Overview
(February 6, 2011 Sharjah, UAE) Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, acclaimed internationally for their large-scale conceptual installation art projects that address socio-political issues of our time, will travel their site-specific 'Boat of Tolerance' to Sharjah. Launching on March 17, with the Sharjah Bienniale, the project is presented by The Department of Culture and Information, Sharjah, and curated by Galerie Brigitte Schenk, Cologne.
'Boat of Tolerance' has been traveling the world with the mission to create dialogue around the fundamental idea of tolerance since its initial launch in Egypt (Siwa) in 2006. It has since traveled to Italy (Venice Bienniale) in 2007 and Switzerland (St. Moritz) in 2010, and following Sharjah this spring, the artists hope to continue the journey to countries around world.
Believing the quality of a society is determined by the education of its children, the Kabakovs hope to 'rally children worldwide with the message ‘Tolerance: Learn It and Live It’, at a young age to make many of the world’s problems obsolete in the future,' stated Emila Kabakov. The artists work collaboratively with children, age six to twelve in each host country, inviting them to create drawings and artwork that are then integrated into the boat and the sails alongside work from previous installations. The art represents the historical influences of each region as well as the concerns, dreams and desires for the future, inspired by the idea of tolerance, as envisioned by this next generation of influencers. The subject of tolerance, a key issue facing nations worldwide and of particular importance in the Middle East, is further explored through talks and workshops with the children in each location with materials developed for ongoing education campaigns.
As the project was initiated in Egypt, the boat is based on the construction of an ancient Egyptian ship of rather inspiring dimensions 20 x 7 meters with a mast height of 13 meters. The sail is fabricated from the drawings by the children. The launch into the water is the central performance of the entire project with music and dance.
Sharjah, the third largest emirate in the United Arab Emirates, was of a location of interest to the artists noting that while some of the emirates have distinguished themselves through grandiose architecture, Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, ruler of Sharjah since 1972, has been committed to culture and education of it residents. Sharjah received the UNESCO award of being the Cultural capital of the Arab world for 1998 and boasts seventeen museums exploring a range of art, science, and cultural disciplines.
The Artists
Ilya Kabakov (b. 1933) and Emilia Kabakov (b. 1945) are Russian-born, NYbased artists that collaborate on environments which fuse elements of the everyday with those of the conceptual. While their work is deeply rooted in the Soviet social and cultural context in which the Kabakovs came of age, their work attains a universal significance about the human condition.
Ilya Kabakov was a leader of Moscow's unofficial underground art scene from the late 1950s on, and widely recognized as some of the most important artists of our time. ARTnews named him as one of the greatest living artists. In 1988, Kabakov came to the west and began collaborating with his future wife Emilia (married in 1992) who had been working as a curator and art dealer. The installations speak as much about conditions in post-Stalinist Russia as they do about the human condition universally.
Their work has been shown in such venues as the Museum of Modern Art, NY; the Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; Documenta IX; the Whitney Biennial, 1997; and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg among others. In 1993 they represented Russia at the 45th Venice Biennale with their installation The Red Pavilion. The Kabakovs have also completed many important public commissions throughout Europe and have received a number of honors and awards, including the Oscar Kokoschka Preis, Vienna, in 2002 and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, in 1995.
Contact for further information, interview and images
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