Museums of modern art in Moscow are removing or changing exhibits that even vaguely remind of the war in Ukraine, and curators and artists are suspended from exhibitions for signing anti-war letters or posting anti-war posts on social networks. This is reported by "Important stories" with reference to anonymous sources in museums.
The publication clarifies that in some cases events are canceled at the request of the Moscow Department of Culture. Also, curators of exhibitions are required to provide officials with dossiers on artists in order to prevent the work of people with an anti-war position.
One of the artists named Milena ( name changed ) told the publication that she was asked to cover up the work so that they could let it through to the exhibition “Workshop. 20'22. Future is now" at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art (MMOMA). At work "Digital Shadows" – a screenshot from a video with falling planes. The artist was told that her work resembled explosions. The purpose of the work, according to the artist herself, is to let the viewer imagine what will happen after the apocalypse.
Another artist, Irina ( name changed ), wanted to exhibit a piece of ceramics called “The Point of Disintegration” last fall, on which parts of a human body were made of white clay. So the author wanted to show that the digital world splits a person into pieces.
“We were afraid that the news footage from Ukraine might remind us. Therefore, we decided to make only masks [faces] and hands. They thought it would look less traumatic that way.”
Two sources close to MMOMA said that Moscow's Department of Culture was indeed issuing "instructions" about what should not be exhibited in the museum. This was done orally, without official papers, the information was passed to the curators through the leadership.