Ship of Tolerance
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
Rostock and Düren, Germany
Ilya und Emilia Kabakov „The Ship of Tolerance, Zug“, 2016, Photo: Jens Krauer
Project by the artist couple Kabakov stops off in the Düren district
In the Brückenkopfpark Jülich (Düren district), the “Ship of Tolerance” by Ilya and Emilia Kabakov has found its first permanent home in Germany. To date, the peace ship has made eleven stops in eight different countries – most recently, it was on display in Rostock. Emilia Kabakov, District Administrator Wolfgang Spelthahn, and the Düren district project team opened the collaborative artwork on August 25th with a brilliant celebration of tolerance and humanity.
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov are among the figureheads of the international art scene. For decades, they have been questioning the relationship between reality and fantasy with their immersive installations. And they do so solely to encourage people to delve into other worlds. With the art project “Ship of Tolerance,” the two artists are reimagining the understanding of community and making people of diverse backgrounds part of their design.
Human beings are members of a whole,
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain,
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you’ve no sympathy for human pain,
The name of human you cannot retain.
District Administrator Wolfgang Spelthahn (front row, 2nd from right) with supporters and guests in front of the almost 20-meter-long “Ship of Tolerance,” photos: District of Düren
The starting point for this process is the idea: to create a ship as a symbol of tolerance, humanity, and respect. For this purpose, craftsmen from the artist couple’s studio will construct a gigantic wooden hull, 20 meters long and 5.5 meters wide, topped by an 11-meter-high mast, at the respective venue. Meanwhile, in collaboration with Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, a comprehensive educational concept will be implemented, discussing and addressing the topic of tolerance against the backdrop of diverse values in different cultures. In the course of this exploration, children, young people, and adults will create 1 x 1-meter designs for the ship’s sail, from which a jury will later select 120 examples.
About the Artists
The artist couple Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have been working together since 1989. They are recognized worldwide as pioneers of conceptual and installation art, which they bring to the world through large-scale projects. Since their collaboration, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov have created internationally acclaimed works of art, including “The Toilet” at Documenta IX in 1992 and “The Strange City” at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2014. Their works are represented in major museum collections, including the MoMA in New York and the Tate Modern in London.
Ilya Kabakov
Ilya Kabakov was born in 1933 in Dnipropetrovsk, in the former USSR. After successfully completing his graphic design studies at the Leningrad Academy of Fine Arts in Moscow in 1943, he worked for many years as a highly successful children’s book illustrator. In addition, the artist developed an independent aesthetic order that deviated significantly from the ideologically driven style of Socialist Realism. To this day, Ilya Kabakov’s name dominates the global perception of the avant-garde “Moscow Conceptualism,” which the artist played a key role in shaping from the 1960s to the 1980s. After receiving a three-month scholarship from the Graz Art Association in 1987, the artist never returned to the Soviet Union. He emigrated to New York in 1988, where he continues to live and work with his wife, Emilia.
Emilia Kabakov
Emilia Kabakov was also born in Dnipropetrovsk in 1945. She completed classical piano training at the local music academy and studied Spanish and literature at the University of Moscow. Emilia Kabakov emigrated from the former Soviet Union in 1973, first to Israel, then to the United States in 1975. There she met Ilya, whom she married in 1992. Since then, the artist couple has lived and worked together in New York.