If nothing else, I’m certainly making progress on paving the road to hell…so many good intentions for how to spend my first business-free weekend in Moscow since I’ve gotten here. (I’ve popped into Moscow a few times already this fall, once for a Fulbright orientation gathering in September, once for the All-Russian Sociological Congress in October.) Disclaimer: I didn’t even set foot in any of the public libraries, though I readily agreed to my research supervisor’s assumption that I was going to Moscow to research. Didn’t quite turn out that way…

                I did accomplish a few practical errands—bought some seriously warm winter boots and a stack of advanced Russian language workbooks to ease my I’m-not-fluent-enough! fears. An especially fortuitous find—a textbook and CD set intended for foreigners studying sociology in Russia. Perfect for me as I scramble to explain and discuss sociological concepts that I have only an undergraduate’s handle on. Can’t help feeling a little irritated that I’ve been sweating over verbs of motion and 19th century literary texts for the last two months, instead of focusing on strengthening my sociological vocabulary. As a friend and fellow newbie sociologist often reminds me, it’s okay. I’m just a beginner, and I am going to make mistakes—I’ll slip up on my grammar, flub up parts of my research, and inevitably commit cultural faux pauses. Doing it wrong the first time, at least for me, seems to be the price of personal progress…

               So let’s get to the art!

Премия Кандинского, or the Kandinsky Prize at the Central House of Artists

                Muscovites are flocking to the Central House of Artists this month to see a show of contemporary Russian artists competing for the Kandinsky Prize. Alex and I joined them, waiting in line for tickets on the duct-tape-edged red carpet at the museum’s entrance and enduring verbal abuse from the elderly women working the coat check for lugging my suitcases and grocery bags into the museum. (“It’s like everyone’s headed straight to the train station from the museum today!” one grumbled. “But I actually am…” I meekly mumbled in reply.)

                Those moments of unshakable Sovietude upon entering the museum—slap-dash repairs and reluctant, if not hostile, service—were the precursors (turns out word choice gets tougher the more you sink into a second language…) to a show in which many of artists boldly commented on life in contemporary Russian. (As the Moscow Times piece explains–link below–many of the bolder pieces were supposed to be shown in Paris earlier this year, but Russia’s Culture Minister refused to let such provocative works leave the country.) The first piece to strike visitors’ eyes was a 6’ high lightbox by the KG Group. The collective is known for creating provocative pieces; the burka-clad Statue of Liberty is most memorable for me. The PG Group’s piece in the running for the Kandinsky Prize was obviously related to that image of Lady Liberty-less, though its setting was Russia: the office of a non-descript, suit-sporting businessman or politician, with a window overlooking Red Square. Nothing spectacular, right? But Red Square is flooded in a sea of Chinese bamboo hats, and a gigantic Chinese dragon is choking the towers of St. Basil’s. The scene inside the room had its own stereotypical Chinese chaos—a Chinese man eating a dog, another painting bold Chinese characters over a map of the Russian Federation. No subtlety or political correctness here.

I’ll spare you my literary interpretations of the rest of the artwork. :) Here’s the Moscow Times article about the show; the winners will be announced on December 9.