Abstract

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.

‘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

‘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

‘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

‘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

‘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

‘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

‘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

‘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

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.