The Third Room

October 1999 in St Michael's (Engineers) Castle of the Russian Museum. The exhibition was held in collaboration with the Third Room Foundation (Dusseldorf, Germany) and was based on the theme Children and the Future. It presented works of painting, photography, objects and installations by artists belonging to the various nationalities now living in Germany. The aim of the exhibition was to draw attention to our responsibility towards children and the need to teach them to unite art with reality.
The exhibition is divided in three sections, each of which symbolizes a stage in the development of a child entering society. The first part demonstrates forms adopted from nature: the birth and life conditions of a newly-born infant are recreated and shown as "pliable forms". The second part incarnates the reality that surrounds a child and a succession of influences -that which might be called the "current of experience", to use the term of American psychologist and philosopher William James. The third stage addresses synthesis, when self-conscience and creative work should destroy the walls of "closed reality". A series of meetings and discussions conducted by artists were planned to coincide with the exhibition, as well as a number of master-classes for local young people.