« Testing the Limits of Artwork, Space and Art at “The Year 1915” Exhibition »

International audienceTaking as a case study the pre-revolutionary exhibition “The Year 1915”, this article aims at showing that in the early 20th century exhibition space was considered by both artists and critics not merely as a place to show yet unseen artworks, but as an active and efficient space that produces meanings and creates representations of the time and society. The author discusses the effect of an “exhibition within the exhibition” that was brought about by a series of assemblages or, rather, “metonymical portraits” created by M. Larionov, V. Mayakovsky, D. Burliuk, and A. Lentulov, as well as a piece by V. Tatlin. She suggests that these performative works convey the wish to reconsider the established norms of artworks (painting, easel, sculpture, pedestal), the existing role of the artist, and the established limits of the display of art. By eroding these borders, the artists looked for means to experience an artwork in both its visuality and its materiality, to perceive it by all the senses (and not solely through vision), to take into account the place and context of its presentation, as well as the temporary character of its display (in contrast with the eternal time-length favoured by museums). The article underscores that in the practices of avant-garde artists exhibitions were not places of union or communion, contrary to the aspirations of the art historian A. Benois or of “The Year 1915” exhibition organiser K. Kandaurov. Early 20th-century artists were fully aware that exhibitions were not neutral, that their temporality and space affected both the artworks and viewers, and that they had a strong performative and action-oriented potential. In conclusion, the author analyses possible references to that 1915 exhibition in the first room of the “Experimental Concise Exhibition of Different Art Trends of the Pre-revolutionary Period: the Art of 1907-1917” held in the Russian Museum in 1931-2, and discusses its possible meaning in such a context