Official statement by General Director of Manege

The August 14 incident during “The Sculptures We Do Not See” exhibition in the Manege Central Exhibition Hall is enormous, unlawful, provocative and outrageous.

The actions of a group of people calling themselves activists of the God’s Will movement inflicted damage to several works by Vadim Sidur belonging to the holdings of the Manege Museum and Exhibition Association and included in the Museum Fund of the Russian Federation.

This incident sent shock waves across the global museum community and sparked a massive public outcry.

We had worked on the project called “The Sculptures We Do Not See” with fondness and respect to the authors and audiences and with certainty that the works from our holdings, many of which had not been seen by anyone, deserve being introduced and shown to the public.

Meanwhile, the search for the form and meaning of objects and phenomena has continued in contemporary art. An analysis of history is impossible without the inclusion in the display of works by Sidur’s contemporaries and artists working today who have their own views and interpretations of the eternal fundamental truths and values.

Our Association includes the Vadim Sidur Museum established in Moscow back in 1989. It is the only state museum in Moscow that is wholly devoted to contemporary sculpture. The art of Vadim Sidur is multifaceted and represents a whole era in the national art history

Our project aims at the contemplation of the eternal subjects of life and death, war and peace, love and goodness.

We feel deeply sorry that the exhibition has caused a public reaction in such an aspect we could not have expected.

We are very grateful for the support shown and we stand together with the museum community in their position against acts of vandalism in cultural institutions. We consider it very important to protect the national cultural heritage from acts of aggression by solely peaceful means within the scope of legitimate procedures.

Irina Tolpina,

General Director of MEA Manege