In the Russian Pavilion, Andrei Molodkin (b. 1966) is showing alongside 6 compatriots, Pavel Pepperstein, Alexey Kallima, Irina Korina, Gosha Ostretsov, Anatoly Shuravlev and Sergei Shekhovtsov. Entitled "The Victory Over the Future", a name borrowed from a futurist opera "Victory over the Sun" in 1913 which was an omen of impending catastrophes in the early 20th century. At the onset of the 21st century the world is once again in crisis, paralysed more by fear of the future than by economic recession.

Molodkin's work seems a direct reference to Pop Art and Conceptualist icons by the likes of Andy Warhol, Ed Ruscha and Joseph Kosuth. The artist reproduces widely recognized symbols like the dollar or euro sign, the Apollo Belvedere or Nike of Samothrace, spelling out frequently used words from FUCK to DEMOCRACY in bent pipes on a wall or imposing sculptural letters that loom in mid-air. But Molodkin's symbols differ from classic Conceptualism and Pop Art because this is no longer an empty abstraction.

"There is no concept so lofty and abstract that it can retain its meaning when we reveal the inner 'content', such as power, wealth, strength and pain, which are the only important factors in the modern world."

What’s the difference between a world imagined by artist and a world imagined by politicians? "Artists make what’s negative positive and politician makes positive negative. My statue is hollow, like a film negative, but the projection makes it a firm image. The politicians bring destruction to the world in the name of development."

Can a world created by artists habitable? "No!" Artists are not here to solve problems but shed lights on problems? Yet, even when the actual substance pulses through the veins of reality before our very eyes it remains intangible.