The exhibition Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika, dedicated to the major events and daily life of the mid- to late 1980s has opened at the Manezh Exhibition Center in Moscow.
The exhibition Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika, dedicated to the major events and daily life of the mid- to late 1980s has opened at the Manezh Exhibition Center in Moscow.
2/13
© Photo : Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
The exhibition is timed to coincide with Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday which he will celebrate on March 2.
Photo: The president’s visit, by Yury Rost. Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
Photo: The president’s visit, by Yury Rost. Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
Mikhail Gorbachev, the Soviet Union’s first president, visited the exhibition and toured it in the company of Multimedia Art Museum Director Olga Sviblova.
Gorbachev said at the opening ceremony that he hadn’t seen the pictures selected for the display.
The Soviet president’s conversation with journalists did not focus on any particular issue and touched on many things, including his attitude towards photography and culture, his upcoming birthday, corruption in Russia and the country’s electoral system that Gorbachev criticized harshly.
“I’m not so enthusiastic about my 80th birthday,” Gorbachev said smiling. “The 100th birthday sounds much more exciting.”
Guests at the opening of the exhibition Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika.
8/13
© Photo : Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
The project Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika is not meant to only display the biography of the Soviet Union’s first and only president. It is rather meant to recall, describe and present the era of glasnost in the form of pictures, art objects and documentaries and to analyze its cultural, social and political outcome.
Photo: At the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper stand, by Pavel Kassin, 1990. Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
Photo: At the Moskovskiye Novosti newspaper stand, by Pavel Kassin, 1990. Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
9/13
© Photo : Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
“Today we speak about the Gorbachev era. This was a time of change when everyday and every hour something changed,” Olga Sviblova, director of the Multimedia Art Museum, said at the exhibition’s opening. The museum organized the exhibition in cooperation with the Gorbachev International Foundation for Socio-Economic Research.
Photo: Rally to abolish Article 6 of the USSR Constitution, by Viktor Akhlomov. Moscow, February 1990. Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
Photo: Rally to abolish Article 6 of the USSR Constitution, by Viktor Akhlomov. Moscow, February 1990. Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow.
10/13
© Photo : Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
Over 300 photos display a range of subjects including the fall of the Berlin Wall, the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan, academician Andrei Sakharov’s return from exile, tanks in Moscow in August of 1991, rallies, communal flats, children, pensioners, punks, musicians, artists and everyday life.
Photo: People drawing up spontaneous waiting lists to buy meat, by Pavel Kassin. 1990.
Photo: People drawing up spontaneous waiting lists to buy meat, by Pavel Kassin. 1990.
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© Photo : Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
Two halls of the exhibition take visitors on a tour to the cultural 1980s with their booming artistic life. Photo: Leningrad, by Igor Mukhin. 1986.
Photos depicting concerts, improvised exhibitions held at flats and art workshops are on display next to art objects created by underground artists in the glasnost era. A huge hammer with the inscription “Die” and a picture made of coins are an attempt to analyze that era.
Photo: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at the opening of the exhibition, Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika.
Photo: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev at the opening of the exhibition, Mikhail Gorbachev. Perestroika.
13/13
© Photo : Courtesy Multimedia Art Museum, Moscow
The exhibition will be open through March 8.
Photo: Untitled, by Sergei Zinovyev. Syktyvkar, 1987.
Photo: Untitled, by Sergei Zinovyev. Syktyvkar, 1987.
