This podcast will help you learn more about the art and artists featured in the 2nd Garage Triennial of Contemporary Russian Art A Beautiful Night for All the People.

Ruth Addison, International Editor at Garage, gives an audio tour of the 2nd Garage Triennial based on a Russian podcast by curator Sasha Obukhova and psychologist Egor Egorov.

Why a psychologist? The artists in the 2nd Triennial were selected by artists who participated in the 1st Triennial in 2017, making relationships in all their forms the key element of the exhibition. And what better approach to help us negotiate the complex nature of relationships today than that of a psychologist. Recommenders were given complete freedom of choice, the only conditions being that they specify their relationship to the person they were recommending and have some kind of involvement with the work for the 2nd Triennial (anything from writing a short text to collaborating on a work). Relationships spanned friends and comrades, rivals and co-thinkers, lovers and enemies, and one even involved a dumpling. This is why the the project’s unofficial slogan—Corruption and Love—is so interesting. It characterizes the system of relationships in the field of contemporary Russian art, and provides an opportunity to discuss the pros and cons of this method of selecting participants, as well as the situation within the art community as a whole.

You can listen to the podcast episodes in any order. There’s no need to stick to the route suggested by us, as the exploration of any territory can and should be spontaneous.