Regularly named among the top 10 living artists in the world and the ‘two most consequential artists to emerge from Russia since the 1920s’ (Robert Storr), Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have a unique pioneering place in the international story of conceptual art.
This is the first in a two-part series of interviews with Emilia Kabakov. This week we’ll be talking about when Emilia and Ilya first became aware of the power of art to affect us on a deep level, how they work together, their early life in Russia, why they started creating ‘total installations’ and also about their wonderful art installation project with children around the world, The Ship of Tolerance (pictured above).
To listen to interview click here Emilia Kabakov | It’s A Question of Balance (broadcast 7 April)
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have worked together in the USA, where they live, since the late 1980s and are known for their complex large-scale projects and immersive ‘total’ installations. To date, together they have created nearly 200 of these total installations, which invite the viewer to become an active part of the work considering the meaning of utopia, the place of the artist, power, hope, fear, escapism, fantasy, and much more.
An art project that is dear to the Kabakovs hearts and which I’ll be talking to Emilia about during the show is The Ship of Tolerance. This is a conceptual piece which hundreds of local schoolchildren from different ethnic and social backgrounds in different cities round the world have participated in with the hope that through the creative process they can learn about tolerance.
For more info and to listen to past shows click here It’s A Question of Balance
