The Barbie doll is not only a symbol of market success but a cultural phenomenon as well. In her toy world can be found the reflections of such serious topics as emancipation, family relationships, sexual norms, career matters, political correctness and many other issues.
Barbie leaves no one indifferent. We either love her passionately or hate her furiously, and thus, unsurprisingly, she is especially popular in the world of contemporary art. If Barbie was ‘merely a doll’ for adults, she certainly would not be the most overused theme for 'artistic statements' in the world.
BarbieZone is an extension of the project ‘Everyday Culture’, produced by the ‘The New Literary Review’ publishing house and coinciding with the release of Lenore Goralik's book ‘Hollow Woman: The Inner and Outer Worlds of Barbie.’
The essential aim of the exhibition is to display two different, yet parallel themes of interest for artists: ‘About Barbie’, investigating the iconic doll herself; and ‘Barbie's World’ which explores games and toys in general. Stars of the Russian art community, from Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and Petrozavodsk broaden and deepen the world of Barbie in an effort to fill her ‘Hollowness’.
‘About Barbie’ demonstrates how she inspires various desires – to reinterpret her, to complete her, to be embodied by her, to make her human, to capture her elegance and unattainability, even to see her soul. The part of the exhibit focusing on ‘Barbie's World’ includes object-memoirs, several videos, pink bears, risque photos, and a painting devoted to ‘pre-Barbie’ dolls. The diversity and richness of the world of doll-as-idol has unwittingly become the content and meaning of existence of this hollow woman.
