Where is our Place?

Since emigrating to the West, Kabakov’s work has slowly and cautiously taken on new meaning. His installation at the 2003 Venice Biennale was an independent exhibition, rather than in the Russian or American pavilions. Kabakov’s Where is Our Place? is a literal question posed to viewers. A gallery is decorated with an exhibition of modern art, specifically small black-and-white photographs surrounded by white mats and black frames. Above the modern art hang the bottom portions of oversized, antiquated gold-leaf frames of 19th century paintings. The frames are cut off by the ceiling, as are two pairs of giant legs garbed in 19th century attire, the only visible portions of the oversized exhibition. With the works Where is Our Place? and The Artist’s Despair, Kabakov has moved from Soviet era conceptualism concerned with readdressing historical narratives to Western postmodernism that deals ironically with art for art’s sake. His oeuvre, however, continues to evolve as some of his former motifs are altered to address new issues.