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Resident Report
Alexis Zimberg Государственный Центр Соверменного Искусства National Centre for Contemporary Art December 2013, Moscow
I fly into Moscow on a Thursday. At Sheremetyevo, I recognize my name written in permanent marker on Ivan’s sign. He brings me to hotel Antik in the
conducting interviews, photographing
Petrovka neighborhood of Moscow.
new works of street art, visiting art
After a short rest, I journey to the
centers around town, and writing. I
NCCA offices at 13, Zoologicheskaya.
speak with many great figures in
The building currently consists of an office area for about 15 workers, a mediatheque (where I primarily do my work), a large exhibition hall, a smaller exhibition hall, a gallery, a bookstore, and a nice cafe. The mediatheque is floor-to-ceiling-filled
with
art
catalogues, magazines, and textbooks from around the globe, all of which is available for resident perusal. After 12pm when the centre opens each day, the entire space is bustling with life until about 11pm or later. The office is lively and young. The staff is friendly and can arrange everything that I need, from contact information to private films. They were absolutely
Moscow’s community
like
Andrei
art Erofeev,
Tatiana Kroll, Misha Most, Anton Litvin,
Elena
Petrovskaya,
Tassya
Krougovykh, and the Partizaning team. I receive private tours of the Narkomfin House,
the
Masterkova
Artists,
the
Jewish
House
Museum
of and
Tolerance Center, and the Gulag art collection at Memorial. At night, I accompany Moscow’s greatest street artists as they consider, prepare, and conduct their work.
As a resident at the NCCA, I received an
unmatched
opportunity
to
collaborate and communicate with some of the greatest figures in 20th and
wonderful to work with.
contemporary
21st
century
Russian
contemporary art. I am endlessly As a resident in Moscow I focus on the preparation of my forthcoming book, titled
"Post-Soviet
Graffiti:
Free
Speech in the Streets." I spend my days 2
appreciative of the NCCA team. Zina, Irina, and Nica worked tirelessly to ensure that my residency was smooth and meaningful.
Lecture // 26.12.13 My work primarily investigates how individuals and groups circumvent oppression and censorship.
Seeing
pitfalls with traditional methods of protest like internet activism, street actions, and rock music, I investigate graffiti
as
an
anonymous
and
untraceable artform. In my public lecture on political street art, I offer two hypotheses, based on my original fieldwork:
(1) Стрит-арт - еффективный медиум
политических
дискуссий, особенно в закрытых странах.
(2) В политизировнном регионе паблик-арт
не
может
функционировать
как
«искусстрво для искусства.» I discuss the history of my project; the philosophical underpinnings of street art and the public sphere; graffiti as a mobilizing agent; the ability of street art to criticize or reinforce historical figures and collective identity; and graffiti as a mirror of a street narrative. This lecture outlines the content of my published thesis, titled “The Spray Can is Mightier Than the Sword: Street Art as a Medium for Political Discourse in the Post-Soviet Region.” By combining historical,
anthropological,
and
journalistic work, this work offers an inter-disciplinary, thorough, and crossreferenced account of graffiti and street art culture from 1985 to the present-day. Much of the content of my second book will be supported by the theories outlined in this first text.
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