BALAGAN!!!

An exhibition of 150 artworks by 75 artists from 14 countries in the former East

Kühlhaus am Gleisdreieck
Luckenwalder Strasse 3, 10963 Berlin

Stiftung Brandenburger Tor / Max Liebermann Haus
Pariser Platz 7, 10117 Berlin

MOMENTUM at Kunstquartier Bethanien
Mariannenplatz 2, 10997 Berlin


Curated by: David Elliott
Organized by: MOMENTUM for the NORDWIND Festival 2015
 

In Russia, BALAGAN!!! is a popular exclamation that describes, with celebratory gusto, a farce, a fine mess, the most unholy of cock-ups—but it is also a major international exhibition of contemporary art from the former USSR and Eastern Bloc that reveals a world in which chaos and misrule, along with the social comedy that results from it, are celebrated and scathingly exposed. Balagan originally meant “fairground.” By the 18th century, it had become associated with the activities of the people who worked in them: puppeteers, clowns and jesters, who made fun of and satirised established order. From the beginning, however, artists have realised the potential of balagan as an effective framework for revealing the truth.

Today, the revolutionary politics of laughter, as well as the cathartic release it promises, are engendered by a sense of outrage at cruelty, inhumanity and the abuse of human rights. But balagan is not only modern: ever since time began, chaos has been ever-present. This exhibition is about how some artists choose to depict the chaos of our times critically, challenging its power through humour, parody and the power of art itself.

Artists
AES + F (Russia), Afrika (Sergey Bugaev) (Russia), Vyacheslav Akhunov (Uzbekistan), Shaarbek Amankul (Kyrgyzstan), Evgeny Antufiev (Russia), Lutz Becker (UK / Germany), Blue Noses Group (Russia), Sergey Bratkov (Ukraine), Yvon Chabrowski (Germany), Olga Chernysheva (Russia), Valery Chtak (Russia), Chto Delat? (Russia), Vladimir Dubossarsky (Russia), Andrej Dubravsky (Slovakia), Natalia Dyu (Kazakhstan), Sasha Frolova (Russia), Ivan Gorshkov (Russia), Georgy Guryanov (Russia), Dmitry Gutov (Russia), Sitara Ibrahimova (Azerbaijan), Nikita Kadan (Ukraine), Aleksey Kallima (Russia), Polina Kanis (Russia), Krištof Kintera (Czech Republic), Francizka Klotz (Germany), Irina Korina (Russia), Egor Koshelev (Russia), Katarzyna Kozyra (Poland), Olya Kroytor (Russia), Gaisha Madanova (Kazakhstan), Vladislav Mamyshev-Monroe (Russia), Natalie Maximova (Russia), Yerbossyn Meldibekov (Kazakhstan), Almagul Menlibayeva (Kazakhstan), Boris Mikhailov (Ukraine), Ciprian Mureşan (Romania), Kriszta Nagy (Tereskova) (Hungary), Deimantas Narkevičius (Lithuania), Ioana Nemes (Romania), Pavel Pepperstein (Russia), Pirate TV (Russia), Sasha Pirogova (Russia), RECYCLE Group (Russia), Mykola Ridnyi (Ukraine), Arsen Savadov (Ukraine), Mariya Sharova / Dmitriy Okruzhnov (Russia), Slavs and Tatars (Eurasia), Haim Sokol (Russia), Leonid Tishkov (Russia), Aleksandr Ugay (Kazakhstan), Oleg Ustinov (Russia), Anastasia Vepreva (Russia), VMS Group (Russia), Stas Volyazlovsky (Ukraine), Viktor Vorobyev / Elena Vorobyeva (Kazakhstan), Vadim Zakharov (Russia), Sergey Zarva (Ukraine), ZIP Group (Russia), Artur Žmijewski (Poland), Constantin Zvezdochotov (Russia)

A 265-page illustrated catalogue, designed by Barnbook, also telling the backstory of BALAGAN!!! in theatre and art, accompanies the exhibition. Details available on the MOMENTUM website.

Performances
November 13
7:30pm, Pariser Platz
Protest Aerobics: ZIP Group

9pm, Kühlhaus am Gleisdreieck
Aquaaerobica: Sasha Frolova 

November 14, Kühlhaus
6:30–8pm
Erbossyn Meldibekov: Kühlhaus am Gleisdreieck

8pm
The Anatomy Lesson of a Dabloid: Leonid Tishkov

November 15, Kühlhaus
6pm
Krasnaya Shpana

8:30pm
Martyn Jacques/The Tiger Lillies

November 17, 7–10pm, MOMENTUM
BALAGAN-Chiks: Exhibition party

November 18, Kühlhaus 
5pm
Olya Kroytor: The Cube

6pm
Andrey Kuzkin: Resistance

November 20, Kühlhaus
6pm 
Let’s Play: Sasha Pirogova

November 21, Kühlhaus
8pm
Why Not? Sasha Pirogova

Symposia and lectures
November 19, 7:30pm
Panel and discussion: “TRICKSTER ART: Celebrating Chaos, Challenging Misrule”  
Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry, Christinenstr. 18/19, Berlin

November 22, 4:30pm
Lecture: David Elliott: ”BALAGAN and the Russian Soviet Avant-garde, 1906–1953”
Max Liebermann Haus

November 26, 7:30pm
Panel and discussion: “What is To be Undone? Trickery as Political Resistance”
Berlin Institute for Cultural Inquiry

December 16, 2–8pm
Symposium: “The Russians Have a Word For It: Balagan and the World Outside”
Hamburger Bahnhof—Museum für Gegenwart