The methodology and key principles of the General Rehearsal project according to all involved.
General Rehearsal presents works from the collections of three institutions — V–A–C and KADIST foundations, as well as the Moscow Museum Of Modern Art — and seeks to identify new methods of working with art collections. The starting point of the project was Mike Nelson's installation Again, More Things (A Table Ruin). The artist selected sculptures of modernists and contemporary authors from the V–A–C collection (Henry Moore, Constantin Brancusi, Alberto Giacometti, Anatoly Osmolovsky, Pavel Althamer) and placed them on a low podium. The work plays on the idea of equalization and sharp "devaluation" — that is, transferring works of art from the pedestal to the ground. Taking Nelson's installation as a basis, the curators invited the Theatre of Mutual Actions association, the Austrian philosopher Armen Avanessian and the writer Maria Stepanova to co-author the project and write scripts with works of art fulfilling the role of actors.
In the first act of the project, staged according to the scenario of the Theatre of Mutual Actions, the troupe of artistic works rehearses the production of The Seagull by Anton Chekhov. During the discussion, the curators and the V–A–C artistic director discuss the design and methodology of that "general rehearsal" with its architect Koenraad Dedobbeleer, the KADIST Director Emilie Villez and members of the Theatre of Mutual Actions and try to understand how it can change the interaction of fiction and human beings in the context of adapting art to a new, unfamiliar environment.
Participants:
Kirill Adibekov is a V–A–C Foundation curator, a filmmaker, an independent distributor. Winner of the Slon (Elephant) award (2013) and an ex-member of the Forum independent jury at the 2018 Berlinale.
Emilie Villez is a curator, the director of the KADIST Foundation (Paris), spearhead of the online journal Qalqalah dedicated to non-Eurocentric artistic narrative, Founder and participant in the curatorial collective Le Bureau (2005–2015) which specialized in experimental exhibition formats.
Koenraad Dedobbeleer is an artist, the architect of General Rehearsal. In his work, he experiments with the perception of viewers, encouraging them to reconsider their usual attitudes. Among his solo exhibitions are A Quarrel in a Ffaraway Country Between People of Who We Know Nothing (Bremen, 2014) and Hearsay, Rumours, Bedsit Dreamers and Art Begins Today (Antwerp, 2013).
Francesco Manacorda isthe artisticdirector ofthe V–A–CFoundation, previously having held this post at Tate Liverpool Museum. Among his curatorial projects are the Liverpool Biennale (2016), the New Zealand Pavilion at the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009). He was a jury member of the 53rd Venice Biennale (2009).
Andrey Parshikov is a curator at V–A–C and an art critic. Among his curatorial projects are Intimate Capital (Moscow, 2016), A Rose Has Teeth in a Mouth of a Beast (Brescia, 2015), Making Our Stay in the City Visible and Invisible (Moscow, 2015), Ultra New Materiality (3rd Moscow Biennale, 2009).
The Theatre of Mutual Actions is an open association of the artists Shifra Kazhdan, Lyosha Lobanova, Ksenia Peretrukhina and the producer Alexandra Moon. Authors of the Museum of Alien Invasion project — a “theatrical mockumentary” nominated for the Innovation award (2018).
