Oleg Kulik

Performed actions in Moscow galleries in the 1990s. Has had solo exhibitions in Moscow (including one at the Central House of Artists in 2007), Ghent and Naples. Participated in “Manifests 1” (1996), the Sao Paolo Biennial (1997), the Venice Biennale (1997, 2003, 2005), “Moscow-Berlin” (2003-2004), special projects for the 1st and 2nd Moscow Biennales (2005, 2007) and “ Russia!” ( New York and Bilbao, 2006), among others.

Of all so-called Moscow Actionists, a group that dominated Ruussian art in the mid-1990s, Oleg Kulik is the one whose international acclaim was largely due to his employment of video technology. Video footage of his performance art, as well as his single-channel videos and video installations, greatly contributed to making him a leading art personality in Russia. The gargantuan retrospective Chronicle, 1987-2007, which took place in the spacious halls of the Central House of Artists in Moscow, accurately illustrated the evolution of video in Kulik’s career. It went from being a mere means of documentation to an active participant in some of the artist’s performances (in one, he even fights video images of himself, a very important work in the history of Russian video art) to an instrument of metaphysical and spiritual investigation, as seen in the recent diptych Gobi Test.
Antonio Geusa