Angel Orensanz exhibit coming to St. Petersburg

A joint presentation of the State Russian Museum with the support the Cologne (Germany) Ludwig Museum in St. Petersburg of a work of Angel Orensanz will mark the opening of this years Russian cultural Fall Season. The sculpture is called Sails of Departure; Sails of Arrival and consists of a large scale art construction that will open to the public this coming August 24 at noon.

The Orensanz installation, in the garden of the Marble Palace of the State Russian Museum, continues the tradition of both institutions of offering the Western and Russian avant-garde of most interest. The title refers to the point where the museums is located on the banks of the river Neva, where Peter the Great founded the city. Western cultural ideas have entered Russia and ideas from St. Petersburg have reached Europe, through the Bay of Finland. Through this point made their way the socialist revolution and the contemporary revolutions in cinema, photography, painting, poetry and theater.

St. Petersburg has been and is now the cultural capital of Russia. The city is the home of the best Russian museums, the Mariinsky Theater and the best cinema studios. Angel Orensanz has been actively present in the Russian art scene for the last twenty years with installations and exhibitions in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Still is fresh in Russia is the memory of Orensanzs exhibition from the Spring of 2005, entitled Earth: Death-Birth that opened at the Alexander Pushkin Museum in Moscow and then seen at the Rumiantzev Palace-Russian Museum of St. Petersburg.

Sails of departure; Sails of Arrival has already been scheduled to be carried by the Russian cultural television, several American TV stations and the press of several countries. The exhibition catalogue carries an essay by professor Alexander Borofsky, curator of the Contemporary Art Department of the Russian National Museum and Ludwig Museum.