The history of the colour black is the history of humanity's transformations: its fears, the mechanisms of power it has built, its spiritual quests and the aesthetic revolutions that continue to this day

The history of the colour black is the history of humanity's transformations: its fears, the mechanisms of power it has built, its spiritual quests and the aesthetic revolutions that continue to this day. The project "The History of Black" at the Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, curated by Dmitry Gaykov and Alyona Dyatko, brings together more than 80 contemporary artists who, across eight halls of the exhibition space, explore the many meanings of black in its social, psychological and symbolic aspects.

Each work is at once self-sufficient and an essential element of a unified display. On the one hand, the viewer can observe an individual artist's view of the nature of black (around half of the works were prepared specially for the project); on the other, each hall is a conversation about the symbolic anthropology of black.
One of the project's chief tasks is a return to dialogue. Speaking of black in the language of art makes it possible to build a symbolic, polyphonic dialogue in which recognised masters, Erik Bulatov, Eduard Steinberg, Olga Tobreluts, Andrey Filippov, Vladimir Nemukhin and Kirill Chelushkin, are joined by new protagonists: Kirill Manchunsky, Alexandra Granovskaya, Alexey Bevza, Katya Nikitina and Elena Filaretova.

Exhibition dates: 16 September to 29 November