A lexander Brener, a 38 year old Russian performance artist and provocateur, at the opening of an art exhibition aimed at creating a dialogue between Eastern and Western artists damaged the work of Chinese artist GU Wenda. Brener 'declaring that he had given up art to become a rock star, started to bang away on a drum kit. In the midst of his performance, he rose from the drums and began destroying a large installation work [made mostly from human hair] by one of the other artists in the show, WendaGu.'[1]

Brener was an invited artist to the Interpol project held at the Center for Contemporary Art in Stockholm Sweden. Interpol, a three year project in progress where according to a letter in support of Brener's actions "The artists were supposed to formulate the exhibition as a collective through communication and interaction between their works". [2] However a contingent of the invited artists, Brener included felt that the inclusion of GU Wenda's work, a "20 meter-long tunnel of human hair, which the artist had been working on for two years" [3] was in direct opposition to the stated aims and "totally negated the basic ethical imperatives of the project" [4]

Wenda at a press conference the day after the attack stated it was a "long time ago when Dada artists destroyed art works as symbolic protest, and they destroyed their own works, not those of others. He attributed the aggressive and criminal behaviour of these would-be Dadaists to post-communist frustration with Russia's fall from great power status into a state of subservience to the West." [5]

The project is now largely remembered for both Brener's action and another artist Oleg Kulik performing naked as a dog on a leash and apprently biting audience members (including a 2year old child). Both artists were subsequently arrested and attracted a significant ammount of publicity for their acts.

This publicity would soon be eclipsed by the shockwaves that Brener sent round the art world when approximately one year later he travelled to Amsterdam and spray painted a green dolar sign over Kazimir Malevich's Suprematisme held in the Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art

 

[1] Art In America, April 1996
From "Front Page" the magazine's news section via the website artnet.com

[2] Letter of Support for Alexander Brener
Eda Cufer, Goran Dordevic;February 11.1997
Is a group signed letter of support from people with previous dealings with Brener

[3] Art Scandal
An overview of Brener and Kulik's actions at the Interpol Exhibition.

[4] Ibid

[5] The Avant-garde and the Democracy Movement: Reflections on Late Communism in the USSR and China.
Ralph Croizier; May, 1999
An article on relations between Russia and China which concludes with mention of the incident at the Interpol project in Stockholm.

Comment to Eda Cufer's Letter of Support
21-2-1997
Jan Åman
Reply to the letter of support for Alexander Brener by one of the Interpol project organisers.

Interpol. The Art Exhibition Which Divided East and West
A website promoting a book about the exhibition. The website also features a first hand account written by Alexander Brenner

Mind Your Own Business
EDA CUFER
This piece by Curfer one of the signatories of the open letter to the art world in defense of Brener sets up some of the framework of the East West dialogue Interpol was exploring.

Street Fighter and His Limits - About Brener
By Andrej Kovalev
From the catalogue "Urbanaria", Soros Center for Contemporary Arts, Ljubljana 1994 - 1995
A highly entertaining portrait of Alexander Brener. Although it is written before his current notoriety it is probably one of the better documentations of the history of an iconoclast.

Artists of M. Guelman Gallery; Alexander Brener
A page listing exhibitions, performances and writings of Alexander Brener

 

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