Ostalgia, an ambitious exhibition project dedicated to Eastern Europe, will be opened at the New Museum in New York on July 14 and will occupy the entire museum exposition space for two and a half months. Gallery.Photographer.ru artist Nikolay Bakharev is among its participants.
“Ostalgia” is a term that emerged in Eastern Germany in 1990s; it describes nostalgia for the lifestyle of the country in 1970-1980s. The exhibition is based on the idea of the revision of intellectual and artistic reflection on the theme of the communist myth in the form and geographical contexts in which it existed prior to the regime’s decline. The organizers gathered the most iconic personalities of the end of the socialist era – 50 artists from 20 Eastern European countries and former Soviet republics. The post-Soviet states are represented by Victor Alimpiev, Evgeny Anufriev, Nikolay Bakharev, Erik Bulatov, Andrei Monastyrski, Pavel Pepperstein, Viktor Pivovarov, Dmitri Prigov, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Olga Chernysheva and group Chto Delat?; representing Poland are Mirosław Bałka, Edward Krasiński and the group The Workshop of the Film Form; and the German representatives are Hermann Glockner, Michael Schmidt, Thomas Schutte, and others.
15 original prints from Nikolay Bakharev’s “beach” series will be shown at the exhibition. The event will last till September 25; its mastermind and curator is Massimiliano Gioni, Associate Director and Director of Exhibitions of the New Museum.
The official release and full artist list can be found on the museum’s website.