Petroliana

Petroliana

1 march 2007 — 1 april 2007
Moscow Museum of Modern Art at Petrovka
Curator: Elena Sorokina

Artists:

Ayreen Anastas and Rene Gabri
Armageddon (Film)
Art not Oil
Justin Beal
Ursula Biemann
BP
Ilya Budraitskis and Maria Kurzina
Sergei Bugaev Afrika
Bureau d’Etudes
Heidi Cody
Christopher Draeger
Yevgeniy Fiks
Anton Ginzburg
Johan Grimonprez and Charlotte Lеouzon
Ilya Kitup
Elena Kovylina
Jan Kopp
Demian Kuleshov
Ellen K. Levy
Armin Linke
Erbosyn Meldibekov
Jason Middlebrook
Andrey Molodkin
Antony Muntadas
Ivan Navarro
Ahmet Ogut
Pier Paolo Pasolini
Oliver Ressler and Dario Azzellini
REP Group
Oksana Shatalova and Alla Girik
Wael Shawky
Pavel Shepelev
Sean Snyder
Matthew Suib
David Ter-Oganyan
The Yes Men


At the end of the 19th century, oil entered the collective imagination as a major symbol of “progress”. Petroleum embodied the promise of industrial modernity to create a decent society for the masses, transformed by the labour saving inventions. But during the 20th century, petroleum has undergone spectacular metamorphoses in public opinion. Today petroleum presents itself as a material whose supplies are constantly depleted, as something that has a strategic role on the world market, and as a part in the “mythologies” of different societies. Petroleum often fuels social inequalities, creating extravagant and riotous lifestyles for some and involving the others in disastrous international adventures. It has become a sign of excessive consumerism and energy-addiction in Western societies and a symbol of corporate greed and environmental irresponsibility, a metaphor of an unprecedented unjust distribution of wealth in modern Russia. The exhibition Petroliana (‘Oil Patriotism’) was envisioned as a critical inquiry. The participants of the exhibition address both the actual role of petroleum and its representation in film and media.

A full-length article about the project will be in the catalogue of the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art which is coming out on the 1st March.

http://2nd.moscowbiennale.ru/en/special_projects/78/