Moscow Conceptualism 1975 1985

Author : Olga Zaikina
Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.:/5 (133 download)

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Download or read book Art in the Late Soviet Apartment written by Olga Zaikina and published by . This book was released on 2022 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Late Soviet underground art evolved without access to public exhibition spaces, public audience or independent criticism. Those roles were played by the artists themselves, while the spaces were commonly provided by their private apartments. It was often there that art was produced, displayed, discussed and stored. This dissertation examines the stakes of such commingling of art and domestic space. In particular, it focuses on the role of materiality (in this case, domestic materiality) in Moscow Conceptualism by examining its many forms and aspects, such as the materials of artworks, the material context in which they operated, and the bodily aspect of art interaction. By doing so, this dissertation attempts to introduce Moscow Conceptualism to the scholarly debates about the role of materiality in Conceptual art. The study argues that Moscow Conceptualism reveals an original model of dealing with material objects grounded in socialist materiality, and therefore provides us with new lenses for looking at the presumably "dematerialized" world of conceptualism. The dissertation focuses on the case study of Andrei Monastyrski, one of the leaders of Moscow Conceptualism, whose art, as this study claims, demonstrates a particular interest in the material aspect of late Soviet everyday life. The discussion presents three art projects produced by Monastyrski in 1975-1985, that is a series of artist's books, a series of interactive art objects, and a series of actions conducted in his private apartment. Rather than assuming an artist's apartment as a necessary escape place which confers on it a problematic nature of an independent island of freedom, this study approaches the late Soviet private apartment and its domestic materiality as both a part of the ideological discourse and an integral component of unofficial art making. By employing an interdisciplinary approach, the study analyzes Monastyrski's art series in relation to the normative practices of late Soviet everyday life, such as reading at home, writing a diary, engaging in routine domestic activities, gathering with friends and talking. Such contextualization allows to bring forward Monastyrski's strategies of dismantling the official narratives about the ideal Soviet person. By focusing on the interactivity of Monastyrski's art projects, the dissertation brings forward the viewers' emotional, sensory and cognitive responses to artworks which tested the affective power of socialist things and spaces, developed already in the early Soviet discourse on art and material culture.