31. 10. 2017, 18.15, Krasnaya Shpana, Moskau / Hamburg: The Creative Research of the Avant-Garde in Post-Soviet Space

Venue: Kunstgeschichtliches Seminar, Universität Hamburg, Raum 119

The Co-operative for Creative Research “Krasnaya Shpana” is a nomadic collective, which currently consists of three members: Alexey Markin, Olga Shirokostup and Illia Yakovenko, who are based in Hamburg, Moscow and Kiev. They formed the co-operative in 2014 after the graduation from Chto Delat’s School for Engaged Art.

The co-operative’s method is based on the practice of creative research that is driven by the notion of creative, which is used in the way the notion of tvorchesky is understood in the post-soviet context. While the contemporary term creative is almost fully appropriated by capitalism and implies creativity as professional activity that is aimed mostly on promoting commodities for the market, in the soviet and post-soviet context tvorchesky is more about the process of creativity as part of the basic human need. The thing in common between creative and tvorchesky is that both of this notions are tabooed in contemporary art, former for its commercialization, latter for its egalitarianism. In its practice the cooperative attempts to reclaim creative and bring tvorchesky back as a crucial inseparable part of people’s life, as a mean for interaction with the world, mutual coexistence and obtaining of knowledge, therefore resurrecting these notions as important political concepts.   

Alexey Markin was born in 1979, Moscow. He has graduated from the Moscow Stroganov Academy and currently studies Art History at University of Hamburg. He is an international artist, sculptor and performer.

Olga Shirokostup was born in 1988 in the city of Severomorsk, lives and works in Moscow. She works ast producer, performer, curator, manager, singer and writer.

Illia Yakovenko was born in 1989 in Mariupol, Ukraine. He studied economics in Donetsk, later moved to Moscow, there he graduated from the Institute of Contemporary Art Moscow.

krasnayashpana@gmail.com

http://shpana.tk/