TransCultural Express: American and Russian Arts Today presents a night of contemporary Russian arts at BAM on June 5
Visual artist Irina Korina to unveil her first art installation in the US; Authors/journalists Masha Gessen and Keith Gessen to discuss their work at Eat, Drink & Be Literary
Brooklyn, NY/May 28, 2013—A site-specific installation by Moscow-based artist Irina Korina and a literary program featuring Masha Gessen and Keith Gessen will bring contemporary Russian culture to Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) on June 5, as part of the initial programming of TransCultural Express: American and Russian Arts Today—a collaborative venture between BAM and the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund.
Acclaimed Russian literary siblings Masha Gessen (The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin) and Keith Gessen (contributor to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Review of Books) will discuss their work and lives within two cultures with famed author Phillip Lopate on June 5. This is part of BAM’s popular Eat, Drink & Be Literary series, where audiences wine and dine while hearing leading authors read from their work. Tickets for this program can be purchased by calling BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100 or by visiting BAM.org. Tickets also may be purchased in person at the BAM Box Office, Peter Jay Sharp Building, 30 Lafayette Avenue from 10am to 6pm Monday—Friday and 12pm—6pm on Saturday.
The evening begins with the work of Russian visual artist Irina Korina, who was selected to represent Russia at the Venice Biennale in 2009. BAM will unveil Korina’s original sculptural installation, created for the lobby of the Peter Jay Sharp Building, and hold a public reception for the artist. Korina is widely known for her large-scale installation pieces, mostly constructed from disposable, everyday material commonly found in Russia. About this site-specific piece, Chapel, the artist said it is “about new ideas which replaced the old ones and new confusions, about places of worship in a new society, and about old and new superstitions.” This marks Korina’s first major installation in the US and will be continuously displayed as part of the BAMart programming until September 1.
The two programs are part of TransCultural Express—a collaboration which provides the opportunity for BAM and the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund to join resources and share cultural achievements with audiences in the United States and Russia. Irina Prokhorova, co-founder of the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund, said of the upcoming events, “It is very important for us to showcase the vibrant contemporary arts of Russia today. The two programs, one in visual art, one in literature, clearly demonstrate our Fund’s focus on not only financing arts, but being an incubator for creative people and projects, and a generator of our own artistic events.”
“BAM has a rich history of presenting Russian artistry,” said BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins. “These two programs continue and deepen that tradition. Our partnership with the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund will allow us to showcase more contemporary Russian artistic talent as well as offering the chance to share American culture with Russia—further extending BAM’s global mission.”
June 5 schedule of events:
6–7:30pm: Opening/free public reception for Irina Korina’s Chapel at BAM Peter Jay Sharp Building lobby, 30 Lafayette Ave. Artist Irina Korina, BAM President Karen Brooks Hopkins, and Mikhail Prokhorov Fund Co- Founder Irina Prokhorova will be in attendance.
6:30pm: Masha Gessen and Keith Gessen at Eat, Drink & Be Literary. BAM Lepercq Space, 30 Lafayette Ave (a ticketed event. Program begins at 7:30pm; dinner precedes at 6:30pm.)
About the artists
Masha Gessen is a journalist and the author of several books including Perfect Rigor, Blood Matters, and most recently, The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin. She has contributed to Vanity Fair, The New Republic, and numerous other publications. Gessen is currently writing a book on the Tsarnaev brothers in connection with the Boston Marathon bombing.
Keith Gessen is the editor-in-chief of n+1 and the author of the novel All the Sad Young Literary Men. He has written for The New Yorker and The London Review of Books and is the editor and co-translator of Kirill Medvedev’s It’s No Good and co-translator of Ludmilla Petrushevskaya’s There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor’s Baby. In 2008, Gessen was named one of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” for fiction. He lives in Brooklyn.
Irina Korina is a graduate of the Russian Theater Academy, Moscow, and Kunstakademie, Vienna. She was selected to represent Russia at the Venice Biennale in 2009 and will take part in Lost in Translation, a large-scale exhibition of contemporary Russian art which brings together over one hundred works made in the past forty years from the collection of MMOMA (Moscow Museum of Modern Art) during the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013. Named to the 2010 residency at the Musée d'Art Contemporain du Val-de-Marne, Paris, Korina's work has been featured in solo exhibitions at Bloomberg Space, London; Moscow Museum of Modern Art; Museum Folkwang, Essen; and XL Gallery, Moscow. Group exhibitions include Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow; Centro per l'Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, Prato; and Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerp. Korina lives and works in Moscow.
For press information, contact Sandy Sawotka, [email protected] or 718.636.4190. David Hsieh, [email protected] or 718.636.4129 x9.
About TransCultural Express A collaborative artistic venture between BAM and the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund, TransCultural Express focuses on cultural exchange between the US and Russia and marks the Prokhorov Fund’s inaugural artistic alliance with a US cultural institution.
With programming beginning in spring 2013, TransCultural Express includes a rich assortment of literary, film, and performing arts. Upcoming events include a two-week run of Russian master Andrei Tarkovsky’s Nostalghia in a new 35mm print for its 30th anniversary, alongside Russian Cinema Now, a series showcasing contemporary films with special guests and Q&As, presented at BAMcinématek from May 31 to June 13; and the participation of award-winning American author/humorist Ian Frazier in the Krasnoyarsk Book Culture Fair (Siberia) this fall. The TransCultural Express partnership also recently featured performances by Philadelphia- based hip-hop dance company Illstyle and Peace Productions in two Siberian cities.
About the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund The Mikhail Prokhorov Fund is a private charity launched in 2004 by the businessman Mikhail Prokhorov and his sister, Irina Prokhorova. The Foundation’s priority is the support and development of new cultural institutions and initiatives in Russia, with a focus on regional projects as well as the promotion of Russian culture in the global intellectual community.
The Foundation’s activity takes many forms. It is a creative laboratory developing new cultural initiatives, a school nurturing Russia’s next generation of artists and entrepreneurs, and a playground for socio-economic development, all the while combining in its work a few defining characteristics: enlightenment, education, and charity. www.prokhorovfund.ru
Credits Leadership support for TransCultural Express: American and Russian Arts Today made possible by the Mikhail Prokhorov Fund.
The Wall Street Journal is the title sponsor of BAM Rose Cinemas and BAMcinématek. Steinberg Screen at the BAM Harvey Theater is made possible by The Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust.
Pepsi is the official beverage of BAM.
Brooklyn Brewery is the preferred beer of BAMcinématek.
BAM Rose Cinemas are named in recognition of a major gift in honor of Jonathan F.P. and Diana Calthorpe Rose. BAM Rose Cinemas would also like to acknowledge the generous support of The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation, The Estate of Richard B. Fisher, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Delegation of the New York City Council, New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, New York State Council on the Arts, Bloomberg, and Time Warner Inc. Additional support for BAMcinématek is provided by the Coolidge Corner Theatre Foundation, The Grodzins Fund, The Liman Foundation and Summit Rock Advisors.
Bloomberg is the presenting sponsor for Eat, Drink & Be Literary.
Support for Eat, Drink & Be Literary is generously provided by the Joseph S. and Diane H. Steinberg Charitable Trust.
Leadership support for Eat, Drink & Be Literary provided by The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation. Programming in the Lepercq Space is supported by The Lepercq Charitable Foundation. Leadership support for BAMart provided by the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Trust, Toby Devan Lewis, Agnes Gund, and Donald R. Mullen, Jr.
Additional support for BAMart presented through TransCultural Express made possible by the Trust for Mutual Understanding.
DanceMotion USASM is made possible by the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and produced in partnership with Brooklyn Academy of Music, Inc. (BAM). Additional major support for DanceMotion USASM provided by the Robert Sterling Clark Foundation and Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller Fund.
Bloomberg is the BAM 2013 Winter/Spring Season sponsor.
BAM Winter/Spring 2013 supporters: Bank of America; The Irene Diamond Fund; Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art; The Florence Gould Foundation; The Leona M. & Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust; The Jaharis Family Foundation; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation; Stavros Niarchos Foundation; The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation, Inc.; The Peter Jay Sharp Foundation; The SHS Foundation; The Shubert Foundation, Inc.; The Skirball Foundation; The Starr Foundation; Time Warner Inc.; The Winston Foundation, Inc.
Pepsi is the official beverage of BAM. Sovereign Bank is the BAM Marquee sponsor. Yamaha is the official piano for BAM. R/GA is the BAM.org sponsor. New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge is the official hotel for BAM.
Your tax dollars make BAM programs possible through funding from the City of New York Department of Cultural Affairs and the New York State Council on the Arts. The BAM facilities are owned by the City of New York and benefit from public funds provided through the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with support from
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg; Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate D. Levin; the New York City Council including Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, Finance Committee Chair Domenic M. Recchia Jr., Cultural Affairs Committee Chair Jimmy Van Bramer, the Brooklyn Delegation of the Council, and Councilwoman Letitia James; and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz.
BAM would like to thank the Brooklyn Delegations of the New York State Assembly, Joseph R. Lentol, Delegation Leader; and New York Senate, Senator Velmanette Montgomery, Delegation Leader.
General Information BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, BAM Rose Cinemas, and BAMcafé are located in the Peter Jay Sharp building at 30 Lafayette Avenue (between St Felix Street and Ashland Place) in the Fort Greene neighborhood of Brooklyn. BAM Harvey Theater is located two blocks from the main building at 651 Fulton Street (between Ashland and Rockwell Places). Both locations house Greenlight Bookstore at BAM kiosks. BAM Fisher, located at 321 Ashland Place, is the newest addition to the BAM campus and houses the Judith and Alan Fishman Space and Rita K. Hillman Studio. BAM Rose Cinemas is Brooklyn’s only movie house dedicated to first-run independent and foreign film and repertory programming. BAMcafé, operated by Great Performances, is open for dining prior to BAM Howard Gilman Opera House evening performances. BAMcafé also features an eclectic mix of spoken word and live music for BAMcafé Live on Friday and Saturday nights with a special BAMcafé Live menu available starting at 6pm.
Subway: 2, 3, 4, 5, Q, B to Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center (2, 3, 4, 5 to Nevins St for Harvey Theater) D, N, R to Pacific Street; G to Fulton Street; C to Lafayette Avenue
Train: Long Island Railroad to Atlantic Terminal–Barclays Center
Bus: B25, B26, B41, B45, B52, B63, B67 all stop within three blocks of BAM
Car: Commercial parking lots are located adjacent to BAM
For ticket and BAMbus information, call BAM Ticket Services at 718.636.4100, or visit BAM.org.
## ## ##