8/5/2001
Programma
Schusev Museum, Moscow
The very first exhibition in the ruined wing of the Schusev Museum of Moscow. Evanthia Tsantila, Richard Whitlock and Alexis Dallas have brought their works to Russia and are showing them at a unique location which is open to the public for the first time.
The very first exhibition in the ruined wing of the Schusev Museum of Moscow.
Evanthia Tsantila, Richard Whitlock and Alexis Dallas have brought their works to Russia and are showing
them at a unique location which is open to the public for the first time.
Richard Whitlock is showing objects which float in the air and hover above the floor, relating space to gravity.
Evanthia Tsantila will show a video installation in which images of herself face each other in silent dialogue.
Alexis Dallas´s works must be seen from above. They are aerial photographs of a city.
The word "programme" is written in exactly the same way in Greek and in Russian if you write it in capital
letters. Etymologically this word means "announcement", "declaration" or "plan of action". In Greek it also
means "project". The word has many connotations for the Russian ear including memories of Soviet
bureaucratic language.
The artists did not come to these ruins by chance: it fitted well with their own programme. In these ruins the
senses are sharpened. There are no familiar white walls or level surfaces, even the floorboards are missing so
there are many dangers for the unwary. There is no artificial light and through the many extremely large
windows flows only the light of day, which gives one a slight feeling of unease.
The wing of the Talyzin  Ustinov Palace was completed in the 19th century, built on much older palace stables.
After horses and masters the building saw much. It was used as communal appartments, a family to each
room, in the Soviet period, then as a scientific research Institute. A fire left it unuseable for many years. Then, in
1993, efforts to restore the wing caused serious damage to the building. The truth is that the ruins became in
fact very beautiful. A palace with extremely high levels of luminosity on the top floor and increasing darkness
below. The Museum of Architecture decided to make use of this exceptional space as a site for exhibitions.
Evanthia Tsantila moves between Greece and Germany. She studied in Dusseldorf under Jannis Kounellis
and curated a workshop and exhibition of his students´s work in Greece. Her work aims to establish where the
boundaries of art forms (theatre, performance, film) might lie. She represented Greece at the Venice
Biennale in 1999. The Greek Ministry of Culture has published a monograph of her work.
Richard Whitlock, an English artist who lives in Greece, studied drawing and sculpture in the USA and in
England. He has exhibited in France, Slovenia, England and in Greece. He uses materials such as cardboard
or styrofoam to make objects which, though solid, have the lightness and transparency of drawing.
Alexis Dallas is an architect who studied in Greece and in Holland. He has participated in many international
exhibitions and received prices for his architectural projects in Austria and in Switzerland. He has collaborated
with artists such as Michaelangelo Pistoletto. His work mainly concerns urban space  perhaps the original
meaning of architecture as art can be perceived from the air.
Maria Tsantsanoglou, curator.
Schusev State Museum of Architecture (MUAR),
Vozdvizhenka 5, Moscow 121019, Russia,
tel. (+7-095)290-14-31 fax (+7-095)291-21-09