[Daviscenter-list] Territories of Terror: Mythologies and Memories of the Gulag in Contemporary Russian-American Art

*ALMOST THE LAST CHANCE TO VISIT THE TERRITORIES!!!* Dear Friends: This is a reminder. If you haven't had a chance to see the exhibit, please come. DECEMBER 8, FRIDAY AT 4 PM SVETLANA BOYM WILL BE DOING A GUIDED TOUR OF TERRITORIES OF TERROR 850 Commonwealth ave, Boston University Art Gallery *Territories of Terror: Mythologies and Memories of the Gulag in Contemporary Russian-American Art * Curated by Svetlana Boym of Harvard University, this exhibition is one of the first attempts to tackle the dual imperative of Gulag history and mythology, map and territory, through contemporary art. Seven internationally recognized contemporary artists--Vitaly *Komar* and Alexander *Melamid*, Leonid *Sokov*, Grisha *Bruskin*, Eugene *Yelchin*, Irina *Nakhova* and Vadim *Zakharov*--who grew up in the former Soviet Union have been given a "territory" in the gallery in order to confront the haunted space of the "zone" in history and in the individual psyche. They represent two generations of ex-Soviet non-conformist art: Vitaly Komar and Alexander Melamid, Leonid Sokov and Grisha Bruskin were born during Stalin's time and reflect with a mixture of nostalgia and irony on their totalitarian childhoods, while Irina Nakhova, Eugene Yelchin and Vadim Zakharov, born during Khrushchev's thaw, have a more alienated attitude vis-à-vis the totalitarian mythology. Their territories of terror are border zones that reflect their cross-cultural experience. What they capture in their installations is the legacy of terror that shaped structures of mentality, spatial imagination, utopian aspirations and claustrophobic anxieties that mirror the tragic paradoxes of twentieth century history. A companion exhibition, GULAG: Soviet Forced Labor Camps and the Struggle for Freedom, runs concurrently at Boston University's 808 Gallery. SEE INFORMATION ATTACHED AND LINKS BELOW! www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/11.02/01-gulag.html -- -------------------------------------------------- Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies Harvard University 1730 Cambridge Street, 3rd Floor, Suite 301B Cambridge, MA 02138 Phone: 617.495.4037 Fax: 617.495.8319 http://www.daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu