Alexandra Selivanova, Nadezhda Plungyan "Surrealism in the Country of the Bolsheviks"

Nadezhda Plungian has a Candidate of Art History degree and is an art historian, independent curator, critic, and author of books and articles on Soviet and contemporary art. From 2009 to 2019 she was a senior researcher at the State Institute for Art Studies, Moscow, and from 2017 to 2021 editor of the «Art» section on the site Colta.ru. Since 2017 she has been part New Moscow, the free association of historians of Soviet art. She was lead curator of the project Modernism Without Manifestos. The Roman Babichev Collection (Moscow Museum of Modern Art, 2017–2018) and editor of the eponymous book series. She curated the exhibition Wandering Stars: Soviet Jewry in Prewar Art (2021) and was co-curator of the research-based exhibitions Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks (2017), Soviet Antiquity (2018), and Beetles and Caterpillars. Insect Culture, 1920–1940s (2021) at Na Shabolovke Gallery. She was co-curator of the project VKhUTEMAS 100. The School of the Avant-Garde at the Museum of Moscow (2020) and co-author of the project The Feminist Pencil (2011, 2013). Since 2019 she has taught at the School of Historical Sciences of the Higher School of Economics. She lives and works in Moscow.

Alexandra Selivanova has a Candidate of Architecture degree and is a curator and the author of books and articles on Soviet architecture and art of the 1920s and 1930s. Since 2023 she has been a researcher at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Exhibitions include: The Avant-Garde and Aviation, Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center, Moscow (2014); Ladovsky’s Experiment and Agit Trains, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2017); Factory of Happy People, Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2018); Meer Aizenshtadt: Toward a Synthesis of the 1930s, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2019); and Gastev. How to Work, Na Shabolovke Gallery, Moscow (2019). Together with Nadezhda Plungian she created a series of research-based exhibitions at Na Shabolovke Gallery: Surrealism in the Land of the Bolsheviks (2017), Soviet Antiquity (2018), and Beetles and Caterpillars. Insect Culture, 1920–1940s (2021). Together with Marina Krasnova she created the exhibitions Bulgakov vs. Mayakovsky (2016) and A Universal Response to Note-Takers (2018) for Na Shabolovke Gallery. She made a number of projects at the Museum of Moscow. She was the lead curator of the project VKhUTEMAS 100. The School of the Avant-Garde (2020) and co-curator of the exhibitions Moscow Thaw (with Evgenia Kikodze, 2016), Fabrics of Moscow (with Ksenia Guseva, 2019), and Electrification. The Centenary of the GOELRO Plan (with Katerina Telegina, 2021). Since 2021 she has been a member of the creative community MIR and co-curator of the museum Gasteva, 1 (Suzdal).