Book presentation: Nadezhda Plungian The Birth of the Soviet Woman

Date

Schedule

19:00–20:30

Place

Communal Block, Narkomfin Building

DISCRIPTION

Published in October 2022 as part of the GARAGE.txt series, Nadezhda Plungian’s book The Birth of the Soviet Woman reflects on early Soviet gender reform in the visual arts. By revealing to the reader the spectrum of (anti)heroines of the post-revolutionary years, this study deepens and clarifies the social sensitivity of the art of the 1930s.

The presentation will be a conversation between Nadezhda Plungian and writer Oksana Vasyakina, whose recent prose reconsiders the theme of the Soviet woman in its contemporary interpretations. The discussion will also touch upon the current view of the legacy of the 1930s, how gender strategies have changed in relation to older generations and what kind of memory we decide to preserve, and whether science, activism, and art have parted ways after the feminist explorations of the 2010s.

PARTICIPANTS

Oksana Vasyakina is a poet, writer, and curator of the School of Literary Practices at Moscow’s Higher School of Social and Economic Sciences. She graduated from Gorky Literary Institute (Moscow) and studied at the PYR FYR school of performance (in Liza Morozova’s workshop). Vasyakina is the winner of the Lyceum and NOS awards. Her debut book Women's Fiction was published in 2016, and her second, the samizdat collection The Wind of Fury, in 2017. In 2019, AST published Vasyakina's third book, which included The Wind of Fury, several poetry cycles, and an interview with journalist Ekaterina Pisareva. The novels Wound and Steppe were published by New Literary Observer.

Nadezhda Plungian is an art historian, independent curator, and lecturer at the Higher School of Economics. She co-curated (together with Alexandra Selivanova) a series of projects on Soviet art of the 1930s at the Gallery on Shabolovka and was lead curator of the show Modernism Without a Manifesto. The Collection of Roman Babichev (2017–2018). She is the author of the books Alexander Labas. Music (2020) and Wandering Stars. Soviet Jewry in Pre-War Art (2021).

HOW TO TAKE PART

Free admission with advance registration.

REGISTRATION