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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Pjotr Sauer and Andrew Roth

Empty galleries and fleeing artists: Russia’s cultural uncoupling from the west

The GES-2 contemporary arts centre on the banks of the Moskva river in Moscow.
The GES-2 contemporary arts centre on the banks of the Moskva river in Moscow. Photograph: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Images

On a recent Saturday in April, Muscovites strolled around GES-2, a vast new arts centre built in a disused power station steps away from the Kremlin. But guests visiting the 54,400-sq-metre centre, designed by the pioneering Italian architect Renzo Piano, were faced with one hard-to-miss problem: the art was absent.

Evgeny Antufiev
The Russian artist Evgeny Antufiev, who asked for his works to be removed from GES-2. Photograph: Garage Museum of Contemporary Art
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