Room to Vroom
Aaron Young Takes His Motorcycle Performance Art to Moscow
For his no-expenses-spared dinner in Moscow on Wednesday night, blue-chip art dealer Larry Gagosian flanked the walls of the historic Red October Chocolate Factory with 70 of his most impressive works (a Jeff Koons sculpture here, a handful of large-scale Cy Twomblys there). But the evening's star attraction was Aaron Young's quasi-legendary motorcycle performance piece, which this time involved eight Eastern Bloc Hells Angels. "Not a bad night for me," smiled Young as he surveyed the blackened and track-marked canvas that will be sold in multiple pieces. "I just made a million paintings in like five minutes. Actually, in exactly seven minutes."
After the exhaust fumes had cleared, guests like Leelee Sobieski, Yvonne Force Villareal, and Takashi Murakami tucked into a traditional Russian dinner. "Russian because there's one bottle of vodka per person," collector Jean Pigozzi pointed out. The fête marked the end of a sort of unofficial week-long art fest, which, despite economic woes back home, had been stuffed to the gills with New York art and society types. Said Rolling Stones concert promoter Ron Delsener in an impromptu speech during dinner: "The Americans sure are f---ing up Moscow now!"
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