Marat Guelman, a gallery-owner whose artistic projects are as sharp as newspapers headlines, couldn't fail to respond to the currently fashionable theme of the forthcoming elections. A show-competition that he organized at the Polytechnic Museum was entitled "A Turn-Key Party". A vacant package of registration documents was offered to the attention of the audience. A competitor who would have won after his appearance in public, subsequent debates and a ballot, winding-up the show, would have become an owner of the package. It could have been a leader of a Movement or a Party. A prize package was real. This was not the case, however, with the majority of the competitors who showed off exclusively themselves, their mania and phobia (it has become appropriate to demonstrate those peccadilloes not only at closed in-patient departments), as well as artistic projects.

Print media on the project

"Art with a people and without it"
N.Kostiuchkova. "Segodnia" (Today) No. 120 (4780). 30.06.95

Marat Guelman decided to play real politics with the artistic community. He prepared a package of documents for registration of a political party and displayed it for tender. Sufficed it to gain a victory on the ideological front, i.e. to offer a political program that would collect the majority of votes and you get a party free of charge".
"Masses proved easier to be handled with a commonplace bribery rather than with ideas."
"We were given a lesson of a political battle and explained in details that the battle doesn't prove to be open and according to the rules: there is always room for a low-down trick ".

"Megapolis-Express columnist was attacked with eggs"
G.Malitsky. "Megapolis - Express" No.26.

"According to Guelman's scheme, representatives of several political movements had to win a legalized "turn-key" package of documents for registration of a political party". "...all created a serious political atmosphere.."

"Marat Guelman began to sell off parties"
M.Vardenga. "Evening Club" No.125 (1008). 29.06.95

They say that Eltsin is going to loose the election. They also say that the election may not take place at all. There is no one to declare today: "There is a Party that will solve all problems". In the absence of real political candidates Marat Guelman's Gallery has assumed the role of "a leading and guiding force".
Displayed for summer sale "with 10-15% discount" were new political blocks".
"With the intention to shake out of our heads a serious attitude towards political games and to bring a share of healthy idiocy into political environment, artists undertook reformation of public consciousness, an endeavor beyond the power of politicians or biologists. The strategies of all represented political movements were aggressive, absurd and aimless. They were united on a single ideological platform--opposition to all currently active parties."
"...Enthusiasm which could be seen in the participants eyes vividly demonstrated that they didn't perceive an aesthetic aspect of the happening, laying a mission of political reformers on the radical artists."

"Choose your gender, at first" V.Khan-Magomedova
"Artists too have run into politics. Soon, there won't be individuals--only parties: My Party, Your Party. But will it improve our life? We are on the threshold of a total "partization of the country."
"A wrench is a choice of a young generation"
"Commersant - Daily" 01.06.95

"Extremists, as usual, demanded decisive actions. The leader of young anarchists Dmitrii Petrov staggered with a wrench. It was not clear, however, whether he called for unscrewing nuts or screwing them. Opportunists changed their orientation on the march. (Anatolii Ovsiopovskii from the "Panic" Movement joined anarchists opportunely-- which can be regarded as an artistic treason in every respect). The results of the poll can be forecasted: aggressive reality will win, aggressive artistry will fail. A real, wrench, not utopian fantasy, is a choice of a new tribe. Neither side thinks about the burden of power. And that unites them."
"Marat Guelman, the gallery curator whose artistic projects are as sharp as newspapers headlines, couldn't fail to respond to the currently fashionable theme of the forthcoming elections. A show-competition that he organized at the Polytechnic Museum was entitled "A Turn-Key Party". A vacant package of registration documents was offered to the attention of the audience. A competitor who would have won after his appearance in public, subsequent debates and a ballot, winding-up the show, would have become the owner of the package. It could have been a leader of a Movement or a Party. A prize package was real. This was not the case with the majority of the competitors who, side by side with artistic projects, showed off exclusively themselves, their mania and phobia (it has become appropriate to demonstrate these ailments not only at closed in-patient departments)."