This is why, in the spring of 1986, a group of young unofficial (or so-called underground) Artists squatted a run-down-tenements building, in central Moscow. Until the end 1989, when they were expelled after a 3 ½ years long squat, a total of 70 of them had stayed - for varying lengths of time - at the 49 Furmanny Lane tenement, converted in workshops. It quickly became famous throughout the Moscovite Artists' community for being the melting-pot of the Soviet 1980's Avant-Garde, also quickly renowned internationally . Moreover, Sotheby's original auction, held in Moscow in July 1988, singularly contributed to the rapid spread of Furmanny's fame & aura throughout the Western Hemisphere Art circles.

What is the interest of having constituted such a Collection? The Furmanny experience, albeit time-capsuled in a very short span, came at the crucial turning point of the Communist world's political, social, cultural & artistic evolution, on the eve of its decline. Somehow, it constitutes - all comparisons being somewhat caricatural - the Moscovite counterpart to the world famous Parisian BATEAU-LAVOIR of the 1904-1909 period: same duration, but some 8 decades later! The moment is important, politically and socio-logically, as it capsules the toppling of the Communist society towards the overture to the outside world. Glasnost & Perestroïka have been decreed & imposed by an innovative Gorbatchev. Artistically, Furmanny Lane Artists illustrate practically all trends of the young unofficial Soviet Art. Hence the importance of having gathered & conserved a testimony as thourough as has been possible of this key moment in the fast evolving transformation of the Soviet society.

The Collection's 70 Artists average 30 years of age in 1990. Since 1975, the production of their famous forefathers of the 1910-1920's - the Constructivists - have begun to be shown again in some Soviet Museums, albeit timidly. The intermediary generation, immediately preceding our Artists, consists of strong personnalities, already well known in Western Art circles: Bruskin, Bulatov, Jankelevsky, Kabakov, Shteinberg; to name but a few. Also, since the '80's, the polymorphous production of Western Hemisphere Artists has become sketchily known to them, mostly through the undercover circulation of Western Art magazines.

By 1990, many of Furmanny's young Artists are already quite well known - & their works widely exhibited - in the Western world: twins Sergei & Vladimir Mironenko in Germany & France, Nicholas Ovchinnikov in France & Germany, Leonid Purygin in

Of all the artists present, at one time or another, at Furmany Workshops, one group's oeuvre is not represented in the Collection: the MEDICAL HERMENEUTICS. Its members, S. Anufriev, V. Fedorov, Y. Leiderman & P. Peppershtein, indulged almost exclusively in installations. However, they have promised to recreate one of the installations made during the 1986-'89's, whenever the Collection gets exhibited.

The Collection, in addition to its anchorage to a key moment of USSR's recent history, offers a fairly exhaustive panorama of the young Soviet avant-garde Art. While it does not pretend to show all of the Artists on the Moscow scene during those years, but only those who practiced their art at the Furmanny workshops, it represents about 80 % of what was being created at the time in Moscow. It is the only one of such width, depth & quality to show all the Artists active at the Furmanny Workshops .

The objective of the Collection, in addition to aiming at being historical & documentary in nature, ambitions to present all these young Artists to a wide public in the Western world, through exhibitions in Kunsthalle, Museums & other appropriate sites. Already, over 20 of them actively part take on the international Art scene by exhibiting in many countries such as Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Scandinavia, Spain, Switzerland & the U.S.A., collectively &/or individually,

Today, it would be impossible to assemble such a testimony: Artists are dispersed all around the country & the world, or continually traveling; works of that period are no longer available or have been destroyed, extreme difficulties exist in exporting works from the F.R.R., etc.