lya Kabakov is one of the most influential artists on the contemporary scene, known for his conceptual installations that interweave memory, narrative and imagination
In 1998 he participated in the 3rd edition of Art to Art, intervening at three different points of Colle Val d'Elsain front of the Bastione di Sapia, inside a bar and in a garden. These three places offered the visitor different perspectives on a world suspended between heaven and earth, between history and contemporaneity, creating an immersive and reflective experience. The work The weakening voicecreated on this occasion was donated to the municipality of Colle di Val d'Elsa, becoming permanent.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are artists of Russian and American origin who collaborate on environments that fuse elements of the everyday with the conceptual. Although their work is deeply rooted in the Soviet social and cultural context in which the Kabakovs came of age, their work still achieves universal significance.
Ilya Kabakov was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet Union, in 1933. He studied at the VA Surikov Art Academy in Moscow and started his career as an illustrator of children's books in the 1950s. He was part of a group of conceptual artists in Moscow who worked outside the official Soviet art system. In 1985 he had his first solo exhibition at the Dina Vierny Gallery, Paris, and two years later moved to the West for a six-month residency at the Kunstverein Graz, Austria. In 1988, Kabakov began working with his future wife Emilia (they would marry in 1992). From this point on, all their work has been collaborative, in different proportions depending on the specific project involved. Today, Kabakov is recognised as the most important Russian artist who emerged at the end of the 20th century. His installations speak as much about conditions in post-Stalinist Russia as they do about the human condition universally.
Emilia Kabakov (née Lekach) was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet Union, in 1945. She attended the Music College in Irkutsk as well as studying Spanish language and literature at the University of Moscow. She emigrated to Israel in 1973 and moved to New York in 1975, where she worked as a curator and art dealer. Emilia has worked side by side with Ilya since 1989.
Their work has been exhibited in venues such as the Museum of Modern Art, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Documenta IX, the Whitney Biennial in 1997 and the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, among others. In 1993, they represented Russia at the 45th Venice Biennale with their installation The Red Pavilion. The Kabakovs have also completed many important public commissions throughout Europe and have received numerous awards and prizes, including the Oscar Kokoschka Preis, Vienna, in 2002 and the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, in 1995.
In 2014, the documentary film 'Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here' premiered in New York City and can be purchased through Amazon or First Run Features.
The Kabakovs live and work on Long Island.
taken from kabakov.net