Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Turin, in collaboration with Victoria – The Art of Being Contemporary foundation in Moscow, present a major exhibition of Russian contemporary art, entitled Modernikon. Contemporary Art from Russia, curated by Francesco Bonami and Irene Calderoni. The exhibition has been organised with the support of The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 2011 marks a year of reciprocal exchange between Italy and Russia and the exhibition anticipates an extensive programme of cultural events to celebrate the Year of the Italian Culture and Language in Russia and of the Russian Culture and Language in Italy.

The exhibition explores Russia’s young and still-evolving art scene of today, presenting the public with the newest artistic research from a country that has only recently presented itself on the international art scene: the contemporary art system in Russia was formed in the Nineties, concurrent with the extreme political and social upheaval following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The title of the exhibition, Modernikon, merges its reference to modern with the most classical of Russian art forms; it is a word that is suspended between the present and the past, between the idea of an image that aims to transmit all things new and, at the same time, the mythology of an outdated cultural trend.

Featured artists are: Victor Alimpiev, Alexandra Auerbakh, Sergey Bratkov, Olga Chernysheva, Alexandra Galkina, Dmitri Gutov, Alina Gutkina. Iced Architects: Igor Bury, Ilya Voznesensky, Alexei Kononenko, Mikhail Leiken, Vera Samorodova, Sergey Sitar. Yakov Kazhdan, Elena Kovylina, Andrey Kuzkin.

The exhbition is on from September 23, 2010 to February 27, 2011.