The exhibition “Workers & Philosophers” is based on two tendencies outlined by the contemporary art critic, with the return to the modernistic traditions, carried by the new millennium, and a slope with the analysis. Undoubtedly still marked by years of communist heritage, Russia did not completely break with a certain vision of the artist considered as “the engineer of the hearts”. However the first aspirations of the historical avant-gardes seem tarnished by the economic and political climate of the beginning of the 21st century, unfavourable with such a progressive dash, as if the objectives had been achieved, exceeded limits. The Russian artistic scene represented in the exhibition imagines a new man accepting the imperfection of the human nature, its foibles, its drifts. Is it a simple awakening, a renouncement or the only possible way to go back to a better life? French artists have the echo of this kind of reflexion. This is why it seemed so relevant to offer this crossed glance between these two cultures within the framework of the year France-Russia 2010.
