The Rape of Europe

L'exposition comprend également un tableau spécialement créé pour l'occasion et qui a donné son titre à l'exposition: "The Rape of Europe". Il se trouve que plusieurs salles du 4e étage avaient été vidées de tout contenu en attendant que le parquet soit réparé. En concertation avec l'artiste, nous avons décidé de les utiliser en urgence, en les laissant dans leur état brut actuel. Nous présentons cette exposition exceptionnelle en tout point en soutien aux personnes impactées par le conflit en Ukraine.

L’entrée à l’exposition The Rape of Europe – Maxim Kantor on Putin’s Russia (Works 1992-2022) est libre, les visiteurs sont invités à soutenir la Croix-Rouge luxembourgeoise dans sa réponse d’urgence pour aider toutes les personnes et victimes impactées par le conflit armé en Ukraine.

Maxim Kantor on the exhibition [April 2022]

“This exhibition, realized in a very short time in reaction to the war in Ukraine, brings together works that can be called political. In fact, any humanistic art that addresses people and society inevitably becomes political.

We live in a society that believed it had overcome war. But greed and a desire to triumph over one’s neighbor do their usual job. We thought fascism was defeated forever. But fascism proved very resilient.

Works from the last 30 years are shown. I have long warned of the danger, observing from year to year how the proclaimed ideals have been denied and distorted, and how ‘conditional’ democracy has been replaced by a new feudalism. I have seen people become monsters. Sometimes, I called things by their right names too clearly in my works — and it seemed offensive.

Today it seems to me more necessary than ever to show these works. Russia — the country where I lived for many years before becoming a citizen of Europe — has been a laboratory for inhumane social projects all through the 20th and 21st centuries. Unfortunately, Putin’s project is not the first, and it is important to understand its genesis.

However, the current conflict does not negate the humanistic component of Russian culture, a culture born within the framework of an inhuman empire and in the struggle against serfdom. Therefore, I hope that today’s evil will be overcome. However, what is happening right now reminds us how thin the cultural varnish is. How fragile humanism is and how easily evil can triumph in the world if we do not find moral solidity within ourselves.”