All exhibitions
Arriving at the Meaning Point
Dmitry Shorin and Irina Drozd
Deceember 5, 2024 - February 2, 2025
Rating: 12+
Organizers: Ekaterina Cultural Foundation and Shorin Art Foundation
Curator: Anton Uspenskiy
Commissioner: Renata Nakonechnikova
The exhibition invited visitors to rediscover and try to reinterpret the First Russian Insurance Society tenement building on Kuznetsky Most, 21/5, which is considered one of the iconic addresses of pre-revolutionary Moscow. The building was constructed in 1906 on a street famous for its many fashionable stores and banks.
Curated by Anton Uspensky, the exhibition was divided into several sections showcasing contemporary works of art that rejuvenated the previous functions of the building, which, over the years, used to house establishments such as the First Russian Automobile Club, the Steamship Trade Society, Pavel Ovchinnikov's jewelry store, and Philip Morris's department store. The pieces included in the exhibition created a multilayered context, highlighting not only the history of luxury consumption but also the evolution of accompanying images and ideas.
"Visitors were immersed in an atmosphere of returning to the tenement building, now inhabited not by living people but by spectral echoes of the past, reflecting cultural layers and the ideology of the time," curator Anton Uspensky said. "This metaphysical dimension helped augment the exhibition, transforming it into a dialogue between material and non-material heritage."
The exhibition featured both new pieces made specifically for this project and rare pieces from the artists' collections.
About the Artists
• Dmitry Shorin is a Russian painter and sculptor, whose CV includes Moscow and Venice biennales as well as exhibitions at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA) and the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg. Some of his best-known projects are sculptures made for the Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg and Riga's international airport in Latvia and sculptures of The Bull and the Bear in the Moscow City business district. Shorin's paintings and sculptures have been featured at major international art fairs, including Art Basel and Cosmoscow, and are owned by private collectors from across the globe.
• Irina Drozd is a contemporary artist, exploring psychology and interpersonal communication. Among her projects of note are The Code of Silence (2019, Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, in collaboration with Marino Marini Museum, Florence, Italy) and Dinner with a Monster (2022, Berlin). Drozd has taken part in contemporary art biennales in Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, Russia. In 2016, she was awarded the prize People Who Changed Saint Petersburg. Her works have been featured in art fairs such as Cosmoscow, Art Paris, and Art Budapest and are owned by major museums such as MMOMA and the State Russian Museum.
