Cruel Games

Within performance, the artist's body acts simultaneously as both an object and an artistic tool. Moreover the performance artist does not separate his body from the outside world, as the artist attempts to break down the boundaries between life and art. The theme of the corporal has an important place in the Moscow art of the 1990s. In a post-Perestroika time, Russian artists turned to their bodies, seeing them as their last stronghold of “the real” in a world of political chaos and social illusions. Artists used their own bodies in outrageous actions in order to diagnose social trauma, subsequently the art of this period is characterized by a certain measure of violence and injuries.

Understand more about the history of the Moscow Performance as the renowned art critic Alexandra Obukhova will discuss the key figures, including: Oleg Kulik, The Sect of Absolute Love Group, Oleg Mavromati and the Emperor Vava, Avdey Ter-Oganian and his School of Modern Art.

The lecture will be accompanied by a demonstration of rare archival material owned by the Art Projects Foundation and the Art via Video studio.

Lecturer:

Alexandra Obukhova, art historian, curator.