Photo performance Moving

Alexander Lyashko is the founder of the photographic studio at Borey Gallery and a member of the New Blockheads Cooperative, an art group which meticulously documented its performances and actions. Having brought together artists, writers, and philosophers (including Vadim Flyagin, Igor Panin, Vladimir Kozin, Sergey Spirikhin, Maksim Raiskin, Inga Nagel, and Oleg Khvostov) who rejected traditional art forms, the group’s collective work created conditions for the free realization of individual ideas. In dialogue primarily with Vadim Flyagin, Lyashko developed the key concepts of his artistic “actions” (as the participants called their events). The New Blockheads’ discussions centered around the nature of the temporary artistic gesture: its notional script, the possibility of improvisation, and its existence without a viewer.

According to the artist’s recollections, in the 1990s and 2000s performative practices were perceived as a natural continuation of artistic thinking. For the members of the Cooperative, they became the primary means of engaging with space, time, and one another. Moving was conceived after Lyashko’s previous performance The Movement of a Tea Table Toward Sunset. Seven Days of Travel (August 25, 1996), during which the group carried this piece of furniture from the artist’s room at 17 Manezhny Lane through the streets of St. Petersburg. Shortly thereafter, municipal housing services asked the artist to vacate the apartment for major renovations. Lyashko, whose father was an officer in the Soviet Army, moved frequently as a child: at various times, the family lived in Belarus, the German Democratic Republic, and the Far East. The St. Petersburg chapter of his life began later in the dormitory of the Vera Mukhina Higher School of Art and Industry. This photo performance captures the artist packing before moving to the Borey Gallery photo laboratory. Lyashko felt himself becoming an object during the process, destined to be placed in a box for further transportation like the other items in the room. Shot with a Minolta SRT camera, Moving is a metaphor for a transitional state, when the familiar coordinates of home are lost and new ones have not yet been found.