Exhibition of Chess Puppets Presented in Moscow

Personification of Play is open to everybody on Wednesdays.

The Exhibition of chess puppets "Personification of Play" was opened on October 22 in the Central Chess Club in Moscow. The project was initiated by Elena Gromova's Gallery, which had hosted the exhibition "About Chess" in spring 2018. The puppets were created under the guidance of the Russian artist and puppet-maker Lubov Lukjanchuk. An artist and puppet-maker Alexandra Khudiakova is the curator of the project which was realized together with the Experimental creative studio DollArt.ru of the Russian Academy of Arts and the Creative Union of the Russian Artists.   

"The artists are exhibiting their works in fine halls of the Central Chess Club in Moscow with great pleasure. The collection has been significantly increased since the exhibition "About Chess" was held. Moreover, the project has become international: the Russian puppet-makers have organized webinars for their colleagues from Germany, Israel, and the USA, and the best works of foreign artists are also represented at the exhibition," says Elena Gromova. "A puppet as a symbol of a person became a possibility for the artists to discover secrets of one of the most ancient and, possibly, one of the most beautiful games in the world - chess. While personifying chess pieces via a puppet, an artist makes bold to comprehend philosophical interconnections between the human nature and the nature of a game, a man and a woman, black and white, life and death, the past and the future. A phrase "People are playing chess" makes another sense here: chess battles are played by puppets-actors in an exhibitional space like in a theatre".  

The exhibition is supported by the Russian Chess Federation. The RCF President Andrey Filatov and the RCF Executive Director Mark Glukhovsky took part in the opening ceremony.  

Andrey Filatov: "I congratulate all chess lovers on the opening of this unique exhibition! The first chess doll - a famous Turk, or a chess-playing automation by Wolfgang von Kempelen - was created 250 years ago, but then it was an illusionary art. A strong chess player was hiding inside the Turk and outplaying people. The puppets we see today are an absolutely different story: they are real pieces of art created with a high mastery and love. The puppets are adorning our Club, and I invite everybody to come and see them: the entrance is free". 

The event was attended by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich, grandmasters Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vladimir Potkin, Ernesto Inarkiev, Elmira Mirzoeva, President of the Moscow Chess Federation Vladimir Palikhata, editor of 64 - Chess Magazine Igor Burshtein, and representatives of the mass media. 

The exhibition is open on Wednesdays from 12 p.m. till 5 p.m. The entrance is free. 

Photos by Eteri Kublashvili