english version art without eath: russian osmism fedorov, michael hagemeister, andrey platonov and...

English Version

Art without Death: Russian Cosmism

Exhibition & Conference September 1 – October 3, 2017

Press Tour: August 31, 2017, 5pm

Opening: August 31, 2017, 7pm

As of: August 31, 2017 Subject to change

Press Release

Press contact: Anne Maier, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, Phone +49 30 397 87-153, Fax +49 30 3948679, [email protected], www.hkw.de

Art Without Death: Russian Cosmism Exhibition, conference Exhibition: Sep 1 – Oct 3, 2017 Conference: Sep 1 and 2, 2017 Book Launch: Oct 1, 2017, 3 pm Opening: Thu Aug 31, 2017, 7pm Press tour: Thu Aug 31, 2017, 5pm

Berlin, August 31, 2017

Russian Cosmism was a movement that called for material immortality and resurrection, as well as travel to outer space. It developed out of the spirituality of nineteenth-century Russia and a strong fascination with science and technology. The doctrine of immortal life in infinite space captured the optimism of both science and the arts at the time. Since then, the utopian, science fiction-like thinking of the cosmists had a great influence on art, science, and politics in both pre-revolutionary and Soviet Russia. Looking at it today, Russian Cosmism, although suppressed by official Soviet ideology, opens up new perspectives on the Russian avant-garde as well as the ideology and politics of Russia to the present day. For example, in his influential writings, Nikolai Fedorov (1829‒1903) demanded that the ultimate goal of technology must be to overcome death; all people who had ever lived on Earth must be brought back to life. The cosmists were also visionary pioneers of space travel. For Fedorov, for instance, the colonization of other planets would be the inevitable consequence of the lack of space after the resurrection of the dead. The institution of the museum also played a central role in Russian Cosmism, as the remains needed for the resurrection of individuals would have to be preserved there. Fedorov, like the painter and founder of Suprematism Kazimir Malevich, believed that after the death of God, the museum would be the only place where a transhistorical union beyond the grave was possible. Art Without Death delves into Russian Cosmism—its philosophical, scientific, artistic concepts and ideas—by intertwining historical material and contemporary contributions. An exhibition shows the three-part film project Immortality for All! (2014–17) by Anton Vidokle in an architectural structure inspired by Muslim cemeteries in Kazakhstan—where specific film scenes were shot—and Lenin’s mausoleum on the Red Square. The exhibition design by Nikolaus Hirsch and Michel Müller is based on an idea by Hito Steyerl. The third part of the trilogy, an extensive research project shot all over the former Soviet Union, will premiere at Art Without Death. The exhibition Cosmic Imagination: Artists of the Russian Avant-Garde features historical works by the Russian avant-garde from the George Costakis collection (Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art – Costakis Collection Thessaloniki), the largest collection of Russian avant-garde art outside Russia. These works—selected by philosopher and art theorist Boris Groys—are inspired by the projects of the Utopian biopolitics of immortality, enabling re-readings against their Cosmist backdrop that have often been overlooked. Arseny Zhilyaev’s volumetric artwork Intergalactic Mobile Fedorov Museum-Library, Berlin, 2017—a functional library as well as an installation—compiles a wide range of key publications on Russian Cosmist thought, science, poetry, and fiction under the influence of blood-circulation-improving therapeutic lamps based on a technology by biophysicist Alexander Chizhevsky.

Press Release

Press contact: Anne Maier, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, Phone +49 30 397 87-153, Fax +49 30 3948679, [email protected], www.hkw.de

With works by Vassily Chekrygin, Ksenia Ender, Maria Ender, Ivan Kliun, Gustav Klutsis, Ivan Kudriashev, Solomon Nikritin, Kliment Redko, Aleksandr Rodchenko, Olga Rozanova & Aleksei Kruchenykh, Anton Vidokle and Arseny Zhilyaev. Exhibition design by Nikolaus Hirsch & Michel Müller. A conference on September 1 to 2 will explore the current relevance of Cosmism: on the threshold between anthropocentrism and materialism, this movement appears relevant again 100 years after the Russian Revolution. With contributions by Robert Bird, Angeliki Charistou, Maria Chehonadskih, Svetlana Cheloukhina, Keti Chukhrov, Anastasia Gacheva, Michael Hagemeister, Trevor Paglen, Alexei Penzin, Marina Simakova, Hito Steyerl, and others. Free admission, registration appreciated: [email protected] A comprehensive volume, Art Without Death: Conversations on Russian Cosmism with Franco (Bifo) Berardi, Boris Groys, Marina Simakova, Hito Steyerl, Anton Vidokle, Arseny Zhilyaev and many more will be published in September 2017 by Sternberg Press. Book Launch: Sunday, October 1, 3 pm with a conversation between Inke Arns, Jörg Heiser and Anton Vidokle. Kosmismus, the 10th volume of the HKW book series Bibliothek 100 Jahre Gegenwart (Matthes & Seitz Berlin) will be released in German language in March 2018, edited by Boris Groys and Anton Vidokle. With historical and contemporary texts on the subject of Cosmism by Aleksander A. Bogdanov, Nikolai Fedorov, Michael Hagemeister, Andrey Platonov and Arseny Zhilyaev, among others. Art Without Death: Russian Cosmism is part of 100 Years of Now. 100 Years of Now is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media due to a ruling of the German Bundestag. Haus der Kulturen der Welt is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as well as by the Federal Foreign Office.

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Biographies

Pressekontakt: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Anne Maier, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, Fon +49 30 397 87-153, Fax +49 30 3948679, [email protected], www.hkw.de

Anton Vidokle is an artist and editor of e-flux journal. He was born in Moscow and lives in New York and Berlin. Vidokle’s work has been exhibited internationally at dOCUMENTA 13 and at the 56th Venice Biennale. His films have been presented at Bergen Assembly; Shanghai Biennale; the 65th and 66th Berlinale International Film Festival’s Forum Expanded; Gwangju Biennale; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; Garage Museum, Moscow; Istanbul Biennial, among others.

Boris Groys is a philosopher, essayist, and media theorist. Having taught in Philadelphia, Mu nster, and Los Angeles, he became in 1994 Professor of Art History, Philosophy and Media Theory at the Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design. In 2009, he was appointed Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University. He has published widely on the subject of the Russian Avant-Garde and was curator, with Max Hollein, of the exhibition Dream Factory Communism at Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt in 2003/04. In 2005, he and Michael Hagemeister published Die neue Menschheit in which the principal texts of the Russian Cosmists were made available in the German language.

Arseny Zhilyaev is an artist based in Moscow. In recent works he has examined the legacy of Soviet museology and the museum in Russian Cosmism. Among others, he has published articles in e-flux journal. Zhilyaev is editor of Avant-Garde Museology (2015). His works have been shown at the Gwangju Biennale, Liverpool Biennale, and at the Ljubljana Triennale (2016) as well as at exhibitions including at the Centre Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo, Paris; de Appel, Amsterdam; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris and San Francisco; and at the V-A-C Foundation in Moscow.

Art Without Death

Conference – abstracts and speakers

Press Contact: Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Anne Maier, John-Foster-Dulles-Allee 10, 10557 Berlin, Fon +49 30 397 87-153, Fax +49 30 3948679, [email protected], www.hkw.de

Friday, September 1 5–6pm Presentation Becoming Cosmic Boris Groys EN → DE 6.30–9pm Presentations and Discussion Nikolai Fedorov and his Project of the “Common Task” Michael Hagemeister EN → DE, RU Anastasia Gacheva RU → DE, EN Angeliki Charistou EN → DE, RU Moderated by Margarete Vöhringer Saturday, September 2 11am–1.30pm Presentations and Discussion Cosmic Themes in Early Soviet Culture Robert Bird, Maria Chehonadskih, Svetlana Cheloukhina Moderated by Anne Luther EN → DE, RU 2.30–5pm Presentations and Discussion Cosmism and Social Progress Marina Simakova, Alexei Penzin, Keti Chukhrov Moderated by Margarete Vöhringer EN → DE, RU 6-8.30pm Presentations, Artist Talk, and Discussion Cosmism, Universalism, Contemporary Art Arseny Zhilyaev, Trevor Paglen Anton Vidokle in conversation with Hito Steyerl Moderated by Anselm Franke EN → DE, RU All events will be simultaneously translated into German. Headphones are available outside of the Vortragsaal. The exhibition Art Without Death: Russian Cosmism will remain open until 10pm on both conference days.

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Fri, September 1, 2017 5-6pm Presentation Becoming Cosmic Boris Groys Departing from mankind’s dependence on and anxiety of uncontrollable and contingent cosmic events, Russian Cosmism presented itself as the embracing of our cosmic constitution. This "embracing" was not realized through a belief in higher spirits or the grace of God, but rather through a radical atheism, founded on secularization by means of technology and social organization, similar to the Communist project. In his presentation, Groys points to the differences between a genuinely Russian Cosmism and Western Marxist tradition as well as the nihilistic Russian avant-garde and the exceeding of the cosmist theory into the realms of immortality and resurrection. Russian Cosmism – with the notion of vitalism and life at its core – is precisely not a strange and exotic phenomenon of pre-revolutionary thought, but instead belongs to the mainstream of Modern thinking. Groys’ presentation looks at the various philosophical and historical contexts and groundings of Cosmism and the manifestations of its equation of art and politics, life and technology, state and museum; from Fedorov’s “Philosophy of the Common Task”, Russian Biocosmist Anarchism, the idea of the Human as Artwork, and the Institute for Blood Transfusion to Tsiolkovsky’s space travel research. Boris Groys Philosopher, Essayist and Media Theorist Professor of Art History, Philosophy and Media Theory, University of Arts and Design Karlsruhe Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies, New York University

6.30-9pm Presentations and Discussion Nikolai Fedorov and his Project of the “Common Task” with Angeliki Charistou, Anastasia Gacheva, Michael Hagemeister, moderated by Margarete Vöhringer Anastasia Gacheva Overcoming Death through Art: From Nikolai Fedorov to the Cosmists of the 1920s One of Russian cosmism’s main motifs – immortality – is manifested in its aesthetics. Fedorov and his successors assumed that art is the product of “the son’s grief over his father’s death” and can thus be understood as the attempt of an “imaginary resurrection.” This explains why they turned real innovation and transformation into the “art of the future.” Cosmist thinkers thus perceived human beings as both creative subjects and as objects subjugated to artistic energies. They replaced the “art of the image” with a new “art of reality,” insisting that the laws of artistic creation should be transformed into actual laws of reality. For them, human creative practices would not only defeat entropy and death, they would also lead to the spiritualization of matter and finally to the triumph

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of beauty in all realms of the natural universe. Cosmists further argued that the shift to a harmonious synthetic practice, which would be both artistic and hold the power to newly rearrange the world, demanded a close intertwining of art and science. It is for this reason that they introduced the idea of an theoanthropological art, in which Godly and human creative energies would together restore the world to the condition of “immortal glory” that it had been in previous to its decay. Anastasia Gacheva Philologist, Research Assistant at The Institute for World Literature A.M. Gorki, Russian Academy of Sciences Moscow

Michael Hagemeister Nikolai Fedorov’s Project of Universal Salvation and “Russian Cosmism” In his Philosophy of the Common Task (1906/1913) Nikolai Fedorov, who is today considered a founder of Russian Cosmism, appeals to the living to work towards overcoming death with the help of scientific and technical means, and resurrect all dead ancestors. For him, the paradise in this world can only be reached at the moment when all human beings are united in space and time. Only then can the aporia inherent in all other theories of progress and salvation, namely the inevitable presence of “the doomed” and the “victims of history,” be eliminated. And yet a comparison with Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, another prominent representative of Russian Cosmism, shows that their ‘solution’ to the problem of death remained incompatible. This raises the question whether Cosmism did really exist at all. Hagemeister’s presentation will reveal that it is a hybrid ideological construct that originated in the late Soviet period and has fed into a nationalist discourse about Russian identity in post-Soviet Russia. Michael Hagemeister Historian and Slavic Scholar Chair of East European History, University of Bochum

Angeliki Charistou The Philosophy of the Common Task and the way to Non-Objectivity: Concepts of time and space

Nikolai Fedorov’s Philosophy of the Common Task draws upon Christianity, proposing contemporary means to fulfill the ultimate end: the resurrection of the dead and the continuation of humanity’s course on the principles of kinship, solidarity, and love. Fedorov understood the achievement of an intellectual level that would enable mankind to accomplish these scientific and technological advances as the utmost duty of mankind. His ideas culminated, however, in two major challenges: bringing back the dead and achieving immortality would first of all imply the merging of past, present and future and thus a fundamental shift in the notion of time. Secondly, the relevance of space becomes evident for practical reasons: the earth would no longer sufficiently accommodate the resurrected, the living, and future generations all together, which is why the infinite cosmos must be explored, conquered and colonized. For this reason, the Common Task demands humankind not only to transform itself internally, but also to reconfigure its relation to nature as well as the conditions of its own physical presence in it. Charistou will explore these notions of time and space as well as the idea of Fedorov’s New Man in an attempt to identify the consistencies of his philosophy and artistic concepts of the Russian avant-garde. Angeliki Charistou Art Historian and Curator Curator of the Costakis Collection, State Museum of Contemporary Art, Thessaloniki

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Sat, September 2, 2017 11-1.30pm Presentations and Discussion Cosmic Themes in Early Soviet Culture with Robert Bird, Maria Chehonadskih, Svetlana Cheloukhina, moderated by Anne Luther Robert Bird How to Keep Communism Aloft: Labor, Energy and the Model Cosmos in Soviet Cinema Under Stalin the strong Cosmism of the 1920s ceded to softer, more mediated forms which imagined a world of transformed natural laws that Maxim Gorky called “second nature” and Nikolai Bukharin described as a “technological revolution.” Across many disciplines Soviet discourse placed particular emphasis on modeling mechanisms that would surpass the limits of classical mechanics and physical labor. Through such films as Cosmic Voyage the presentation will show how socialist realism served as a site where Soviet artists used scale models to confront the power and limits of modeling. Bird will also consider later engagements with modeling in Soviet cybernetics, semiotics, and installation art (e.g. Francisco Infante-Arana and Ilya Kabakov). Robert Bird Literary and Slavic Scholar Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures, Cinema and Media Studies, University of Chicago

Maria Chehonadskih The Stofflichkeit of the Universe: Alexander Bogdanov and the Soviet Avant-garde The Soviet avant-garde proposed a set of interrelated but contradictory concepts, among them construction, tectonics, production, montage of life, and life-building. These concepts all refer to what would normally be treated as attributes of the formal method in the arts or related to a theory of social constructivism. And yet confusion arises from their false genealogical lineage: what has to be accounted for, and is normally ignored, is the foundation of these concepts Empirio-Marxism and the philosophy of Alexander Bogdanov. The presentation will focus on the theory of organization, which Alexander Bogdanov and Andrey Platonov developed. In doing so, it also introduces the concept of veshchestvo (which translates as ‘stuff’ or, in German, as ‘Stoff’ and ‘Stofflichkeit’) and of life-building. It is in this context that it also refers to an operational logic of division and to the combination of the universe’s elements into complexes and bodies. The organisation of perception into the life-building complex assumes the constructive and constitutive means of an art form that not only changes, but also shapes the form of social being. When perceived as an organizing principle of things, relations and people, material culture replaces the concept of art. Maria Chehonadskih Philosopher and Critic Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy, Kingston University London

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Svetlana Cheloukhina Nikolai Zabolotsky’s Nature-Philosophical Poetry and Russian Cosmism Nikolai Zabolotsky (1903-1958), stylistically an original poet and an insightful philosopher, expressed his understanding of Naturphilosophie in a poetic idiom. Throughout his entire literary career, he was engaged in a continuous search for a solution to the questions of life and death, man’s mission in transforming earthly Nature, man’s place in the Universe, and achieving man’s immortality. Zabolotsky’s philosophical ideas reveal the depth of his intellectual concentration and display his vision of various problems concerning Russia and humanity, outlining his views on the physical, spiritual and social sides of man’s existence. An affinity of Zabolotsky’s concepts with those of Russian cosmism allows us to consider him its representative. Svetlana Cheloukhina Associate Professor and Coordinator of the Russian Program, Queens College, City University of New York 2.30-5pm Presentations and Discussion Cosmism and Social Progress with Keti Chukhrov, Alexei Penzin, Marina Simakova, moderated by Margarete Vöhringer Marina Simakova

Russian Cosmism: A Foretaste of Revolution On the threshold of an era of accelerated progress and war, the founding father of Russian Cosmism, Nikolai Fedorov, confronted the future with the idea of conquering death. Why did this idea become a major aspiration for him and how is it related to his social and ethical views? Drawing on key questions debated by radical theorists, it is possible today to revisit Fedorov’s philosophy and explore its critical potential. Bringing to light the subversive grounds of Fedorov’s philosophical heritage, Simakova elucidates the political significance of Cosmist ideas and observes intimations that have ultimately led to political upheaval. Marina Simakova Cultural Critic PhD candidate, Department of Political Science and Sociology, European University Saint Petersburg

Alexei Penzin Contingency and Necessity in Evald Ilyenkov’s Communist Cosmology Evald Ilyenkov’s A Cosmology of the Spirit was written in the 1950s, but only published posthumously in the 1980s because it was too heretical to be published in the author’s lifetime. The text was heretical not because it criticized the Soviet Union, but because of its enormous speculative drive. Addressing the physicist idea of the “entropic death of the universe” and using a combination of Hegelian dialectics and Spinoza’s concept of attribute, Ilyenkov claimed that thought is a necessary attribute of matter. Not only it

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is able to prevent the terminal entropy of the universe, it can also re-launch its nuclear reactions in a final self-sacrificial explosion. For Ilyenkov, communism was the necessary political condition for the achievement of fully developed power of thought, embodied in science and technologies, and, consequently, for the re-launch of the universe and the prevention of its otherwise irreversible collapse. The presentation will further explore the contexts of A Cosmology of the Spirit and rethink it in view of today's debates. Penzin uses the ideas of Ilyenkov’s cosmology in order to critically address contemporary currents of “speculative” philosophy that are completely devoid of communist “drive.” Alexei Penzin Philosopher and Author Teacher at Wolverhampton School of Arts Member of the collective Chto Delat (“What is to be done?”)

Keti Chukhrov Anagogy in Cosmism and Communism It appears paradoxical that today’s emancipatory theories return to geophysics of one single planet, and thus also to the Ptolemaic conception of the world that emerged only a few centuries after the Copernican turn. The emancipation of humankind in the end demands its own fall, its complete self-annihilation. It seems as if Dante’s descent into hell was written on behalf of sinners, and not Dante himself. This obsession with the descent can certainly be defined as a syndrome of the capitalist condition. Meanwhile in Russian, cosmism was under way: the cosmological dimension of the universe only confirmed the human condition and its expanded social imaginaries. It urges us to compose a nuova, imperishable vita, and expand its consciousness. In almost in all texts that touch upon the issue of cosmology – from the 19th century to Ilyenkov’s A Cosmology of the Spirit in the 1950s – the conviction in the common good rests on the human capacity to incessant expediency and ascent. In her paper, Chukhrov will discuss why the communist condition would have been impossible without this anagogical orientation. Keti Chukhrov Art Theorist and Philosopher Associate professor, Department of Cultural Theory, Higher School of Economics, Moscow Head of the Theory Department, National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow 6-8.30pm Presentations and discussion Cosmism, Universalism, Contemporary Art with Trevor Paglen and Arseny Zhilyaev, Anton Vidokle in conversation with Hito Steyerl, moderated by Anselm Franke

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Arseny Zhilyaev Optimists of the Future Past Perfect In his presentation, Areseny Zhilyaev uses Leo Trotsky's classification of the optimist in order to trace the appearance of infinity as one of capitalism's promises. On the one hand, potentially endless economic growth opened the vices of repeated circles of the peasant's ordinary life. On the other, it became strictly optimized by the needs of the current time. As a result Candide appeared to be an absolute optimist of the eternal present in the best of possible worlds This is why only the Marxist plan, when supported by the revolutionary and the future optimist, can fulfill the initial capitalistic promise of infinity with help of a more rational optimization of production relations. Yet for Cosmist philosophers - who thought of the Bolshevik revolution as not revolutionary enough – this transformation did not get to the "subsoil of life". They argued that only a common conscious effort of mankind would conquer time by means of its scientific organisation and thus return all transfigured victims of the past. This event would complete the quest for infinity and explain the figure of the optimist as an optimist of a “future past perfect”. Arseny Zhilyaev Artist Exhibitions i.a. at Liverpool Biennale, Triennale Ljubljana, Centre Pompidou, Palais de Tokyo, De Appel Amsterdam, Kadist Art Foundation Paris/San Francisco, V-A-C Foundation, Moscow Contributor to e-flux Journal

Trevor Paglen Presentation In his talk, Trevor Paglen will conduct a brief practical evaluation of the relationship between space, time, and epistemology in the philosophy of Nikolai Fedorov and the philosopher’s influence on some of his own work. Paglen’s aim is to illuminate the potential of Fedorov’s ideas for re-imagining political and epistemological frameworks, while nonetheless pointing out the difficulties and invalidities of Fedorov’s overall project. Trevor Paglen Artist and Writer Exhibitions i.a. at Wiener Secession, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Tate Modern Publications on experimental geography, state secrecy, symbolism and photography (i.a.)

Anton Vidokle in conversation with Hito Steyerl, moderated by Anselm Franke Immortality for All! Hito Steyerl and Anton Vidokle discuss the film trilogy Immortality for All!, in which artist Anton Vidokle probes Cosmism’s influence on the twentieth century and suggests its relevance to the present day. In Part One he returns to the foundations of Cosmist thought (This Is Cosmos, 2014). Part Two explores the links between cosmology and politics (The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun, 2015) and Part Three restages the museum as a site of resurrection, a central Cosmist idea (Immortality and

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Resurrection for All!, 2017). Combining essay, documentary, and performance, Vidokle quotes from the writings of Cosmism’s founder Nikolai Fedorov and other philosophers and poets. Anton Vidokle Artist and Editor Exhibitions a.o. documenta 13, 56. Kunstbiennale Venedig, Bergen Assembly, Shanghai Biennale, Forum Expanded 65. und 66. Berlinale, Gwangju Biennale, Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, Istanbul Biennale Founder of e-flux Journal Hito Steyerl Artist, Filmmaker and Essayist Professor for experimental film and video, University of the Arts Berlin Exhibitions i.a. at Biennale in Venedig, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museum of Modern Art New York

Anselm Franke Curator and author Head of the Department of Visual Arts and Film at Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW) since 2013 Exhibitions as co-curator at HKW: Nervous Systems (2016), Ape Culture (2015), Forensis (2014), The Anthropocene Project (2013–14) and the exhibitions The Whole Earth and After Year Zero (both 2013), among others. In 2012 he co-curated the Taipei Biennial. Animism (2010-2014) in Antwerp, Bern, Vienna, Berlin, New York, Shenzhen, Seoul, and Beirut in various collaborations

Art Without Death: Russian Cosmism

Costakis Collection


George Costakis was born in Moscow in June 1913. His father was a merchant from the Greek island of Zante, who had settled in Moscow with his family. Costakis spent most of his life in Moscow working as a driver in the Greek Embassy until 1939. In 1939, when Greece broke off diplomatic relations with USSR because of the II World War, he spent three years working for the Finnish Embassy, after which he moved to the Canadian Embassy. In the context of his professional tasks he was asked to escort foreign diplomats around antique shops, and this was his first contact with the world of art. From 1946 onwards, Costakis began to collect Russian avant-garde paintings from the first decades of the 20th century, in a period of time when everybody rejected this kind of art, which was hidden and forbidden. He aquired most of his paintings straightly through the artists themselves or their relatives. He possessed an unrivalled collection of Russian avant-garde works, in which it is possible to trace the entire history of art in early twentieth-century Russia. From the 1960’s he gradually opened his collection to visitors. Foreign diplomats, journalists and intellectuals who traveled in Moscow visited Costakis’ apartment. A decade after, Costakis’ reputation spread abroad. He was invited to United States to hold a series of lectures on the Russian avant-garde and famous museums started asking for loans from his collection in order to enrich their exhibitions on European avant-garde movements. On his retirement in 1977, he left the Soviet Union and settled in Greece, donating a great part of his collection to the Tretiakov Gallery. The first exhibition of his works, accompanied with a catalogue, took place in Düsseldorf in 1977, some months before his settlement in Athens. He died in Athens in 1990. At the end of the 1990’s, the Greek State purchased the collection and installed it in its own museum, the State Museum of Contemporary Art. Source: Light and Colour in the Russian Avant-Garde. The Costakis Collection from the State Museum of Contemporary Art Thessaloniki, Martin-Gropius-Bau Berlin, November 3, 2004 – January 10, 2005

Service Info and Media Material


Art without Death: Russian Cosmism Exhibition, conference September 1‒October 3, 2017 Opening: August 31, 2017, 7pm Opening hours: Wed – Mon and holidays, 11am – 7pm Admission 7€ / 5€, Mondays and U16 free admission Guided tours: 3€ plus exhibition ticket Sep 3, 3pm with Boris Groys, Anton Vidokle & Arseny Zhilyaev (in English) Sep 10, 3pm in English Sep 17, 3pm in German Sep 24, 3pm in German

Conference: Fri, Sep 1, 5-9pm Sat, Sep 2, 11-8.30pm Free admission, Registration appreciated: [email protected] German/English/Russian Audio Livestream: Livestreams of the conference sessions on Voicerepublic www.voicerepublic.com Video documentation: All lectures of the conference as well as the finale round table with Trevor Paglen, Hito Steyerl, Anton Vidokle, Arseny Zhilyaev will be filmed and will be available from around Sep 14, 2017 in the HKW Mediathek: www.hkw.de/en/mediathek Book Launch: Art without Death: Conversations on Russian Cosmism (Sternberg Press) with Inke Arns, Jo rg Heiser & Anton Vidokle Sunday October 1 | 3pm Free admission For general press information and to download Press kit: www.hkw.de/press Press photos are available for download: www.hkw.de/pressphotos Photos of the opening will be available as of September 1, 2017: www.hkw.de/pressphotos Further images upon request Further information can be found daily at www.hkw.de/en Facebook: www.facebook.com/hkw.de Twitter: www.twitter.com/hkw_berlin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hkw_berlin/ #Artwithoutdeath

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Films: Intro und Synopsis


Immortality for All: a film trilogy on Russian Cosmism by Anton Vidokle Today the Russian philosophy known as Cosmism has been largely forgotten. Its utopian tenets – combining Western Enlightenment with Eastern philosophy, Russian Orthodox traditions with Marxism – inspired many key Soviet thinkers, until they fell victim to Stalinist repression. In this three-part film project, artist Anton Vidokle probes Cosmism’s influence on the twentieth century and suggests its relevance to the present day. In Part One he returns to the foundations of Cosmist thought (This Is Cosmos, 2014). Part Two explores the links between cosmology and politics (The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun, 2015) and Part Three restages the museum as a site of resurrection, a central Cosmist idea (Immortality and Resurrection for All!, 2017). Combining essay, documentary and performance, Vidokle quotes from the writings of Cosmism’s founder Nikolai Fedorov and other philosophers and poets. His wandering camera searches for traces of Cosmist influence in the remains of Soviet-era art, architecture and engineering, moving from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the museums of Moscow. Music by John Cale and E liane Radigue accompanies these haunting images, conjuring up the yearning for connectedness, social equality, material transformation and immortality at the heart of Cosmist thought.

This Is Cosmos 2014, 28:10min, Russian with English subtitles

Shot in Siberia and Kazakhstan, as well as Moscow and Archangelsk regions, the first film in the trilogy on Russian Cosmism comprises a collage of ideas from the movement’s diverse protagonists, including founding philosopher Nikolai Fedorov. Fedorov, among others, believed that death was a mistake—a flaw in the overall design of the human, “because the energy of cosmos is indestructible, because true religion is a cult of ancestors, because true social equality is immortality for all.” For the Russian cosmists, the definition of cosmos was not limited to outer space: rather, they set out to create “cosmos,” or harmonious and eternal life, on Earth. The ultimate goal, as illuminated in the short film, was “to construct a new reality, free of hunger, disease, violence, death, need, inequality—like communism.”

The Communist Revolution Was Caused By The Sun 2015, 33:36 min, Russian with English subtitles

The second part of the trilogy looks at the poetic dimension of solar cosmology of Soviet biophysicist, Alexander Chizhevsky. Shot in Kazakhstan, where Chizhevsky was imprisoned and later exiled, the film introduces Сhizhevsky’s research into the impact of solar emissions on human sociology, psychology, politics and economics in the form of wars, revolutions, epidemics and other upheavals. The film aligns the life of post-soviet rural residents and the futurological projects of Russian cosmism to emphasize that the goal of the early Soviet breakthroughs aimed at the conquest of outer space was not so much technical acceleration, but the common cause of humankind in their struggle against limitations of earthly life.

Films: Intro und Synopsis


Immortality and Resurrection for All! 2017, 34:17 min, Russian with English subtitles

The trilogy’s last part is a meditation on a museum as the site of resurrection — a central idea for many Cosmist thinkers, scientists and avant-garde artists. Filmed at the State Tretiyakov Gallery, Moscow Zoological Museum, The Lenin Library and The Museum of Revolution, the film looks at museological and archival techniques of collection, restoration and conservation as a means of the material restoration of life, following an essay penned by Nikolai Fedorov on this subject in 1880s. The film follows a cast comprised of present-day followers of Fedorov, several actors, artists and a Pharaoh Hound that playfully enact a resurrection of a mummy, a close examination of Malevich’ Black Square, Rodchenko’s spacial constructions, taxidermied animals, artifacts of the Russian Revolution, skeletons, mannequins in tableau vivant-like scenes, in order to create a contemporary visualization for the poetry implicit in Fedorov’s writings.

Press release

According to the nineteenth-century teachings of Nikolai Fedorov—librarian, religious philosopher, and progenitor of Russian cosmism—our ethical obligation to use reason and knowledge to care for the sick extends to curing the dead of their terminal status. The dead must be brought back to life using means of advanced technology—resurrected not as souls in heaven, but in material form, in this world, with all their memories and knowledge. Fedorov’s call to redistribute vital forces is wildly imaginative in emancipatory ambition. Today, it might appear arcane in its mystical panpsychism or eccentric in its embrace of realities that exist only in science fiction or certain diabolical strains of Silicon Valley techno-utopian ideology. It can be difficult to grasp how it ended up influencing the thinking behind a generation of young revolutionary anarchists and Marxists who incorporated Fedorov’s ideas under their own brand of biocosmism before the 1917 Russian Revolution, even giving rise to the origins of the Soviet space program. This book of interviews and conversations with today’s most compelling living and resurrected artists and thinkers seeks to address the relevance of Russian cosmism and biocosmism in light of its influence on the Russian artistic and political vanguard as well as on today’s art-historical apparatuses, weird materialisms, extinction narratives, and historical and temporal politics. This unprecedented collection of exchanges on cosmism asks how such an encompassing and imaginative, unapologetically humanist and anthropocentric strain of thinking could have been so historically and politically influential, especially when placed alongside the politically inconsequential—but in some sense equally encompassing—apocalypticism of contemporary realist imaginaries. Published in parallel with the eponymous exhibition at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin. Series edited by Julieta Aranda, Brian Kuan Wood, Stephen Squibb, Anton Vidokle Design by Jeff Ramsey, front cover design by Liam Gillick September 2017, English 10.8 x 11.8 cm, 152 pages, 8 color ill., softcover ISBN 978-3-95679-352-3 €18.00

e-flux journal Art without Death Conversations on Russian Cosmism Contributions by Bart De Baere, Franco “Bifo” Berardi, Boris Groys, Elena Shaposhnikova, Marina Simakova, Hito Steyerl, Anton Vidokle, Brian Kuan Wood, Arseny Zhilyaev, Esther Zonsheim

Library 100 Years of Now


Kosmismus 100 Years of Now Library Editors: Boris Groys and Anton Vidokle Publisher: Matthes & Seitz Berlin, March 2018 158 pages, in German ISBN 978-3-95757-416-9, Price: 16 € Will be published in March 2018 In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Russian Cosmists aimed to make humanity immortal through technology, thereby redeeming the Christian promise of resurrection in the here and now. The arts played a central role in these endeavours. Because of their ability to perpetuate things, they were regarded as equal in stature to the natural sciences and medicine. Based on historical Cosmism, this volume examines materialism as the central mode of thought of the 20th century against the backdrop of new philosophical trends like speculative realism, new materialism and transhumanism. Its utopian potential is explored by following in the footsteps of successive generations of artists who have been influenced by Cosmism since the historical avant-garde 100 Years of Now Library The present rules, encroaching upon the entire period of time at our disposal. Under the pressure of the present, contemporary thinking often lacks both an historical awareness and a future horizon. The book series 100 Years of Now Library aims to confront this traditional understanding of the present with other concepts of time. Each volume covers the time span of a century in order to examine historic upheavals in politics, economics, spirituality, technology and culture that characterize both the present and and the future. They thereby identify transformations for which alternative endings were conceivable and reveal continuities. The series re-addresses core issues of the past hundred years: the housing question, the ongoing relevance of the artistic avant-gardes, the correlations between war and technology, the influence of historical feminist and anarchist movements, questions of political classification systems, disturbances in the metabolism of the planet, data production and cybernetics and, not least, notions of history and of time itself. Where were potentials left undeveloped, where were questions left unanswered and where does history offer alternatives? How can the past be instilled in the present not as a relic, but as lived experience and a resource for the future? The volumes of the 100 Years of Now Library, published by Matthes & Seitz in Berlin, penetrate deep into the paradigms of our age to showcase new ways of appraising current issues. They reflect the program of events of the four-year project 100 Years of Now 2015 – 2019 and will conclude with the Dictionary of Now.

Art Without Death: Russian Cosmism

1.9.-3.10.2017

Work Credit image

Iwan Kljun | Ivan Kliun (1873–1943)

ROTES LICHT, SPHÄRISCHE KOMPOSITION

RED LIGHT, SPHERICAL COMPOSITION ca. 1923

Öl auf Leinwand | Oil on canvas

Greek State Museum of Contemporary Art - Costakis

Collection, Thessaloniki

Solomon Nikritin (1898–1965)

KOMPOSITION MIT ZEPPELIN

COMPOSITION WITH ZEPPELIN 1926

Aus der Serie Reise | From the series Journey

Bleistift und Tusche auf Papier | Pencil and ink

on paper




LENIN-SCHNEEMANN

LENIN-SNOWMAN 193O

Aus der Serie Denkmal |From the series Monument

Bleistift und Farbstift auf Papier | Pencil and

crayon on paper




TELESKOP

TELESCOPE 1926

Bleistift und Farbstift auf Papier | Pencil and crayon on

paper




KONSTRUKTION

CONSTRUCTION 1924

Bleistift auf Papier | Pencil on paper




KONSTRUKTION

CONSTRUCTION 1924





SCHWARZES QUADRAT MIT EINEM WEIßEN GEGENSTAND

192Oer Jahre

BLACK SQUARE WITH WHITE OBJECT 192Os

Öl auf Papier | Oil on paper




OVALE KOMPOSITION 192Oer Jahre

OVAL COMPOSITION 192Os

Tusche auf Papier | Ink on paper




SPIRALE späte 192Oer Jahre

SPIRAL late 192Os

Kohle und Aquarell auf Papier | Charcoal and watercolor

on paper




SCHWARZES QUADRAT 192Oer jahre

BLACK SQUARE 192Os

Papiercollage auf Papier | Paper collage on paper




OVALE KOMPOSITION, STUDIE FÜR SELBSTPORTRÄT

192Oer Jahre

OVAL COMPOSITION, STUDY FOR SELF-PORTRAIT 192Os

Aquarell auf Papier | Watercolor on paper




SPIRALE 192Oer Jahre

SPIRAL 192Os

Kohle und Aquarell auf Papier | Charcoal and watercolor

on paper




OHNE TITEL Jahr unbekannt

UNTITLED date unknown





WIEDERAUFERSTEHUNG EINER MELDEBEAMTIN

RESURRECTION OF A REGISTRATION CLERK 1924

Aus der Serie Reise um die Welt | From the series Journey

around the World

Gouache auf Papier | Gouache on paper




OVALE KOMPOSITION, INNENANSICHT 192Oer Jahre

OVAL COMPOSITION, INTERIOR 1920s

Tusche, Gouache und Aquarell auf Papier |

Ink, gouache, and watercolor on paper




KOMPOSITION MIT TELESKOP 192Oer Jahre

COMPOSITION WITH TELESCOPE 192Os





MANN MIT HOHEM HUT UND TASCHE 192Oer Jahre

MAN WITH HIGH-CROWNED HAT AND BAG 192Os





KOMPOSITION MIT TRANSPARENTER SPHÄRE

COMPOSITION WITH TRANSPARENT SPHERE 1924





MANN MIT FERNGLAS

MAN WITH BINOCULARS 1926


Tusche und Bleistift auf Papier | Ink and pencil

on paper




OVALE KOMPOSITION, SELBSTPORTRÄT 192Oer Jahre

OVAL COMPOSITION, SELF-PORTRAIT 192Os

Kohle und Kreide auf Papier | Charcoal and chalk

on paper





192Oer Jahre


Kohle auf Papier | Charcoal on paper




GESICHT

FACE ca. 1934

Kohle auf Papier | Charcoal on paper




OVALE KOMPOSITION, ZEPPELIN

OVAL COMPOSITION, ZEPPELIN 1926


Tusche und Farbstift auf Papier | Ink and colored pencil on

paper




SCHWARZES QUADRAT 192Oer JAHRE

BLACK SQUARE 192Os




Gustavs Klucis | Gustav Klutsis (1895–1938)

KONSTRUKTION

CONSTRUCTION 1922

Litografie auf Papier | Lithograph on paper




BEWEGUNG DER FARBE

MOVEMENT OF COLOR ca. 1924





WOLKENKRATZER

SKYSCRAPER 1922

Umschlaggestaltung für Alexej Krutschonychs

Vier phonetische Romane | Cover design for Aleksei

Kruchenykh’s Four Phonetic Novels





KONSTRUKTION Jahr unbekannt

CONSTRUCTION date unknown




Alexander Rodtschenko | Aleksandr Rodchenko

(1891–1956)

KONSTRUKTION AUF WEIßEM GRUND (ROBOTER)

CONSTRUCTION ON WHITE (ROBOTS) 192O

Öl auf Sperrholz | Oil on plywood



Maria Ender (1897–1942)

TRANSKRIPTION VON KLÄNGEN

TRANSCRIPTION OF SOUND 1921







Tusche auf Papier | Ink on paper



Wassilij Tschekrygin | Vasily Chekrygin

(1897–1922)

AUFERSTEHUNG

RESURRECTION 1918




Wassilij Tschekrygin | Vasily Chekrygin

(1897–1922)

SITZENDE FRAU

SEATED WOMAN 1918




Xenia Ender | Ksenia Ender (1895–1955)







OHNE TITEL

UNTITLED 1927






192Oer Jahre





Alexander Rodtschenko | Alexander Rodchenko

(1891–1956)

KOMPOSITION NR. 117

COMPOSITION NO. 117 1919




Kliment Redko (1897–1956)

DYNAMIT

DYNAMITE 1922





LUMINISMUS: DYNAMIK VON FORM UND FARBE

LUMINISM: DYNAMIC OF FORM AND COLOR 1923





LUMINISMUS: ENTWICKLUNG SYNTHETISCHEN LICHTS

LUMINISM: SYNTHETIC LIGHT DEVELOPMENT 1923





TRINKENDE FRAU

DRINKING WOMAN 1928




Olga Rosanowa | Olga Rozanova (1886–1918) & Alexej

Krutschonych | Aleksei Kruchenykh

(1886–1968)

DER UNIVERSALE KRIEG I-IX

UNIVERSAL WAR I-IX 1916

Papier- und Textilcollage auf Papier | Paper and fabric

collage on paper




ENTWURF

DESIGN 1922

Gouache, Tusche und Bleistift auf Papier | Gouache, ink,

and pencil on paper



Iwan Kudrjaschow | Ivan Kudriashev

(1896–1927)

WEIßE KOMPOSITION

WHITE COMPOSITION 192Os

Öl auf Sperrholz | Oil on plywood




KONSTRUKTION, IN EINER ECKE HÄNGEND

CORNER-HANGING CONSTRUCTION ca.192O

Fotografie | Photograph




DYNAMISCHE STADT

DYNAMIC CITY 1919





HÄNGENDE KONSTRUKTION

HANGING CONSTRUCTION 1921





AXONOMETRISCHES GEMÄLDE

AXONOMETRIC PAINTING 192O-1921





VERTIKALE KONSTRUKTION

VERTICAL CONSTRUCTION 1921





(1896–1972)

LINEARE KONSTRUKTION

LINEAR CONSTRUCTION 1922





(1896–1972)

LUMINISZENZ

LUMINESCENCE 1926





(1896–1972)

KONSTRUKTION EINER GERADLINIGEN BEWEGUNG

CONSTRUCTION OF RECTILINEAR MOTION 1925
















Xenia Ender | Ksenia Ender (1895–1955)

OHNE TITEL

UNTITLED 1924




english version art without eath: russian osmism fedorov, michael hagemeister, andrey platonov and...

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