On Friday, September 25, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art in Moscow will open Louise Bourgeois. Structures of Existence: The Cells – the largest presentation of this body of work to date and the first comprehensive survey of Louise Bourgeois in Moscow.
Louise Bourgeois brings a sense of complicated elegance to anything she creates. Its complicated because it’s hard to digest. Often not life size, her work is hard to examine because you can’t actually get close to it. Particularly regarding her The Cells series, you can only get as close as the walls allow, from there, you must observe from a distance. The Cells are environments, entire worlds, realities, placed into boxes. Some would suggest its for easier digestion of a lot of thoughts. They are thoughts merged, diluted, and served cold, in rusted metal, pristine chrome, concrete block. They are hardened, they are brutal, but they are delicate, they are heir apparent to the emotions that one feels as time passes on, but you don’t feel as though you’re moving. The cells are personal, but sparse, like someone speaking just loud enough that you can hear them, but fast enough that you can only hear it once.
The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art is presenting the first comprehensive survey of Louise Bourgeois’ work in Moscow as part of the special program of the 6th Moscow Biennale. The Cells will be there in addition to early sculptures, paintings, and drawings which led to the development of this monumental and innovative body of work. Garage will present two large-scale sculptures: the monumental bronze spider Maman (1999) on the square in front of the Museum; and the international debut of Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day? (2007). Garage has collaborated with the Louise Bourgeois Trust and The Easton Foundation to present the two large-scale installations.
The show runs September 25, 2015–February 7, 2016 at The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Krymsky Val 9, Moscow, Russia, 119049.