Main Collection

Garage Archive Collection (Trips Out of Town and MANI Buchgalterium archive)

Private gift

Acquired from the artist

Gift of Anton Belov

Andrei Monastyrsky is a leading ideologue of Moscow Conceptualism, a legend of contemporary art, and one of the founders of the group Collective Actions, which has been producing spatial and temporal actions since 1976. Over the years the group has included Nikita Alexeev, George Kiesewalter, Nikolai Panitkov, Igor Makarevich, Elena Elagina, Sergei Romashko, and Sabina Haensgen. Most of the actions were documented and published in 15 volumes as  Trips Out of Town . 

 The assemblage Transport. An Aesthetic Plate is related to the so‑called object zone of the demonstrative field of actions, which took place between 1983 and 1985 and were part of the third volume of  Trips Out of Town . In the preface, Monastyrsky stressed the aesthetic independence of the objects: they can be exhibited without the accompanying texts and photographs. 

 Initially Transport was created for the action Discussion , which took place in Monastrysky’s apartment on September 28, 1985. The first stage of the action involved listening to a 55-minute recording of Monastyrsky’s text “TsZI‑TsZI,” and the the second was a discussion accompanied by slide films from the series Fragments. Closed City . The discussion was made more difficult by the fact that every comment by participants was repeated into a microphone by Monastyrsky. 

 The visuals comprised an exhibition of Category CA objects (the group’s term), which included nine absurdist objects, some of which had already been used in other actions. Transport. An Aesthetic Plate comprised “wooden frames, covers of the magazine Guten Tag with metallic wings and stars, and metal sheets combined and laid on top of each other in a specific manner.” 

 According to Joseph Backstein, “these objects are typically completely and utterly incomprehensible to those not in the know. They are not objects, but some kind of embodiment of the absurd.” Later Monastyrsky would state that the creation of the objects was an unconscious act which took on meaning for him during the making of the action. In essence, this action was an attempt to be liberated “from a mentalized aesthetic program,” from “the ideological social space of accepted reality” or, in simpler terms, we might say that it, like most of CA’s actions, involved a search for internal freedom in a situation of total lack of liberty.

 Andrei Monastyrsky is a leading ideologue of Moscow Conceptualism, a legend of contemporary art, and one of the founders of the group Collective Actions, which has been producing spatial and temporal actions since 1976. Over the years the group has included Nikita Alexeev, George Kiesewalter, Nikolai Panitkov, Igor Makarevich, Elena Elagina, Sergei Romashko, and Sabina Haensgen. Most of the actions were documented and published in 15 volumes as  Trips Out of Town . 

 The assemblage  Transport. An Aesthetic Plate  is related to the so‑called object zone of the demonstrative field of actions, which took place between 1983 and 1985 and were part of the third volume of  Trips Out of Town . In the preface, Monastyrsky stressed the aesthetic independence of the objects: they can be exhibited without the accompanying texts and photographs. 

 Initially  Transport was created for the action  Discussion , which took place in Monastrysky’s apartment on September 28, 1985. The first stage of the action involved listening to a 55-minute recording of Monastyrsky’s text “TsZI‑TsZI,” and the the second was a discussion accompanied by slide films from the series  Fragments. Closed City . The discussion was made more difficult by the fact that every comment by participants was repeated into a microphone by Monastyrsky. 

 The visuals comprised an exhibition of Category CA objects (the group’s term), which included nine absurdist objects, some of which had already been used in other actions.  Transport. An Aesthetic Plate  comprised “wooden frames, covers of the magazine  Guten Tag  with metallic wings and stars, and metal sheets combined and laid on top of each other in a specific manner.” 

 According to Joseph Backstein, “these objects are typically completely and utterly incomprehensible to those not in the know. They are not objects, but some kind of embodiment of the absurd.” Later Monastyrsky would state that the creation of the objects was an unconscious act which took on meaning for him during the making of the action. In essence, this action was an attempt to be liberated “from a mentalized aesthetic program,” from “the ideological social space of accepted reality” or, in simpler terms, we might say that it, like most of CA’s actions, involved a search for internal freedom in a situation of total lack of liberty. 

Transport. An Aesthetic Plate

Viktor Pivovarov is part of the older generation of nonconformist artists and one of the founding fathers of Moscow Conceptualism. A frequent theme for the artist is the poeticization of the everyday and its lyrical idealization. Pivovarov works in various genres, from large‑format paintings to small drawings, but his main medium is the conceptual album, one of the sources of which is his work as a children’s book illustrator, which he began in 1962. 

 The album genre comprises a set of numbered drawing sheets that are viewed in a defined order, where the narrative is a combination of visual and textual elements. Pivovarov created his first album, Staircase of Balls, in 1975, followed by Conclusions, Face, and Tears in the same year. After moving to Prague in 1982, Pivovarov began rethinking his artistic language. Albums and series dedicated to his friends and relatives, Moscow, and reminiscences about the period from the 1950s to the 1970s began to appear in his practice. 

 In the album Kabakov and Pivovarov the artist directly explores the phenomenon of Moscow unofficial art. Above all, this is a nostalgic nod to a past life, but it is also one of the first acts of reconceptualizing the mythologization of a local historical phenomenon which he witnessed. On the first sheet the “ovals” meet at a publisher and begin talking about the international situation. Then, having decided to go for a walk, they take a Chagall‑like flight over a city, fields, forests, and mountains. Their conversation moves on to the philosophical aspects of existence, with Pivovarov’s character emphasizing the mystery of the ordinary and of simple things, such as rocks, worms, light bulbs or matchboxes. Kabakov’s character grumbles about the fate of Russia, the phenomenology of fear, his decline, and creative predestination.

 Viktor Pivovarov is part of the older generation of nonconformist artists and one of the founding fathers of Moscow Conceptualism. A frequent theme for the artist is the poeticization of the everyday and its lyrical idealization. Pivovarov works in various genres, from large‑format paintings to small drawings, but his main medium is the conceptual album, one of the sources of which is his work as a children’s book illustrator, which he began in 1962. 

 The album genre comprises a set of numbered drawing sheets that are viewed in a defined order, where the narrative is a combination of visual and textual elements. Pivovarov created his first album, Staircase of Balls, in 1975, followed by Conclusions, Face, and Tears in the same year. After moving to Prague in 1982, Pivovarov began rethinking his artistic language. Albums and series dedicated to his friends and relatives, Moscow, and reminiscences about the period from the 1950s to the 1970s began to appear in his practice. 

 In the album Kabakov and Pivovarov the artist directly explores the phenomenon of Moscow unofficial art. Above all, this is a nostalgic nod to a past life, but it is also one of the first acts of reconceptualizing the mythologization of a local historical phenomenon which he witnessed. On the first sheet the “ovals” meet at a publisher and begin talking about the international situation. Then, having decided to go for a walk, they take a Chagall‑like flight over a city, fields, forests, and mountains. Their conversation moves on to the philosophical aspects of existence, with Pivovarov’s character emphasizing the mystery of the ordinary and of simple things, such as rocks, worms, light bulbs or matchboxes. Kabakov’s character grumbles about the fate of Russia, the phenomenology of fear, his decline, and creative predestination. 

Kabakov and Pivovarov

Works on display in Garage open storage include the first five volumes of Trips Out of Town by the group Collective Actions (founded in 1976; organizers of the actions included Andrei Monastyrsky, Nikita Alexeev, Nikolai Panitkov, Elena Elagina, Igor Makarevich, Sergey Romashko, Sabine Hänsgen, and others), a key representative of Moscow Conceptualism. Each volume is a form of report on the activities of Collective Actions that includes descriptions of the actions, photo documentation, participants’ impressions, and theoretical essays. The group's actions mostly took place in various places in Moscow and Moscow region, away from urban areas (hence the title of the volumes). The best‑known location for the actions was the Kievogorskoe field near Lobnya, which was not just a regular gathering place for participants but a hermetic metaphysical space where, as if on a blank sheet of paper, the outlines of new actions would be drawn time and again. By the end of the 1980s, after completing the fifth volume of Trips Out of Town, Andrei Monastyrsky was considering winding up the Collective Actions project. The basic discursive framework had been produced and participants' interest in organizing actions has waned. Nevertheless, after the compilation of the fifth volume, Collective Actions moved on to a new stage in their history and their actions, as well as work on new volumes of Trips out of Town, have continued until the present day. 
 
 At first sight, the Trips Out of Town books seem to be an intermediate, non‑independent artifact existing between archival evidence and the actions themselves. Usually, documentation of actions or performance art is seen as something secondary which only refers back to the original work, the implication being that the authentic experience in its entirety is only available to participants and viewers at the moment of the event itself. In the case of Collective Actions, however, the book format offers one of the most all‑encompassing ways of experiencing the actions. 
 
 Both role of each participant and the point of view from which they saw what was happening played an important part in the actions. Viewers came up with very different interpretations of the experience depending on their location within the space of the action, the emotional state and thoughts with which they arrived at the place, the extent to which the organizers had explained the action, and their knowledge of the history of the group's past activities. In fact, the group’s actions were not reduced exclusively to the performative part played out in the field. Receiving an invitation, traveling to the location, waiting for the action to begin, participants' experiences during the performance of actions, and the reflection on it that followed were all constituent elements of the work. A contemporary viewer holding a volume of Trips Out of Town and freed from their own existential experience of participation is presented with a different and, in a sense, broader picture than the immediate witnesses of the action, who are themselves the subject of contemplation and experience. Each module in the display is devoted to one Trips Out of Town volume. The materials presented are divided into several groups: descriptive (textual descriptions of the actions and the organizers' comments, photo and audio documentation), narrative (participants' stories), and discursive (articles, conversations, and essays by the participants).

 Works on display in Garage open storage include the first five volumes of Trips Out of Town by the group Collective Actions (founded in 1976; organizers of the actions included Andrei Monastyrsky, Nikita Alexeev, Nikolai Panitkov, Elena Elagina, Igor Makarevich, Sergey Romashko, Sabine Hänsgen, and others), a key representative of Moscow Conceptualism. Each volume is a form of report on the activities of Collective Actions that includes descriptions of the actions, photo documentation, participants’ impressions, and theoretical essays. The group's actions mostly took place in various places in Moscow and Moscow region, away from urban areas (hence the title of the volumes). The best‑known location for the actions was the Kievogorskoe field near Lobnya, which was not just a regular gathering place for participants but a hermetic metaphysical space where, as if on a blank sheet of paper, the outlines of new actions would be drawn time and again. By the end of the 1980s, after completing the fifth volume of Trips Out of Town, Andrei Monastyrsky was considering winding up the Collective Actions project. The basic discursive framework had been produced and participants' interest in organizing actions has waned. Nevertheless, after the compilation of the fifth volume, Collective Actions moved on to a new stage in their history and their actions, as well as work on new volumes of Trips out of Town, have continued until the present day. 
 
 At first sight, the Trips Out of Town books seem to be an intermediate, non‑independent artifact existing between archival evidence and the actions themselves. Usually, documentation of actions or performance art is seen as something secondary which only refers back to the original work, the implication being that the authentic experience in its entirety is only available to participants and viewers at the moment of the event itself. In the case of Collective Actions, however, the book format offers one of the most all‑encompassing ways of experiencing the actions. 
 
 Both role of each participant and the point of view from which they saw what was happening played an important part in the actions. Viewers came up with very different interpretations of the experience depending on their location within the space of the action, the emotional state and thoughts with which they arrived at the place, the extent to which the organizers had explained the action, and their knowledge of the history of the group's past activities. In fact, the group’s actions were not reduced exclusively to the performative part played out in the field. Receiving an invitation, traveling to the location, waiting for the action to begin, participants' experiences during the performance of actions, and the reflection on it that followed were all constituent elements of the work. A contemporary viewer holding a volume of Trips Out of Town and freed from their own existential experience of participation is presented with a different and, in a sense, broader picture than the immediate witnesses of the action, who are themselves the subject of contemplation and experience. Each module in the display is devoted to one Trips Out of Town volume. The materials presented are divided into several groups: descriptive (textual descriptions of the actions and the organizers' comments, photo and audio documentation), narrative (participants' stories), and discursive (articles, conversations, and essays by the participants). 

Trips out of Town, volume 1

Trips out of Town, volume 3, part 1

Viktor Pivovarov is one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism and a key figure within Soviet unofficial art. An illustrator by education, he had a long involvement with publishers, including the magazines Knowledge is Power, Jolly Pictures (for which he designed the logo with letter characters), and Murzilka and also the publisher Children’s Literature. This experience was the basis of Pivovarov’s experiments with painting, which would later be termed conceptual. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the genre boundaries of his work became permeable: text and image, transferred from book illustration to canvas or board, not only complement each other but are also in a semantic confrontation that draws the viewer into an ironic and subtle associative game. 

 Together with Ilya Kabakov, Pivovarov is the originator of the conceptual album genre. This unique form of artistic expression gave images that are static by nature a temporal impulse. The drawings were intended to be viewed in a strictly defined order so as not to disrupt the unity of the visual narrative. In this way, the album incorporated features of the literary work and the temporality of cinema or theater, while using means of expression exclusive to drawing. In a situation in which artists making “other art” could not freely exhibit, demonstrating sheets from an album in their studio or to a circle of friends and colleagues became a true performance. 

 The album Eros is a narrative about a romantic meeting that takes place in a half‑empty, very ordinary room. In Pivovarov’s poetics the interior, a space concealed from the outside world, becomes a reflection of a person’s spiritual life. The main character does not appear on a single sheet, but the viewer senses their presence through textual messages that alternate with the images: “I was desperately waiting for you,” “I thought you weren’t coming,” “…and such longing.” The melancholy of waiting is interrupted by the central erotic‑euphoric part, where figurative images disappear, making way for abstract forms that transform from sheet to sheet. The return to the room and the world of things occurs through the window, outside which a sunset sky can be seen that reflects the color palette of the abstract, rhythmic compositions. Full of existential lyricism, Pivovarov’s works explore the life of the human soul, with its doubts and worries.

 Viktor Pivovarov is one of the founders of Moscow Conceptualism and a key figure within Soviet unofficial art. An illustrator by education, he had a long involvement with publishers, including the magazines Knowledge is Power, Jolly Pictures (for which he designed the logo with letter characters), and Murzilka and also the publisher Children’s Literature. This experience was the basis of Pivovarov’s experiments with painting, which would later be termed conceptual. In the late 1960s and early 1970s the genre boundaries of his work became permeable: text and image, transferred from book illustration to canvas or board, not only complement each other but are also in a semantic confrontation that draws the viewer into an ironic and subtle associative game. 

 Together with Ilya Kabakov, Pivovarov is the originator of the conceptual album genre. This unique form of artistic expression gave images that are static by nature a temporal impulse. The drawings were intended to be viewed in a strictly defined order so as not to disrupt the unity of the visual narrative. In this way, the album incorporated features of the literary work and the temporality of cinema or theater, while using means of expression exclusive to drawing. In a situation in which artists making “other art” could not freely exhibit, demonstrating sheets from an album in their studio or to a circle of friends and colleagues became a true performance. 

 The album Eros is a narrative about a romantic meeting that takes place in a half‑empty, very ordinary room. In Pivovarov’s poetics the interior, a space concealed from the outside world, becomes a reflection of a person’s spiritual life. The main character does not appear on a single sheet, but the viewer senses their presence through textual messages that alternate with the images: “I was desperately waiting for you,” “I thought you weren’t coming,” “…and such longing.” The melancholy of waiting is interrupted by the central erotic‑euphoric part, where figurative images disappear, making way for abstract forms that transform from sheet to sheet. The return to the room and the world of things occurs through the window, outside which a sunset sky can be seen that reflects the color palette of the abstract, rhythmic compositions. Full of existential lyricism, Pivovarov’s works explore the life of the human soul, with its doubts and worries. 

Eros

Trips out of Town, volume 3, part 2

Trips out of Town, volume 2

Nikita Alexeev was a representative of the second wave of Moscow Conceptualism. In 1982 he opened the gallery APTART in his small apartment on Vavilova Street in Moscow. During the two years of the gallery’s existence there were 14 exhibitions which included work by key artists of the 1980s Moscow underground: Toadstool Group, TOTART (Natalya Abalakova and Anatoly Zhigalov), Victor Skersis, Vadim Zakharov, George Kiesewalter, and others. 

 In spring 1983, as a result of increasing pressure on Nikita Alexeev and other artists, the gallery temporarily stopped work, although in that period two projects took place outside the city, including the one‑day exhibition APTART Behind the Fence, which took place in September at the dacha of artists Sergei and Vladimir Mironenko’s parents. 

 For this exhibition Nikita Alexeev created the series Bananas. Some of the sheets of paper were attached to bushes and others lay on the grass around them. The text‑centeredness, seriality, and irony typical of Moscow Conceptualism was supplemented by a lack of seriousness of visual content that was a feature of work by the younger generation of artists. Alexeev used an easy technique (felt‑tip pens), a simplified style of drawing, and bright colors. As a result, universal and contextually monumental symbols (the pyramid‑ziggurat, sun, and moon) take on the characteristics of a child’s drawing and common phrases become absurd expressions. This attempt to escape simplicity with words and images creates a semantic gap, the search for which was key to art for Nikita Alexeev.

 Nikita Alexeev was a representative of the second wave of Moscow Conceptualism. In 1982 he opened the gallery APTART in his small apartment on Vavilova Street in Moscow. During the two years of the gallery’s existence there were 14 exhibitions which included work by key artists of the 1980s Moscow underground: Toadstool Group, TOTART (Natalya Abalakova and Anatoly Zhigalov), Victor Skersis, Vadim Zakharov, George Kiesewalter, and others. 

 In spring 1983, as a result of increasing pressure on Nikita Alexeev and other artists, the gallery temporarily stopped work, although in that period two projects took place outside the city, including the one‑day exhibition APTART Behind the Fence, which took place in September at the dacha of artists Sergei and Vladimir Mironenko’s parents. 

 For this exhibition Nikita Alexeev created the series Bananas. Some of the sheets of paper were attached to bushes and others lay on the grass around them. The text‑centeredness, seriality, and irony typical of Moscow Conceptualism was supplemented by a lack of seriousness of visual content that was a feature of work by the younger generation of artists. Alexeev used an easy technique (felt‑tip pens), a simplified style of drawing, and bright colors. As a result, universal and contextually monumental symbols (the pyramid‑ziggurat, sun, and moon) take on the characteristics of a child’s drawing and common phrases become absurd expressions. This attempt to escape simplicity with words and images creates a semantic gap, the search for which was key to art for Nikita Alexeev. 

Bananas series. From the project APTART Beyond the Fence

Sergei Shutov’s biography incorporates a broad spectrum of creative experiments, from psychedelic new wave painting to multimedia installations and from avant‑garde experiments with video art to sound environments. The 7th Youth Exhibition, friendships with the “New Artists,” rave culture and VJing in the first clubs (and featuring on the cover of Ptyuch magazine), the squat in Furmanny Pereulok, the film Assa, concerts with Pop‑Mekhanika, inserts for Pirate Television, exhibitions across the world, and showing in the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale are only a tiny part of the typhoon of new Russian culture of which Shutov was at the center. 

 Shutov’s 1984 work on paper shown here is from the period when he was involved in working with metal. The sheet features a monochrome schematic composition depicting an exchange of energy and is inspired by the artist’s lifelong interest in science, technocracy, and eastern esoterica. 

 At that time Shutov also began to study the theoretical aspects of intaglio printing. Since he had no access to high‑tech equipment, the artist used his own method of working with the material, applying a thick layer of white enamel to high density paper and, once it was dry, using needles to make an image of various depths, sometimes piercing the layer of enamel. The last stage was the addition of oil paint applied with the edge of the palm and the completion of the composition. Unlike editioned prints, this labor‑intensive technique was used to make a single work. This sheet is one of around twenty unique works.

 Sergei Shutov’s biography incorporates a broad spectrum of creative experiments, from psychedelic new wave painting to multimedia installations and from avant‑garde experiments with video art to sound environments. The 7th Youth Exhibition, friendships with the “New Artists,” rave culture and VJing in the first clubs (and featuring on the cover of Ptyuch magazine), the squat in Furmanny Pereulok, the film Assa, concerts with Pop‑Mekhanika, inserts for Pirate Television, exhibitions across the world, and showing in the Russian Pavilion at the Venice Biennale are only a tiny part of the typhoon of new Russian culture of which Shutov was at the center.  

 Shutov’s 1984 work on paper shown here is from the period when he was involved in working with metal. The sheet features a monochrome schematic composition depicting an exchange of energy and is inspired by the artist’s lifelong interest in science, technocracy, and eastern esoterica.  

 At that time Shutov also began to study the theoretical aspects of intaglio printing. Since he had no access to high‑tech equipment, the artist used his own method of working with the material, applying a thick layer of white enamel to high density paper and, once it was dry, using needles to make an image of various depths, sometimes piercing the layer of enamel. The last stage was the addition of oil paint applied with the edge of the palm and the completion of the composition. Unlike editioned prints, this labor‑intensive technique was used to make a single work. This sheet is one of around twenty unique works. 

Untitled

1. Открытый доступ

Мастер

Collective Actions was founded in 1976 in Moscow. The initial group comprised Nikita Alexeev (until 1980), George Kiesewalter, Andrei Monastyrsky, Nikolai Panitkov and Lev Rubinstein. In 1979 Sergei Romashko, Elena Elagina, Igor Makarevich joined the group, followed by Sabina Hänsgen in 1985. The group took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977) and exhibited in the Russian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011).

Collective Actions

Sergei Shutov was born in 1955 in Potsdam. He was a member of the City Committee of Graphic Artists (Moscow) from 1978. He worked on the film Assa (1987) and took part in concerts by the band Pop‑Mekhanika. He founded the Institute of Art Technology (Moscow, 1992), ran practical sessions at Moscow Artistic Laboratory of New Media (Moscow, 1994), and was a VJ at the club Ptyuch (Moscow). He exhibited in the Russian Pavilion at the 49th Venice Biennale (2011).

Shutov Sergei

Andrei Monastyrsky was born in Petsamo (Pechenga, Murmansk Oblast). He graduated from the Philology Faculty of Moscow State University. He was a founder (1976), theorist, and author of large‑scale actions in the group Collective Actions. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977), the 50th (main project, 2003), 52nd (main project, 2007) and 54th Venice Biennale (Russian Pavilion, 2011) and also documenta 12 (Kassel, 2007). He is a recipient of the Andrei Bely Prize for his important contribution to the development of Russian literature (2003) and the Innovation Prize in the nominations Theory, Criticism, Art History (2010) and For Creative Contribution to the Development of Contemporary Art (2015).

Monastyrsky Andrei

Nikita Alexeev was born in Moscow. From 1964 to 1967, he studied at Moscow Middle Art School of the Moscow Surikov State Art Institute and then at 1905 Moscow State Academic Art College in the Department of Industrial Graphics and Advertising. From 1973 to 1976, he studied at Moscow Printing Institute in the Faculty of Artistic and Technical Design of Print Products (he did not graduate). From 1976 to 1983, he was a member of the group Collective Actions. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977). He was one of the organizers of MANI (Moscow Archive of New Art). From 1982 to 1984, he was co‑founder and director of APTART Gallery, which was located in his studio apartment in Moscow.

Alexeev Nikita

Viktor Pivovarov was born in Moscow. He studied at Kalinin Moscow Art and Industrial College and in the Graphics Department of Moscow Printing Institute from 1957 to 1962. He took part in the Biennale of Dissent (Venice, 1977). He is a recipient of the Innovation Prize in the nomination For Contribution to the Development of Contemporary Art (2017).

Catalogue of the Collection

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