These tours offer an introduction to Garage Archive Collection in St. Petersburg and an opportunity to learn more about the key events and artists on the local scene from the postwar years until the establishment of contemporary art institutions in the 1990s, as well as about projects of recent decades.
Today, Garage Archive Collection in St. Petersburg holds over 20 archives, which include photographs, manuscripts, and typewritten texts, objects and personal items, handmade posters and invitations, artist’s books, and small-circulation publications (from Soviet samizdat to zines by contemporary artists and graffiti makers). These archives have been gathered by people who were active on the scene, including artists Olga Tobreluts and Andrey Khlobystin, art historians Irina Aktuganova and Lyubov Gurevich, the family of the artist Ivan Sotnikov, writer Boris Kudryakov, and the band New Composers.
Three tours developed by archivists Ekaterina Mikhatova, Anastasia Kotyeva, and Valeria Novitskaya present three different approaches to interacting with the collection.
The first tour focuses on the art communities founded by Timur Novikov: the group New Artists formed in 1982, and the New Academy of Fine Arts created in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
The second tour introduces visitors to the archiving of performative practices in Leningrad/St. Peterburg in the 1980s and 1990s, and in particular to materials related to The New Blockheads, the group SVOI, Kharms Festival, and the walks by artist Vadim Drapkin.
The third tour looks into some of the literary works and poetry in Garage Archive Collection and revolves around Soviet samizdat publications, artist books, zines, and experimental text-based works.