yuri avvakumov
biography
Born in Tiraspol, Russia in 1957, Yuri Avvakumov lives and works today in Moscow. He graduated from the Moscow Architecture Institute and taught at that same institution from 1983 to 1988. During that time, he founded the Paper Architects, a group of artists who worked with utopian architectural projects in the 1980s. He was invited to teach at the Hochschule fur Gestaltung in Karlsruhe, Germany from 1993 to 1994. In 1993 Avvakumov established the Utopia Foundation in Moscow, a depository of Russian architectural utopian designs. The foundation has supported worldwide exhibitions, most notably at the Venice Biennale in 2003, of computer-generated models that realize these designs. Since that time, Avvakumov has curated a number of exhibitions, including all the Paper Architecture and Temporary Monuments installations. He has also directed the exhibition design for museums and galleries in Moscow, Amsterdam, Munich, London, and Monaco. He works as an architect on projects worldwide, including his most recent commission with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation for the design of a museum complex in Abu Dhabi.
selected personal exhibitions
2007
Games, Stella Art Foundation, Moscow
2006
Red Corner, Stella Art Gallery, Moscow
2005
La Scala, Krokin Gallery, Moscow
2000
MiSCeLLaNeouS, State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
1999
A. S. Pushkin and Money, XL Gallery, Moscow
1996-2000
Russian Utopia: A Depository, Venice Biennale, Venice; Netherlands Architecture Institute, Rotterdam, Netherlands ; State Museum of Architecture, Moscow;
Russia Museum and Exhibition Center, Volgograd, Russia; State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
1994
1:43, Karlheinz Meyer Gallery, Karlsruhe, Russia
1992-93
Temporary Monuments, Russian Museum, St. Petersburg; State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
1992
Illiquid Assets (with Sergey Shutov), 1st Gallery, Moscow
1991
Walls and Ladders (with Alyona Kirtsova), State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
1989
AgitArch, Linssen Gallery, Cologne, Germany
selected group exhibitions
2010
Russian Artists : an Art Superlative, Saint André Abbey Contemporary Art Center, Meymac, France
Futurologie and Russian Utopias, Garage: Center of Contemporary Culture, Moscow
www.garageccc.com/exhibitions
www.snob.ru/chronicle
2009
Moskvapolis, Perm Museum of Contemporary Art
2009 Expanse, Krasnoyarsk Museum Center
BornHouse at the Sainte Marie Madeleine Church, during the exhibition lille3000, Europe XXL, Lille, France
2008
ART-MOSCOW '2008, 12-th International fair, Krokin Gallery booth
Diese Obskure Objekt: Kunst, Kunshistorische Museum, Wien / Ca Rezzonico, Venice
Russian Dreams..., Bass Museum of Art, Miami
KULIBIN group projekt, Krokin Gallery, Moscow
2007
Collages Russes, Galerie Blue Square, Paris
Exhibition of Kandinsky Prize Nominees - Winzavod, Moscow Contemporary Art Center, Moscou
Depository of Dreams, White Space Gallery, Londres
New Acquisitions in the Moderna galerija Collections, Moderna Galerija - Ljubljana, Ljubljana
10. Triennale Kleinplastik, Triennale Kleinplastik Fellbach, Fellbach
2006
Artists Against the State: Perestroika Revisited, Ronald Feldman Gallery, New York
Essence of Life Art, The State Russian Museum - Marble Palace, Saint Petersburg
Depository of Dreams, White Space Gallery, London
2005
Accomplices, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Re: Modern, Kunstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
Essence of Life, Ludwig Museum, Budapest
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Barbiezone, RuArts Gallery, Moscow
2004
Imagine Limerick, City Gallery of Art, Limerick, Ireland
Malign Muses, Mode Museum, Antwerp, Netherlands
Ladders - Gallows, Lodz Biennale, Poland
2003-04
Berlin-Moscow, Moscow-Berlin, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin;
State Historical Museum, Moscow
2003
Utopia Station, Venice Biennale, Venice,
2002
MELIORATION, Central House of the Artist, Moscow
2001
Brooklyn Museum of Art, Family Album: Brooklyn Collects,
New York
2000
View from Here, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Fifth Element-- Art or Money, Kunsthalle, Dusseldorf, Germany
1997
Living Bridges, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
1996
Die Kunst des Fliegens, Zeppelin Museum, Friedrichshafen, Germany
The Archaeology of the Future City, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan; Hiroshima Museum of Art, Japan;
Gifu Prefectural Museum, Japan
1995
Arte Russa, Villa Zorn, San Giovanni, Milan, Italy
1994
Utopia Factory: Russian Visionary Architecture,
State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
1993-94
Aspects actuels de la mouvance construite internationale,
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Verviers, Verviers, Belgium
1992
Paper Architecture: Alma Mater, Moscow Architectural Institute, Moscow
1991-90
Between Spring and Summer: Soviet Conceptual Art in the Era of Late Communism, Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA;
ICA, Boston, MA; Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA
1991
FIAC, Paris, France; Galerie Gmurzynska, Cologne, Germany
1990
AVANTGARDE 20/90, Manege, Moscow
Erbuiten,Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Construir!, Fondation pour l'architecture, Brussels, Belgium
1989
Architecture et Utopie, Pavilion de l'Arsenal, Paris
Papierarchitekture: Nue Projecte aus des Sowjetunion,Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt, Germany
1988
Fantasy vs. Utopia, Palazzo dell' Arte, XVII Triennale di Milano
1986
Paper Architecture: In Search of Identity, SKUC Gallery,
Ljubljana, Slovenia
1982-83
Doll's House, RIBA, London
selected museum collections
State Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt
Stella Art Foundation, Moscow
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
ZKM Museum for New Art, Karlsruhe
selected curatorial projects
2009
DOORS OPEN DAY, MMOMA, Moscow
ZODCHESTVO-2009, Manege, Moscow
PAPER ARCHITECTURE. MAUSOLEUM, State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
BORNHOUSE, église Sainte Marie-Madeleine, Lille
2008
BORNHOUSE, San Stae, Venice Biennale of Architecture
GARAGE, Introductory Exhibition, GCCC, Moscow
2007
ARABESQUE(s), Pirogovo, Moscow suburb
homepage.mac.com/avvakir
BORNHOUSE, Vkhutemas Gallery, Moscow / Peter and Paul Fortress, Saint Petersburg
www.vkhutemas.ru
2005
PLAYGROUND, ArtPlay Gallery, Moscow
homepage.mac.com/avvakir/PhotoAlbum1.html
2002
VANISHING POINT, Moscow House of the Artist
2000-03
PHOTOPROGRAM 24, State Museum of Architecture/Moscow House of Photography
2000
BEYOND THE FALL, Royal Festival Hall, London
1998
EPOPEE OF THE GREAT EPOCH, Pavillon des'Arts, Paris
1994
UTOPIA FACTORY. RUSSIAN VISIONARY ARCHITECTURE in XX CENTURY, State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
1992
PAPER ARCHITECTURE. ALMA MATER, Moscow Architectural Institute
1990-91
PAPER ARCHITECTURE, Architekturforum, Zurich /List Visual Arts Center, MIT, Cambridge / Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans / Huntington Gallery, Austin / Fine Arts Center, Amherst
1990
AVANTGARDE 20/90, Manege, Moscow
NEW ARCHITECTURAL FANTASY, Linssen, Cologne
CONSTRUIR!, Foundation pour l'Architecture, Brussels
1989
PAPER ARCHITECTURE. NEW PROJECTS FROM THE USSR, Deutsches Architekturmuseum, Frankfurt
1988
PAPER ARCHITECTURE. FANTASIES AND UTOPIAS, La Villette, Paris
PAPER ARCHITECTURE. FANTASY VS. UTOPIA, Palazzo dell'Arte, Milan
1986
PAPER ARCHITECTURE. IN SEARCH OF IDENTITY, SCUC Gallery, Ljubljana
1984
PAPER ARCHITECTURE. YOUTH, Magazine Editorial House, Moscow
selected architectural projects
2008
MUSEUM of ORGANIC CULTURE, Kolomna
2007
ABU DHABI GUGGENHEIM BIENNALE PARK PAVILION, Concept design, (with Andrei Savin).
2003
K. Malevich - SUPREMATIST ARCHITECTURAL MODEL, reconstruction project
2002
MAJOR PRONIN restaurant, Moscow
1997
KRASNAYA GORKA BRIDGE, The British Council Competition ‘Living Bridges', 1st prize
1993
FIRST GALLERY OF THE UTOPIA FOUNDATION,
Moscow, (with Georgy Solopov).
1993
CENTRAL PARK OF SCULPTURE, Moscow
1986
GAGARIN CENTER (with Igor Pischukevich & Totan Kuzembaev) UA USSR Competition, 1st prize
1984
CLUB-CITY, А+U Competition 'Style for the Year 2001', Tokyo, 1st prize, (with SACB of MARKhI).1984
MATRYOSHKA-HOUSE, UNESCO Competition 'Cities and Dwelling for Tomorrow', Bronze Medal, (with Igor Pischukevich).
press
"It is impossible, for instance, to imagine Minimalist sculpture and its emphasis on industry, technology and repetition without Tatlin and Rodchenko. The German Bauhaus and Dutch de Stijl movements of the 1920's and 30's owed obvious debts to Constructivism. So do post-modernists like the artist Barbara Kruger and the architect Frank Gehry. And among contemporary Soviet Conceptual artists, including Yuri Avvakumov and Sergei Podyomschikov, the movement's legacy is often and poignantly evoked as a symbol of the revolution's broken promise."
Michael Kimmelman, "A Soviet Movement That Tried To Change All Aspects of Life", The New York Times, 9 August 1990
"Here, on the one hand a kind of pantheon of the prophets of the avant-garde, while on the other hand, something like a reservation for that magnificent past, when humankind still believed in progress, and when art had not yet lost its high mission to change the world. At first glance, Yuri Avvakumov's exhibition reminds us of some kind of 0,10, Proun-Room of Lissitsky, or an exhibition of the Society of Young Artists - for in style it is so impeccably restrained (not for nothing has its creator designed so many presentations of our avant-garde art). However, on closer examination, the more than half a century which separates the MARKhI graduate of the mid-eighties (when the series Temporary Monuments was begun), and even more so us, from the golden age of the Russian avant-garde, is seen more clearly. Unfortunately or fortunately, it is impossible to bridge this distance even for the most notorious devotees of suprematism and constructivism, to which Yuri Avvakumov indubitably belongs. Inseparability and "non-mergeability" is an excellent formula by Alexander Blok to describe the far from simple relations between our contemporary period and an era long since past."
Ekaterina Lazareva, Moscow, Project Russia 2006
http://avvakumov.com/AgitArch/Press.html
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