"Surgery" is related to M. Alshibaya’s professional activity: video footage of his surgeries, surgical instruments, as well as preliminary sketches of surgical processes. The project concludes with the theme of "Love", which is a reflection on all four themes and is presented with the works of Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, Mikhail Roginsky, and Vladimir Yakovlev.

Vladimir & Ekaterina Semenikhins, the establishers of the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, marked,
"There were quite a number of precedents in Russian history of art when outstanding collections were took up by famous doctors. Mikhail Alshibaya has a unique approach due to which he managed to collect the most offbeat and surprising masterpieces by both well-known and little-known Russian artists. The exhibitions of the works from Mikhail Alshibaya’s collection were shown at various Moscow venues, but perhaps this will be the first time his collection is displayed in such a full way and in the context of the personal biography of its owner, like some kind of personal collecting history. In our opinion, it is his approach that makes the exhibition not only a representation of a private collection, but something like a research of collector’s personality, an attempt to figure out his motives that encourage him to collect so enthusiastically. We are very glad to arrange the exhibition "Surgery" at our halls. Such projects are kindred to us as collectors, and in future we’d like to keep this program at our Foundation".

Program Context of the Visual

Program director Vitaly Patsyukov
Curators Mikhail Alshibaya, Vitaly Patsyukov

Artists: Nikita Alekseev, Mikhail Alshibaya, Vagrich Bakhchanyan, Petr Belenok, Erik Bulatov, Igor Voroshilov, Ilya Kabakov, Igor Makarevich, Viktor Pivovarov, Vladimir Pyatnitsky, Mikhail Roginsky, Vladimir Yakovlev

Organizers NCCA, The Ekaterina Cultural Foundation

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