Square and Space. From Malevich to GES-2

An English edition of the catalogue accompanying an exhibition dedicated to twentieth-century art.

The Square and Space. From Malevich to GES-2 catalogue documents the large-scale exhibition of the same name that took place at GES-2 from June 20 to October 27, 2024. In this publication, the curators of the Square and Space exhibition, Francesco Bonami and Zelfira Tregulova, reflect on Kazimir Malevich’s Black Square, which proclaimed the end of the art of the past, and the influence it had on the foundational artistic concepts of the twentieth century. The inevident parallels and interrelations reflected in the Square and Space exhibition allow viewers to appreciate the role played by the legacy of the Wanderers on the emergence of the Russian avant-garde as well as on how Suprematism formed the phenomenon of contemporary art as we know it today.

Photo: Ruslan Shavaleev

Concept
Francesco Bonami
Zelfira Tregulova

Compiling editors
Dmitry Belkin
Sergei Fofanov
Irina Gorlova
Tatiana Goriacheva

Executive editors
Grigory Cheredov
Charlotte Neve
Olga Stebleva

Translation
Charlotte Neve

Design
Evgeny Korneev (Razdesign)

It was through its own contradictions that, formally and theoretically, Black Square found its place within the history of art. It is and it will be through its own contradictions that GES-2's architecture will find its place in the history of architecture… Square and Space is in part the tale of these waves with their highs and their lows, waves through which Black Square has survived and through which culture in general will survive. For it is not the weight of art that makes it go through history but its lightness, just as it is not the weight of people’s fears that makes them go through life, but the lightness of their dreams and of their fantasies.

—Francesco Bonami, From Malevich to QR-code.

For some, this exhibition will widen and deepen their understanding of this most important of periods, for others, it will be an initiation, a introduction to the essence of contemporary artistic processes: despite the differences from classical approaches, they are concentrated on those same eternal questions and themes that preoccupy any true creator, however radical they may seem at first glance.

—Zelfira Tregulova, “Space and Square. An exhibition on the art of the twentieth century at GES-2.

Whereas in the Russian edition of the catalogue texts by curators and quotes by artists alternate with reproductions of works, here they exist alongside with documentary photographs that record various stages of the “life” of the exhibition: from installation and opening to live interaction with viewers.