
Cosmic Shift
Russian Contemporary Art Writing
Ilya KabakovEmilia KabakovBoris GroysPavel PeppersteinDmitri PrigovAnton VidokleAndrey MonastyrskyArseny Zhilyaev(Author)
Elena Zaytseva(Editor)
Zed Books Ltd (Publisher)
Published on 5. October 2017
Book
Paperback/Softback
536 pages
978-1-78699-324-3 (ISBN)
Description
A TLS Book of the Year 2017
In this, the first anthology of Russian contemporary art writing to be published outside Russia, many of the country's most prominent contemporary artists, writers, philosophers, curators and historians come together to examine the region's contemporary art, culture and and theory.
With contributions from Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Boris Groys, Dmitri Prigov, Anton Vidokle, Keti Chukhrov, Oxana Timofeeva, Pavel Pepperstein, Arseny Zhilyaev and Masha Sumnina amongst many others, this definitive collection reveals a compelling portrait of a vibrant and complex culture: one built on a contradicting dialectic between the material and the ideal, and battling its own histories and ideologies.
In this, the first anthology of Russian contemporary art writing to be published outside Russia, many of the country's most prominent contemporary artists, writers, philosophers, curators and historians come together to examine the region's contemporary art, culture and and theory.
With contributions from Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Boris Groys, Dmitri Prigov, Anton Vidokle, Keti Chukhrov, Oxana Timofeeva, Pavel Pepperstein, Arseny Zhilyaev and Masha Sumnina amongst many others, this definitive collection reveals a compelling portrait of a vibrant and complex culture: one built on a contradicting dialectic between the material and the ideal, and battling its own histories and ideologies.
Reviews / Votes
Fascinating ... packed with original essays, projects and even conceptual fiction. * TLS Book of the Year 2017 * With contributions from an impressive list of artists, curators, theorists and historians, this book offers an incredible insight into not only contemporary writing on Russian art but writing as art in Russia. * Adrian George, previously curator at Tate, and author of The Curator's Handbook * Fascinating! More proof of the continued vibrancy of Russian art: modern, postmodern or cosmic, despite the fringe ideas increasingly becoming mainstream. * Alena Ledeneva, Director, UCL FRINGE Centre * An excellent initiative to shed light in the English speaking world on Russian writing about and by contemporary artists. It will help give them a broader audience and spark important cross-cultural debate. * Andrew Jack, journalist for the Financial Times * A fascinating collection of essays, full of stimulating paradoxes, which perfectly reflects the intensity of debate on the contemporary Russian art scene, as precarious in everyday life as it is majestic in its cosmic dreams. * Ekaterina Degot, Alexander Rodchenko School of Photography and New Media, Moscow * Zaytseva and Anikina's comprehensive anthology illuminates the constellation of Russian art across realism and fantasy, Communism and Cosmism, orthodoxy and perpetual revolution. * Gilda Williams, author of How to Write about Contemporary Art * Theory and practice are brought together with clarity and conviction in this powerful selection of aesthetic statements. * John Bowlt, Director, Institute of Modern Russian Culture * Long overdue, this anthology is the first to reveal the idiosyncratic and singular perspectives of leading contemporary artists from Russia. Together, the texts offer a portrait of creative resistance from what Bart de Baere calls "the virtually invisible center of the world". * Kate Fowle, Chief Curator, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow * Cosmism is the lure, when a revived mysticism is the order of the day. But this collection is more energetically eclectic than that. It provides a window into three generations of artists and critics - Soviet, Post-Soviet, and today. * Peter Osborne, author of Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
With flaps
Illustrations
Halftones, black and white 38
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 154 mm
Thickness: 42 mm
Weight
720 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78699-324-3 (9781786993243)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
10/2017
1st Edition
Zed Books Ltd
€27.49
Available for download

E-Book
10/2017
1st Edition
Zed Books Ltd
€27.49
Available for download
Persons
Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Russian-born, US-based conceptual artists known for their pioneering large-scale environments and installations. Andrey Monastyrsky, who along with Illya Kabakov, pioneered the Moscow Conceptualism movement. Boris Groys, art critic, media theorist, and philosopher. Bart De Baere, Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Antwerp. Pavel Pepperstein, prominent author, painter and film maker. Dmitri Prigov, famous dissident writer and artist who died in 2007. Anton Vidokle, founder of e-flux. Arseny Zhilyaev, artist and author.
Content
Foreword - Bart De Baere
Acknowledgments - Elena Zaytseva and Alex Anikina
Introduction - Elena Zaytseva
Part One - Past futures
1.The nomadic theater of the communist - Keti Chukhrov
2.The center of cosmic energy - Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
3.The truth of art - Boris Groys
4.VDNKh, the capital of the world - Andrey Monastyrsky
5.The Communist Revolution was caused by the Sun - Anton Vidokle
Part Two - Inherited aesthetics
6.History of angels - Joseph Backstein
7.Concerning abstractionism - Dmitry Gutov and Anatoly Osmolovsky
8. Screens - Olga Chernysheva
9.Two manifestos - Dmitry Prigov
10.The form of art as mediation - Maria Chehonadskih
11.Soviet communism and the paradox of alienation - Artemy Magun
12.The Russian avant-garde as an uncontrollable beast- Alexander Brener
Part Three - From the archive
13. Author, cosmos, archive - Vadim Zakharov
14. A binary system - Bogdan Mamonov
15. You can call him another man - Maria Kapajeva
16. Running to the nest - Andrey Kuzkin
17. Brink, kerbside, fence, margin - Masha Sumnina
Part Four - Russia, today
18.A heritage without an heir - Ilya Budraitskis
19.Krisis - Dmitry Venkov
20.Questions without answers, answers without questions - Gleb Napreenko
21.The Utopian Union of the Unemployed - Gluklya (Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya)
22.Chto Delat? and method - Dmitry Vilensky
23.Weakness - Yevgeny Granilshchikov
Part Five - Future futures
24.Ultra black - Oxana Timofeeva
25.Demand full automation of contemporary art - Arseny Zhilyaev
26.The Antichthon - Alex Anikina
27.I want to be afraid of the forest - Ivan Novikov
28.The skyscraper-cleaner pine marten - Pavel Pepperstein
About the contributors
Text credits
Image credits
Index
Acknowledgments - Elena Zaytseva and Alex Anikina
Introduction - Elena Zaytseva
Part One - Past futures
1.The nomadic theater of the communist - Keti Chukhrov
2.The center of cosmic energy - Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
3.The truth of art - Boris Groys
4.VDNKh, the capital of the world - Andrey Monastyrsky
5.The Communist Revolution was caused by the Sun - Anton Vidokle
Part Two - Inherited aesthetics
6.History of angels - Joseph Backstein
7.Concerning abstractionism - Dmitry Gutov and Anatoly Osmolovsky
8. Screens - Olga Chernysheva
9.Two manifestos - Dmitry Prigov
10.The form of art as mediation - Maria Chehonadskih
11.Soviet communism and the paradox of alienation - Artemy Magun
12.The Russian avant-garde as an uncontrollable beast- Alexander Brener
Part Three - From the archive
13. Author, cosmos, archive - Vadim Zakharov
14. A binary system - Bogdan Mamonov
15. You can call him another man - Maria Kapajeva
16. Running to the nest - Andrey Kuzkin
17. Brink, kerbside, fence, margin - Masha Sumnina
Part Four - Russia, today
18.A heritage without an heir - Ilya Budraitskis
19.Krisis - Dmitry Venkov
20.Questions without answers, answers without questions - Gleb Napreenko
21.The Utopian Union of the Unemployed - Gluklya (Natalia Pershina-Yakimanskaya)
22.Chto Delat? and method - Dmitry Vilensky
23.Weakness - Yevgeny Granilshchikov
Part Five - Future futures
24.Ultra black - Oxana Timofeeva
25.Demand full automation of contemporary art - Arseny Zhilyaev
26.The Antichthon - Alex Anikina
27.I want to be afraid of the forest - Ivan Novikov
28.The skyscraper-cleaner pine marten - Pavel Pepperstein
About the contributors
Text credits
Image credits
Index