Summer 1994 - the Ptuch Magazine Launch

Andrei Bartenev:
«In the summer of 1994 «Ptuch» appeared, at first as a magazine. They reached out to us right away, and very soon Igor Shulinsky, Ptuch and, for some reason, the Ministry of Culture and I agreed that they would help us make the project «The Snow Queen». It turned out to be extraordinarily successful, was shown in Europe and also won a heap of festival prizes.
We returned to Moscow just in time for the launch of the first issue of «Ptuch», a rather remarkable happening held at the «Krasnye Vorota» metro station. Since I was the star of that issue and appeared on the cover, Shulinsky invited us to do our performance there. It was the utterly complete art project «Polar Bears. The Return of the Tsar's Family», built entirely on old photographs from the early 20th century.
Something like that is impossible to even imagine today, but back then it was the order of things. It was a different era: there was no competition, no economic entrenchment and no tried-and-tested rules. There was a kind of emptiness, a vacuum that everyone filled as best they could. Shulinsky got together with friends – and made a magazine. Grigoriev got together with friends – and made a magazine. Everyone was in the same state: if you wanted to, you did it. And people reacted very actively to this. It was all new. «Penthouse», for instance, opened – and everyone rushed there, because they showed naked women. Here artists are creating something, there they're showing naked women – the Russian people had gone mad».