A guide to contemporary art in Ivanovo

Ivanovo is a city of constructivism and the avant-garde. It is here that the “First Factory of the Avant-Garde” festival takes place.

This was the sixth edition of Ivanovo’s contemporary art festival, and it always spreads across a range of venues: museums, theatres, university halls. This year, though, it was especially good to see exhibitions placed in public spaces.

Everything serves a single idea — a celebration of matter and of the avant-garde: performances in cafes, a festival of intellectual literature, a competition of spontaneous physical performance, and a theatre lab called “Architecture Through the Body”.

The festival program takes in every major art venue in the city and reimagines eight areas of contemporary art (see the full program): contemporary art, photography, theatre, choreography, music, an education strand, film and literature.

The festival runs for two weeks: 19 September – 5 October 2024. There are curator-led tours everywhere. Almost all of it is free, and the exhibitions stay up afterwards.

Ivan Gorshkov’s art project “Heart”

“Heart” is a project by Ivan Gorshkov, one of Russia’s most striking contemporary artists. The show features work that is very much in his own idiom, but made site-specific for Ivanovo and its constructivist railway station.

— The figures will greet visitors to the city until the end of October 📍Ivanovo, Vokzalnaya Square, 3

The group exhibition “Prima Materia” in the underpass between the Burylin Museum and the Ivanovo Chintz Museum

Young artists, curated by the Rodchenko School, rethought the history of our city. And Ivanovo is a revolutionary city! The show raised some very important historical themes.

The project turned out to have an incredible atmosphere, and the opening was held in one of the city’s most unusual spaces — the underpass at the Dmitry Burylin museum.

— The exhibition runs until 27 October at the Museum of Industry and Art 📍Ivanovo, Baturina Street, 6/40

The exhibition “India. Resonance” at the Museum and Exhibition Centre

It is devoted to rhythms and rhymes in contemporary Indian and Russian art, to the history of fabric and to the imagery of Ivanovo chintz.

The core of the show is the collection of Ekaterina and Andrey Terebenin (Moscow), which brings together traditional Indian textiles from the 19th to the 21st century and works of contemporary Indian art. Having lived in the country for seven years, Ekaterina and Andrey assembled a collection built on a fine feeling for the fabric of Indian life. That is precisely why no dichotomy of past and future arises in it — the pieces aren’t set against each other but flow into one another and enter a mutual dialogue. This project widens that dialogue between generations and cultures: the Terebenin collection is joined by works from contemporary Russian artists, weavers and textile designers, as well as pieces from the Ivanovo Chintz Museum’s own collection.

— The exhibition runs until 19 January 📍Ivanovo, Sovetskaya Street, 29

The exhibition “Textile Capital: Symbolism and Metaphor”

This is the second part of a large art project — a retrospective of images of the Textile Capital from the 19th to the 21st century. Last year the curators told the story of the 19th-century mills and drew parallels with the present. This year the organising idea is the avant-garde. We see the imagery of avant-garde architecture in historical photographs and in contemporary art projects alike.

— The exhibition runs until 15 November; entry is free during Textile-Profi’s opening hours. 📍Ivanovo, Sosnovaya Street, 1