{"id":352,"date":"2013-02-12T21:57:57","date_gmt":"2013-02-12T21:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grzinic-smid.si\/wp\/?p=352"},"modified":"2026-07-19T12:28:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T12:28:48","slug":"moscow-portraits-1990","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grzinic-smid.si\/?p=352","title":{"rendered":"Moscow Portraits (1990)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Moscow Portraits is a video project that reconstructs the work and life of the great Kazimir Malevich (1879\u20131935), a pioneering avant-garde artist and theorist, <\/span>known as the founder of Suprematism, a revolutionary movement focused on pure geometric abstraction. Malevich was born near Kyiv, in the Kyiv Governorate of the Russian Empire. His parents, Severin and Ludwika Malewicz, were ethnic Poles, and he was baptized in the Roman Catholic Church. Along with Piet Mondrian, he is the most important pioneer of geometric abstract art.<\/p>\n

Malevich’s ideas and works are transformed through six bizarre portraits of a \u201cman reading Malevich book,\u201d portraits made by unknown street painters working on the street of Arbat in Moscow in the 1989. This project is also a kind of homage to the first public presentation of Malevich paintings in Soviet Union in the 1989 (in the same year when the 6 portraits were made).<\/p>\n

But this story is only a plot, which gave Grzinic & Smid the possibility to develop a new video language and aesthetic. The video is an important international collaborative project, which unites artists from different countries (Canada, Japan, USA, Yugoslavia) and artistic fields. These artists were resident artist in The Banff Center for Arts in the 1990 in the program concerning Border Cultures.<\/p>\n

The using of computer graphics and animation resulted in a specific aesthetic, similar to cartoons comics books and the performance of the opera singer and of the Japanese artist created a new conceptual video language of the 1990s. Remaking history? No, this is rather a simulation of its political and emotional co-ordinates.<\/p>\n

Video installation first presented at the group exhibition MOSCOW PORTRAITS, curated by Grzinic and Stipancic, at the Museum of Modern Art, Zagreb, Yugoslavia (September, 3. – October, 7. 1990) and in The Civic Gallery in Ljubljana (January, 21 – February 8,\u00a0 1991).<\/p>\n

MOSCOW PORTRAITS, NTSC,<\/div>\n
low band, 12 min 11 sec, color, stereo,<\/div>\n
produced by The Media Arts Program,<\/div>\n
The Banff Center for Arts, Banff, Canada 1990<\/div>\n
video and video installation;<\/div>\n
original title: MOSCOW PORTRAITS<\/div>\n
(MOSKOVSKI PORTRETI)<\/div>\n
written and directed by: Marina Grzinic, Aina Smid<\/div>\n
interpreters: Steffanie Pearce (opera singer); Bako Ohama, artist; Trevor Gould (artist, male voice);<\/div>\n
camera and editing by Vern Hume<\/div>\n
Computer graphics by B. Timothy Brock<\/div>\n
computer animation by Garry Beirne<\/div>\n
Original music composed by\u00a0 Brian Ales<\/div>\n
Sound by Kevin Elliott<\/div>\n
spoken language: English and Slovenian<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Moscow Portraits is a video project that reconstructs the work and life of the great Kazimir Malevich (1879\u20131935), a pioneering avant-garde artist and theorist, known as the founder of Suprematism, a revolutionary movement focused on pure geometric abstraction. Malevich was…<\/span><\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/a><\/div>\n

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