2004 | Performance
Event: Founding of Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade
Venue: Kolyada Theatre, Yekaterinburg, Russia
Date: 5 November 2004
Group: Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade
The Action
The artists were invited to transform the space of a boiler room at Kolyada Theatre. The work had to be done quickly and economically, while a play was being performed in the same space — without disturbing the actors or the audience.
The solution was Harmonization of Space.
“White over dark — the physical space disappears; the inside turns outside.”
White water-based emulsion paint was poured into plates and applied to the dark surfaces of the room. Each artist brought their own tool.
To protect their clothes, the artists wore black polyethylene garbage bags.
At the time, they did not know that the bags would become the Brigade’s working uniform and one of its most recognisable signs.
The Beginning of the Brigade
The action took place on 5 November 2004, now considered the founding date of Kazimir Malevich’s Malers’ Brigade.
After the action, the first snow of that winter began to fall. The artists jokingly recalled a phrase from a book they had recently read — about a “Brigade of painters named after Kazimir Malevich”.
The phrase stayed.
The temporary group became a name, and the name became a collective.
Elena Gladysheva, Alexandra Krivolutskaya, Viktor Oborotistov, Marina Razheva, Vladimir Romanov
Photo: Tatyana Sekacheva