The home of Russian expatriate Alexander Solzhenitsyn has long been a landmark exhibition venue in Moscow. Just recall their projects of recent years, where the heroes were Konstantin Korovin, Nikolai Ryabushinsky, Dmitry Stelletsky, Sergei Gollerbach… Currently they are showing the works of David Burliuk – the father of Russian futurism. It is not surprising that on the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the Maison decided to display as many masterpieces as possible from the museum collections.
The poster is once again filled with the names of outstanding artists whose fate is linked to emigration. These are the virtuoso of color and symbolism Konstantin Milioti, the theater artist Nikolai Benois, and the “Russian Fauvist artist” who glorified the strength of the people's spirit, Philip Malyavin, and the “Russian impressionist” in Germany Georgy Kosmiadi. And there is also the brilliant graphic artist Mstislav Dobuzhinsky, set designer Alexander Yaron… In total there are about twenty artists, whose landscapes and portraits immerse themselves “in the living, trembling soul of foreign Russia, in the pain of separation, the difficult path and the hope of eternal return.”
This path also determines the dramatic art of the exhibition. It begins with the things that the exiles managed to take with them and that for them were more than just daily companions in life. Sticks, hats, cigarette cases… Or a watch in a shabby box – from the story “The Things of a Man” by Mikhail Osorgin: “accidentally encountering them on his rare trips to the past, he considered them broken, but did not dare to throw them away”.
Insightful lines of poetry and prose from migrants as well as from essays and memoirs are also part of the exhibition. The voices of exiled artists replace the dry, lengthy explanations that often accompany projects on the country's history. Here, witnesses to the Russian Exodus speak for themselves in a language we have long forgotten how to speak.
The exhibition continues with Wind Rose, which will take viewers along migratory routes where “foreign cities rustle and water splashes.” Below are views of Berlin, Istanbul, Venice, Paris and Harbin – the most memorable Russian migration centers. There are also more exotic locations – in Africa, Venezuela, Morocco… The main thing is not to get lost in all these nooks and crannies of memory, because “the path of a Russian emigrant moves from the material to the metaphysical”. “Leaving Russia, he moves centripetally towards Russia and finds Russia paradoxically: in creation, in memory and even in response,” the curators explain.
In other words, even while drawing Paris, Russian emigrants still longed for St. Petersburg.
The anniversary exhibition also talks about how Russian creatives returned to their homeland with their books, paintings and music and continue to return today. You could even say that this is her main motive. This is the mission of the Russian House Abroad: to collect the scattered fragments of the great spiritual Russia and bring them back to the homeland – in the congregation, in the memory, in the heart.
The exhibition will last until February 2.
