Дом культуры «ГЭС-2»

"The second half of 2020 will see a major shift in Moscow’s already influential art scene, when GES-2, a contemporary art center, opens in a former power plant near the Kremlin. Backed by Russian billionaire Leonid Mikhelson, the conversion was handled by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop and now the massive, 430,556-square-foot complex will house an artist residency block, education center, library, and 420-seat playhouse. It will also serve as the new, permanent home of the V—A—C Foundation, an international non-profit that aims to promote emerging contemporary artists in Russia and the former USSR. Its opening exhibition, Ragnar Kjartansson: Emotion as a Medium, will feature a site-wide takeover by the Icelandic performance artist, followed by a mix of temporary exhibitions, events, workshops, music, and theater spotlighting artists living and working in Russia and beyond. Seasonal themes will wrestle with “the clichés and cultural tropes around Russia,” according to a press release, that include “great literature, tyranny, the mother archetype, a propensity for melodrama, moral relativism, [and] cosmos as an emblem of geo-cosmo-political superiority.” We can’t wait to dive in."