Undark Ages: Tales of Medievalism and Academia. Introduction to the Exhibition
An exhibition exploring the links between Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and contemporary art.
Undark Ages: Tales of Medievalism and Academia
- Date:
- 13 Nov 2025–
3 May 2026
- Age restrictions
- 16+
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The Undark Ages project challenges stereotypes that position Classical antiquity as the ultimate aesthetic standard, while portraying the Middle Ages as a period of cultural decline. By bringing together works by masters of the past and contemporary artists, Undark Ages shows how strict adherence to classical principles can lead to stagnation, while the study of medieval heritage helps find answers to contemporary challenges.
Fyodor Bronnikov. Hymn of the Pythagoreans to the Rising Sun, 1869. The artist produced several versions of this painting. State Tretyakov Gallery. From the collection of Pavel Tretyakov
Today we can observe how the desire to recreate or interpret the medieval past through a contemporary lens appears across diverse fields: in both domestic and international fantasy literature, cinema and television series, music, fashion, design, and video game storylines. This widespread fascination with medieval themes has generated numerous modern simulacra of the medieval era.
— Anna Ilchenko, curator of exhibition projects at
102 artworks
40 artists
20 monsters
40 columns
Unknown artist. Resurrection (Descent into Hell), first half of the 17th century. Russian North. Central Andrey Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art
Anton Kushaev. From the series Tremors of the Earth / 2, 2022. Triumph Gallery
The exhibition features painting and graphic art from Classicism, Academicism, and Art Nouveau, Russian icons, Gothic sculpture, and contemporary works: installations, sculptures, tapestry, and video art. Canvases by Alexander Ivanov, Léon Bakst, and Alexandre Benois will enter into dialogue with new pieces by Alexei Gromov, Danya Pirogov, Tanya Pioniker, and other artists. These artists transpose themes that preoccupied people in the Middle Ages into our present day, interpreting key symbols from that era and narratives concerning the end of the world. This reveals the influence of the past on contemporary visual culture: from the design of fantasy sagas to computer games and internet memes.
The exhibition shows that we have no access to “real” Antiquity or the “real” Middle Ages, and that we operate instead with myths about these periods of human history. Most ancient sculptures have not survived in their original form—they only exist as copies and casts. Medieval book illustrations have no more meaning, for most of us, than memes on a smartphone screen—they are a collection of strange pictures, incomprehensible to us today. The project is like a system of mirrors reflecting what has long been lost and, perhaps, never even existed.
— Dmitry Belkin, junior curator of exhibition projects at
Provmyza (group founded in 1998: Galina Myznikova, Sergey Provorov). Despair, 2008. Courtesy of the artists and MYTH Gallery
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All photos: Anya Todich
Authors
Ivan Akimov — Léon Bakst — Lyudmila Baronina — Alexandre Benois — Ippolit Bogdanovich — Fyodor Bronnikov — Vladimir Dubossarsky — Fenso — Alexei Gromov — Georgy Guryanov — Alexander Ivanov — Vladimir Kupriyanov — Anton Kushaev — Anton Kuznetsov — Leochares — Nadya Likhogrud — Anton Losenko — Bella Matveeva — Julia Mortiis — Provmyza (Galina Myznikova, Sergei Provorov) — Timur Novikov — Art Will (Andrei Khlobystin, Timur Novikov) — Boris Orlov — Alexandra Paperno — Tanya Pioniker — Danya Pirogov — Polykleitos of Argos — Alexander Povzner — Dmitri Alexandrovich Prigov — Vitaly Pushnitsky — Maria Safronova — Ivan Shadr — Sergei Shekhovtsov — Joulia Strauss — Daria Surovtseva — Pavel Svedomsky — Olga Tobreluts — Fyodor Tolstoy — Viktor Vasnetsov — Alexander Vinogradov
Scientific consultant
Ekaterina Andreeva
Curators
Dmitry Belkin, Anna Ilchenko, Andrey Parshikov
Producers
Alisa Kekelidze, Angelina Vorona
Architecture
NORMA (Darya Gerasimova, Grigory Tsebrenko)
Lighting
Ksenia Kosaya
Art logistics and registration
Angelina Korovina, Daria Krivtsova, Polina Loskot
Technical team
Andrey Belov, Alexander Dolmatov, Artem Kanifatov, Maxim Lapshin
Accessibility and inclusion programmes team
Alexandra Kharchenko, Vlad Kolesnikov, Victoria Kuzmina, Varvara Merenkova, Vera Zamyslova
Graphic design
Maria Kosareva, Max Maslov
Editors
Daniil Dugaev, Vyacheslav Nemirov
English texts
Ben Hooson
Media specialist
Anastasia Melnikova-Belinskaya
The exhibition is organised with participation of
Antiquarian Department of the Moscow House of Books
Central Andrey Rublev Museum of Ancient Russian Culture and Art
Elena Mutsoeva Collection
Fenso Museum Archive
Gathering Gallery
MYTH Gallery
Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Museum of the New Academy of Fine Arts, Saint Petersburg
Novgorod Museum-Reserve
Pogodina Gallery
pop/off/art
Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts
Russian State Library
Saint Petersburg New Academy
Shalva Breus Collection
Sobo Gallery
State Museum of the History of Religion
State Russian Museum
State Tretyakov Gallery
Triumph Gallery
VLADEY
Zoya Galeeva Collection
and other private collections
Special thanks to the pop/off/art gallery and personally to Olga Popova for their assistance in realising Tanya Pioniker’s project.
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