The coordinator Theresa Mavica talks about a return to the art world

The past three years have been a period of deep sadness of the Tersa Iduke Mavica, former Director of the Moscow -based VAC, which she participated in establishing in 2009 with Leonid Mixon. He is one of the richest men in Russia and a close ally of Vladimir Putin.

In VAC, MAVICA was responsible for building the GES-2 Culture House, the largest contemporary art museum in Russia, who was also director. In November 2021, however, just one month before its opening, Mavica resigned, noting “exhaustion”. After that, after three months, just as Russia launched its invasion on a large scale for Ukraine, the Italian trustees left its adopted home and returned to Italy.

For 30 years, Mavica has worked to build profound cultural relations between Russia and Europe. All this work reveals the heartbeat, as the world quickly distanced anything Russian in the wake of the invasion. As I said ARTNEWS In an interview with him recently, the first of which disappears from the art world, it has been destroyed.

“The gap between Russia and Europe has grown, and many fell into that gap,” said Mavica. “Wonderful artists, minds and beautiful youth. It is a trauma.”

In March, Mavika began her return, organizing “The Sun To Come” in Made In Cloister, a special cultural institution in Naples. The exhibition is running until the end of May, the MAVICA program that has been called “Rebirth”. It is part of the independent “non -sin” initiative, which seeks to raise artists over the two values.

Now, while the war wanders in its fourth year, Mavica is quietly rebuilding cultural bridges: three of the ten artists who are shown in “The Sun In Comy” are Russian. They are Alexandra Sukarva, Anastasia Riabova, and Oga Tesvikova.

“I want it to be clear that I did not die when I left Fack, I am not a matter.” “VAC was a program, institution, and many people. I am now an unknown coordinator” the next sun. “Many people asked me about the reason not to include my name in the text of the show.

Kleoister occupies the amazing Clearster in the sixteenth century of the Santa Katrina Formo Church in the Porta Cabwana Napoli neighborhood. The Mavika Gallery, “The Sun St Comp a”, takes its name from an Italian party song. The song is both optimistic, and warning: the sun can give life, but it is also devastating. While Mavica said she strongly believes that Art goes beyond politics, the skepticism of the title of the exhibition reflects its disappointment in a world that turned its back into Russian culture.

The works presented, including the Vietnam artist Danh Vo’s Unitled Golden Pustue for Christ and the French artist Clément Cogitore Les InDes GalantesThe idea of ​​a new birth-as tangible and aspirations that feed hope.

Mafica moved for the first time to Russia in 1989 as a student and soon gained a good reputation in developing the contemporary artistic scene in the country, which was a fetus at the time. In 2007, Michelson met while working on a project in the Venice Biennial 52. Soon after Maggalson showed facing the management of a special group for him, but she only accepted the condition of supporting it in building the basis of “preserving the legacy of the present by supporting contemporary artists.” VAC was born two years later.

(While Megagon was approved by the UK government in 2022, it was not punished by the United States, although many companies and ships that provide his Novatek Gas.)

In an era in which the world of international art continues to move away from Russia, Mavica remains unbalanced for its loyalty. She said, “For a long time, it is equal to the current, and I have no intention to change.” “I have always thought that Russian culture is an integral part of European culture, and I will continue to do everything to strengthen this conviction.”

When asked about the Russian artists who were inserted in the black list, Mavika asked Hamas about the relationship of the Russian orchestra to the war in Ukraine, where Gustav Macar “Simphoni No. 2, the Resurrection, which was performed by Dmitry Shostakovic, which was decorated with the peripheral sound during our lunch.

She said, “I expected naively a different reaction from the art world, and a more mature reaction,” concerning that the Venice Biennial nor the organizers of the Russian wing in 2022 to keep the pavilion open. “The door was closed to Russian culture, which is tragic.

(The Russian pavilion was closed shortly after the start of the invasion of Russia.)

“People give her strange appearance” to her position, but she confirmed that she also worked with Ukrainian artists a long time before the war: “I have never cared about an artist’s passport, just their work.”

Mavica’s sudden departure from rumors that feed the rumors. ArtforumFor example, He suggested that Makhlson pushed her out of the door Because he was not satisfied with the negative propaganda resulting from a huge statue of Fisher’s Urs installed in front of GES-2.

She said, “This is completely incorrect.” “Someone also wrote that I left because Putin did not like the opening exhibition at the GES-2. This is a mistake. I left even before his visit.”

Artforum I also mentioned that the GES-2 Armatorial team, which she described as “the best that I had ever worked with”, resigned when she left her post. Mavika also denied this, adding that she had spent months in an attempt to persuade them to stay, even after Russia invaded in 2022.

Mavica is not the only prominent Italian coordinator with links to VAC. Italian coordinator Francesco Manakorda was the director of the VA-C site in Venice, although he resigned in protest against the retreat of Russia and closed in May 2022. He is now the director of Castillo de Revolly in Turin. Franchisco Bunami, the explicit, has worked with its impressive autobiography, directing the fiftieth and Benali Whitney Biennial in 2010, with Foster over the past 14 years and recently participated in a GES-2 show.

“I don’t like the man,” Mavica said about Bunami. “I also don’t like the cheerful and double behavior. I stopped talking to him well before the opening of the GES-2. However, I respect him very much to continue working with VAC.”

The VA-C building in Venice is now occupied by the recently launched SCUALA Piccola Zatte, run by the daughter of Maggamson, Victoria. Many artists came out of his opening presentation in December after that ARTNEWS He asked them about its links to the Michelson family.

“I don’t know anything about the project, but I do not fully agree with the idea of ​​refusing to work with Russian artists. I can’t be attached to the idea that you can forget the past and move forward.” “Frankly, it is childhood that some artists have left the show … This should cause a reflection on the independence of the independent culture really from politics today.”

Although Mavica feels burning from the art world, the “next sun” is ultimately a wider. But not to show war in Ukraine any end on the horizon, Mavica is not sure that cultural relations will improve between Europe and Russia.

She said: “I would like to answer this as if I am still in Russia: the Russians feel a deep sense of treason, not only in a political but cultural point of view.” “From the Russian perspective, do you think they will open their arms simply and say,” Welcome again? This may happen, but it will take some time. We need to learn from the mistakes made. I can imagine my former colleagues in Russia asking, “Why did you close the door?”