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		BARTENEV ANDREY

Biographical information: 1969 born in Norilsk, Russia Graduated from the Art Institute of Krasnodar Since 1992 colloborates with "ROZA AZORA" gallery Since 1996 member of Moscow Union of Artists Since 2002 collaborates with "Fine Art" gallery Since 2005 collaborates with "RU Arts" gallery
Collections where works are held: Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art
Participation in exhibitions and auctions: Group Exhibitions:
2007 – «Glamour And Anti-glamour», Kino gallery, Moscow
2007 – «Motion, evolution, art», Ekaterina foundation, Moscow.
2007 – «Must Love Coutur», Zurab gallery, Moscow.
2005 - «L¨D», Kino gallery, Moscow.
2004 – «London Under The Snow», multimedia installation, Moscow Art Fair.
2004 – «Super Woman», Fine Art gallery, Moscow.
2002 – «Moscow abstraction. Second Half of XX century», State Tretyakovskaya Gallery, Moscow.
2002 – «Faina Ranevskaya», sculpture, Moscow Art Fair.
1995 – «Newspaper Opera», installation, International Music Festival in Kolmar, France.
1994 – «Snow Queen», Performance, Obstinate Fashion, Riga, Latvia.

Solo Exhibitions:
2009 – «The White Rainbow Above Table» (in collaboration with Katia Bachovar), Red October, Moscow.
2007 – «Lightchaser», Moscow Museum of Contemporary Art.
2006 – «Worship Of White», Novinskii passage, Moscow.
2005 – «Say I Love You», sound&kinetic sculpture, First Moscow Biennale Of Contemporary Art.
2005 – «Total mediaart of Andrey Bartenev», Atelier 2, Moscow.
2003 – «New Year Garland», Club At Brestskaya Street, Moscow.
1999/2000 - «Snow Queen», Royal Festival Hall, London.
1998 - «Botanic Ballet», Badeb-Baden Kunsthalle, Germany. 1998 - «Botanic Ballet», Royal Festival Hall, London.
1997 - «Botanic Ballet», IFA-GALLERY, Stuttart, Bonn, Germany.
1997 «Ten Worlds Of Cognition Of The Meaning», State Nuseum Of Arts by Pushkin, Moscow.
1997 - «Decoration Of The Part» Theatre Museum Victoria & Albert, London.
Autobiographical notes: Before, I always tried to make poetic art, but people didn`t understand it. So then I thought discodiscodiscoooo! and suddenly they said, `Hey, we get this`. It`s an easy connection.
What the critics say: Before the question of who is Andrey Bartenev, the more immediate one must be, what is Andrey Bartenev? I refer you to the YouTube clip of his recent performance at a benefit by that titan of the avant garde, Robert Wilson. This consisted of an "animal competition", the animals being strangely costumed creatures like escapees from Malevich`s Victory over the Sun. The strangest a giraffe-like figure with very high platforms and three balls on its head is Bartenev himself, emceeing the show he has choreographed and designed. A performance artist, then? Well, yes and no. Rewind six months to the Venice Biennale and you would have seen quite a different Bartenev an installation artist who had visitors queueing around the Giardini for his "glass discotheque", Disco-nnexion, in the Russian pavilion. A decade ago, Bartenev described his work as "happy art", but Disco-nnexion`s sea of little glass spheres, each containing a heart and the flickering words "connection lost", didn`t feel happy. It made you think of a society whose idea of connectedness has come to consist of clubbing and internet chatrooms.
Charles Darwent. Close Up: Andrey Bartenev

Andrey Bartenev`s viral installation in the Russian Pavilion was an unexpected hit at this year`s Venice Biennale. It was a mesmerising labyrinth of graphics bearing the words "connection lost" endlessly circling into infinity. It was compared to Kubrick`s sinister Hal, fighting to stay alive in 2001: A Space Odyssey, and its bleak message certainly seemed at one with the auteur`s vision of an isolating future. Born in Norilsk in the Arctic Circle in 1969, Bartenev`s unholy creations speak of the solitude humanity experiences in this virtual modern world.
Jessica Lack. Guardian.
Bibliography

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