"GES-2 is a trendy new gallery in a former power station that I know nothing about. Overlooking the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Putin's oligarch, Leonid Mikhelson, spent $470m on it. To be fashionable, to appeal to hipsters, and so that the people who steal in Russia and spend it in the West can tell that the place has status. At the entrance is a fashionable sculpture by a fashionable Swiss artist, a piece of clay."
"I get out of the taxi and walk to the entrance. [Colleague] Misha and the Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, who is staging the exhibition, are there to meet me. "Hello! I'm an artist!" he says in Russian, "and this is Santa Barbara!" The soap opera Santa Barbara was watched endlessly in Russia during the 1990s, a window onto the Western world for a young Russia being formed on the site of the Soviet Union."
Masha Alyokhina arrives at GES-2, a Scandinavian-style gallery with white walls and huge windows overlooking the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. Leonid Mikhelson funded the conversion with $470m, signaling status for wealthy Russians who spend stolen money abroad. A fashionable Swiss artist's sculpture at the entrance appears as a piece of clay that Alyokhina likens to a mound of shit. Alyokhina meets colleague Misha and Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson, who greets her in Russian and references the soap opera Santa Barbara. The soap opera served as a Western window during the 1990s and its catchphrase became shorthand for messy relationships; Alyokhina laughs and replies that their Santa Barbara differs.
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