The closure of the VKHUTEMAS gallery became known last Friday, when messages appeared on the gallery's Facebook page and website about "closing for an indefinite period." The gallery will house the storehouse of the MARCHI Museum, and the contract with the curator Maria Troshina will be terminated.
The VKHUTEMAS gallery has existed in the current space since 2007, and the very first project that happened in the gallery became a landmark. It was the RodDom exhibition, curated by Yuri Avvakumov, who invited Russian and foreign architects to participate. The exhibition was held as part of the Second Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, and was subsequently presented at the Eleventh Architecture Biennale in Venice. Yuri Avvakumov received an invitation to the role of permanent curator of the gallery, but left almost immediately due to a conflict with the leadership of the institute. Over the next years, the role of the curator was performed by Maria Troshina, and from 2010 to 2012 - by Anna Ilyicheva. The gallery acted as an open public platform of the institute, and the main emphasis was placed on the presentation of the funds of the MARCHI Museum, the works of teachers and students. In addition, expositions of foreign architects were exhibited in the gallery, lectures and master classes were held. For eight years, more than a hundred exhibitions have been held here.
MARCHI Rector Dmitry Shvidkovsky:
“I don’t know anything about the closing of the gallery, I didn’t sign anything. The building has been renovated, and the transfer of the funds of the MARCHI Museum to the gallery premises is a temporary measure. We have a unique collection of the Museum, and it is in danger. In my opinion, the gallery may well continue to function even during rearrangements. I am not aware of the dismissal - probably, the curator herself decided to leave."
Director of the MARCHI Museum Larisa Ivanova-Veen
Larisa Ivanova-Veen's words are quoted by theartnewspaper.ru, referring to TANR:
“The gallery is forced to temporarily close due to renovation work at the institute. It will be closed only externally, to city visitors. But this will not prevent us from organizing one-time promotions, exhibitions and inviting guests. The gallery will open either before the New Year or in the spring. We have an anniversary ahead, the gallery will be ten years old”.
Former curator of the gallery Maria Troshina:
“Information about the closure of the gallery came from the director of the Museum of MARCHI L. I. Ivanova-Veen. My workplace was liquidated, and the contract with me was terminated. I did not see the order to close the gallery, I saw only the order to transfer the MARCHI Museum to the premises of the VKHUTEMAS gallery. It's a pity, of course, that everything happened this way - before the end of the year we had planned several museum exhibitions and participation in the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, so for me the decision of the Museum's management was a complete surprise. Maria Troshina also said that she was offered to resign of her own free will, after her refusal, they called from the personnel department of Moscow Architectural Institute and asked to sign a notice of dismissal.
Artist Igor Buryi, author of the VMSRTM project
for the 6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art:
“This, of course, is a disgrace - like this, without warning, stop work at full speed. The exhibition was supposed to open in two weeks, it was announced at the Biennale six months ago. The gallery has been collaborating with the Biennale since 2007, the premises are familiar to me - I have exhibited here more than once as part of various projects. You can, of course, urgently look for another site, but in general the exhibition was planned for this space and is tectonically connected with it. This space was leading."
Alexandra Selivanova, curator of the lecture hall of the Museum of Moscow, Facebook post on September 25:
“What is happening now in Markhi is the height of absurdity and monstrous stupidity. The game of tags with the premises of the institute led to the fact that the VKHUTEMAS gallery will house the storehouse of the MARCHI museum. The lack of necessary conditions (climate, lighting) does not bother the management: from now on, the priceless graphics of the vkhutemas, projects of the 1930s, 1950s and 60s will be kept. The destruction of the gallery, which was the only truly open area of the institute (exhibitions, round tables, lectures), and even its face for many non-students, also does not bother anyone. But hurray - we managed to master the money for 2015 and hastily (no, not in the summer, but during the academic year) to start repairing the library (the relocation of the funds is connected with this) and to solve the problems with certification. Once again, in several buildings there was no more space for the collection of the Markha Museum. Enchanting stupidity! P. S. If it were not for the support of the Vkhutemas gallery, the Avant-garde Center would not have survived this year."
