Ilya Kabakov – författare

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Russian conceptual artist Ilya Kabakov was a galvanizing figure in Moscow's underground art community, ultimately gaining international prominence as the “leader” of a band of artists known as the Moscow Conceptual Circle. Throughout this time, he created texts that he would distribute among his friends, and by the late 1990s his written production amounted to hundreds of pages.Devoted to themes that range from the “cosmism” of pre-Revolutionary Russian modernism to the philosophical implications of Moscow’s garbage, Kabakov’s handmade booklets were typed out on paper, then stapled or sewn together using rough butcher paper for their covers. Among these writings are faux Socialist Realist verses, theoretical explorations, art historical analyses, accompaniments to installation projects, and transcripts of dialogues between the artist and literary theorists, critics, journalists, and other artists.This volume offers for the first time in English the most significant texts written by Kabakov. The writings have been expressly selected for this English-language volume and there exists no equivalent work in any language.

During the 1960s and 1970s, the Russian conceptual artist Ilya Kabakov was a galvanizing figure in Moscow''s underground art community, ultimately gaining international prominence as the “leader” of a band of artists known as the Moscow Conceptual Circle. Throughout this time, he created texts that he would distribute among his friends, and by the late 1990s his written production amounted to hundreds of pages.             Devoted to themes that range from the “cosmism” of pre-Revolutionary Russian modernism to the philosophical implications of Moscow’s garbage, Kabakov’s handmade booklets were typed out on paper, then stapled or sewn together using rough butcher paper for their covers. Among these writings are faux Socialist Realist verses, theoretical explorations, art historical analyses, accompaniments to installation projects, and transcripts of dialogues between the artist and literary theorists, critics, journalists, and other artists.             This volume offers for the first time in English the most significant texts written by Kabakov. The writings have been expressly selected for this English-language volume and there exists no equivalent work in any language.  

A TLS Book of the Year 2017In 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.

A TLS Book of the Year 2017In 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.

A TLS Book of the Year 2017In 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.

llya Kabakov (1933–2023) war die prägende Figur der inoffiziellen Kunstszene Moskaus. Mit Installationen wie Der Mann, der in den Kosmos flog wurde er nach seiner Emigration in den Westen weltbekannt. In dieser Publikation, hervorgegangen aus einem Gespräch wenige Wochen vor seinem Tod, bietet er einen berührenden Einblick in sein Leben in der Sowjetunion und eine kritische Reflexion des zeitgenössischen Kunstbetriebs. Zugleich erläutert er, was ihn als Künstler antrieb und was er der Nachwelt hinterlassen möchte: »In meinem Studio entwarf ich viele Pläne für Installationen. Diese waren sehr genau gezeichnet in der Hoffnung, dass Archäologen sie in einer unbestimmten Zukunft finden und rekonstruieren würden. Es war wie ein Brief, der in die Zukunft gesandt wird, wie wenn jemand eine Flasche in den Ozean wirft in der Hoffnung, dass diese einmal gefunden wird. Und für diesen Fall musste alles sehr präzise gemacht werden.« Im nun letzten Gespräch schwingt alles mit, was auch seine zutiefst menschliche Kunst prägt: Humor, eine scharfe Beobachtungsgabe und kreativer Eigensinn. Und er plädiert: »Gute Kunst ist Kunst für alle.«Claudia Jolles (*1958, Wien), Kunsthistorikerin, freie Kuratorin und Kunstkritikerin, lebt in Zürich. Von 1996 bis 2022 war sie Chefredakteurin der Zeitschrift Kunstbulletin, Zürich. Seit der Ausstellung Am Rande in der Kunsthalle Bern 1985 war sie mit Ilya Kabakov freundschaftlich verbunden und realisierte als Co-Kuratorin eine Ausstellung mit ihm im Portikus Frankfurt, kuratierte eine Schau in der Kunsthalle Zürich sowie eine Gruppenausstellung im Museo d''Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci in Prato. Parallel dazu publizierte sie in diversen Medien Texte zu Ilya und Emilia Kabakov.