ACF_Birobidzhan_Media_Rep_11_Dec_2017_compressed

Международные СМИ / International Media
Associated Press
http://www.apnewsarchive.com/2017/European-U-S-and-South-Korean-artists-create-work-for-
Russia-s-remote-Jewish-Autonomous-Republic-/id-ecb8e7cc33b6424991c34fe6d44aaeb8
MOSCOW (AP) — Austrian artist Leopold Kessler has built a car ramp, strong enough to hold a jeep,
leading up to the window of a Soviet-era apartment in Russia's remote 'Jewish Autonomous Republic' of
Birobidzhan, envisioned by Stalin as a homeland for Communist Jews.
Kessler says his work reflects the gap between rich and poor in modern Russia.
In Moscow, elevators bring luxury cars to the penthouse doors of oligarchs, so why not do the same for
the folks in Birobidzhan?
The work is one of many produced during a trip to Birobidzhan by U.S., European and South Korean
artists, who have each responded to the area's unique combination of Soviet Jewish heritage, Chinese influence
and modern Russian reality. Their show opened this week.
For Nina Nyukhalova, who allowed her balcony to be used for Kessler's car ramp, it was something
completely different. "When it appeared yesterday I was scared," she remembered, laughing. "It's the first
time anything like this has happened here."
Closer to Beijing than to Moscow, Birobidzhan was founded in 1931 and designated by authorities as a
new homeland for Soviet Jews. But Stalinist purges, disease and an unforgiving terrain took their toll on
the tens of thousands of people who made the journey there, and many left again.
Austrian Cultural Forum – Birobidzhan – Media Report – ArtManagement – 76