Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: How to Meet an Angel
Video assistance: Doug Dinger

On Saturday, September 12, from 8:30-10:30 pm (rain date Sunday, September 13), the Parrish Art Museum presents the 1-minute, looped animation, How to Meet an Angel, by North Fork-based artists Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, projected onto the south façade of the building. This unique drive-by experience is visible from Montauk Highway, with limited access for guests to park and watch the projections from the Parrish grounds.

The project originated as a utopian vision by the artists. “An encounter with your angel in real life appears to be virtually impossible. But this is far from the truth. All that is necessary is to recall that this encounter can take place in extreme circumstances, and, especially at critical moments in a person’s life. It is within our powers to create the situation for such an encounter,” say Ilya and Emilia Kabakov. The artists’ vision was to erect a very tall ladder—1100 meters (3600 feet) high—shooting vertically up into a large, empty space, ideally in a distant, rural place. “Today’s materials permit the creation of such a structure with the necessary durability and stability,” the Kabakovs continue. “A person who has resolved to ascend to the top of the ladder should be prepared to spend more than two days to do so. However, once he is near the top, he finds himself high above the clouds, alone within conditions of wind and inclement weather; that crisis moment when, upon the request for urgent help, the appearance of an angel will turn out to be inevitable.”

The animation of How to Meet an Angel came about two years ago, when the Kabakovs were invited by the Tchoban Foundation, Museum for Architectural Drawing, Berlin, to do an exhibition of their architectural projects, including drawings and models. They created the animation from the original drawings of the sculpture, and it was projected on the façade of the museum.

About Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are Russian-born, American-based artists that collaborate on environments which fuse elements of the everyday with those of the conceptual. While their work is deeply rooted in the Soviet social and cultural context in which the Kabakovs came of age, their work still attains a universal significance.

Ilya Kabakov was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet Union, in 1933. He studied at the VA Surikov Art Academy in Moscow, and began his career as a children’s book illustrator during the 1950’s. He was part of a group of Conceptual artists in Moscow who worked outside the official Soviet art system. In 1985 he received his first solo show exhibition at Dina Vierny Gallery, Paris, and he moved to the West two years later taking up a six months residency at Kunstverein Graz, Austria. In 1988 Kabakov began working with his future wife Emilia (they were to be married in 1992). From this point onwards, all their work was collaborative, in different proportions according to the specific project involved. Today Kabakov is recognized as the most important Russian artist to have emerged in the late 20th century. His installations speak as much about conditions in post-Stalinist Russia as they do about the human condition universally.

Emilia Kabakov (née Lekach) was born in Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet Union, in 1945. She attended the Music College in Irkutsk in addition to studying Spanish language and literature at the Moscow University. She immigrated to Israel in 1973, and moved to New York in 1975, where she worked as a curator and art dealer.  Emilia has worked side by side with Ilya since 1989.

Their work has been shown in such venues as the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Documenta IX, at the Whitney Biennial in 1997 and the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg among others. In 1993 they represented Russia at the 45th Venice Biennale with their installation The Red Pavilion. The Kabakovs have also completed many important public commissions throughout Europe and have received a number of honors and awards, including the Oscar Kokoschka Preis, Vienna, in 2002; The Praemium Imperiale, Japan, The Japan Art Association, in 2008; and the Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters from the French Ministry of Culture, in 2014.

In 2014, the documentary film “Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: Enter Here” premiered in New York City.

The Kabakovs live and work on the North Fork in Long Island.