Boris Groys
Boris Groys | |
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art theory |
Boris Efimovich Groys (born 19 March 1947) is an
Biography
Groys was born to Russian parents in the
During his time in the Soviet Union, Groys participated in the unofficial cultural scenes of Moscow and Leningrad, publishing in 37, Chasy, and other samizdat magazines. In 1979 he published the essay “Moscow Romantic Conceptualism” in the art magazine A-YA, in which he coined the term applied to the art movement “Moscow Conceptualism.”
Groys is a pioneering theorist in reflection on socialist art and postmodern art, without evaluating either. Western thinkers such as Clement Greenberg had criticized socialist art, especially socialist realism, for being mass art and made it an aesthetic taboo. Groys re-evaluated socialist art production, challenging the norms of aesthetics by pushing a thesis based on Walter Benjamin in the very interpretation of politics, claiming that modernism had survived in the "total artwork" (Gesamtkunstwerk) of Stalinism.[1] This thesis is charged with having pushed a new generation of thinkers into re-evaluating the Socialist aesthetic heritage (among others Miško Šuvaković, Marina Gržinić, and Ana Peraica) recognized as the discourse of post-socialist art.
Groys is a member of the
Selected publications
Groys has written over 150 articles on modern and contemporary art and Russian art and intellectual history in several languages. His books include
- Russian Cosmism (2018)
- In the Flow (2016)
- Introduction to Antiphilosophy (2012)
- The Communist Postscript (2010)
- History Becomes Form: Moscow Conceptualism (2010)
- Going Public (2010)
- Comrades of Time (2009)
- Art Power (2008)
- The Total Enlightenment: Conceptual Art in Moscow 1960-1990 (2008)
- Ilya Kabakov: The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment (2006)
- Dream Factory Communism (2004)
- The Total Art of Stalinism (1992)
- Igor Sacharow-Ross: Apotropikon (1991)
Groys has also published Thinking in Loop: Three Videos on Iconoclasm, Ritual and Immortality (DVD, 2008). The videos were produced between 2002 and 2007. Each of these videos combines a theoretical text written and spoken by the author with film footage fragments taken from different movies and film documentations.
Curatorial activities
Groys has curated numerous exhibitions, including
- Fluchtpunkt Moskau at Ludwig Forum(1994 Aachen, Germany)
- Dream Factory Communism at the Schirn Gallery (2003-2004 Frankfurt, Germany)
- Privatizations at the KW Institute of Contemporary Art (2004 Berlin, Germany)
- Total Enlightenment: Conceptual Art in Moscow 1960–1990 (2008-2009 at Kunsthalle Schirn in Frankfurt, Germany, and Fondacion March in Madrid, Spain)
- Medium Religion with Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, (2009 Karlsruhe, Germany)
- Andrei Monastyrski for the Russian Pavilion at the 54th Venice Biennale, 2011
- After History: Alexandre Kojève as a Photographer, 20 May–15 July 2012 at BAK Utrecht (NL)
References
- ^ Groys, B. (1992). The total art of Stalinism : avant-garde, aesthetic dictatorship, and beyond. Princeton, N.J. ; Oxford, Princeton University Press.
- ^ "The Postcommunist Condition". Archived from the original on 22 March 2012. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
External links
Research and projects
- Boris Groys at Former West by BAK Utrecht
- Boris Groys at Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe
- page HfG Karlsruhe
- announcement Sternberg Press/e-flux
- e-flux
Lectures and interviews
- 2010 Silberberg Lectures at Institute of Fine Art NYU, New York
- Lectures at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design in German language
- Aesthetic Responsibility. Frieze Art keynote lecture, London
- BAK research lectures. Russian Avantgarde Revisited
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