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'Russian sociology professor in NYC' film about Margarita Kuleva
You also may see this interview in Russian: https://youtu.be/WL8mkzt4c1c?feature=shared
The Right to Be Creative / ATC Lecture
Cultural Work in Wartime Russia (and beyond): Roundtable with Margarita Kuleva, Dalida María Benfield, Susan Katz, Ou Ning, and Nikita Seleznev | NYU Jordan Center
The event took a standpoint of critical cultural sociology to discuss artistic production in contemporary Russia since February 2022 and the professional trajectories of those cultural workers who recently left Russia. The event included a talk by Dr Margarita Kuleva about some results of her project ‘The Right to Be Creative’, which includes an empirical study of the Russian contemporary art community in their reaction to the war in Ukraine. The project looks specifically at antiwar protest as a series of open manifestations, as well as hidden political struggles behind the closed doors of cultural institutions and artist studios. The following roundtable aims to give the opportunity for international cultural workers to speak out on the subject.
Public talk for Christie's
Margarita Kuleva is one the speakers participating in CADAF x Christie’s Education course 'NFTs in Context 2.0'.
This course will immerse students into the rapidly changing world of NFT art, focusing on collecting and curating, key players, display solutions offline and in the metaverse/web3, the current state of the market, and more.
This course will immerse students into the rapidly changing world of NFT art, focusing on collecting and curating, key players, display solutions offline and in the metaverse/web3, the current state of the market, and more.
The Ball
The Ship, a parachute dress performance
The performance was part of The Arrival series, exploring changing relations between space, body, and culture in the context of new travel. The project is structured around auto-ethnographic experiences and a historical investigation of 19th-20th century Russian culture in motion.
As a result of COVID (and partly Brexit), new travel not only causes anxiety and identity crises but also opens up a broader debate on how body and culture are connected at the liminal non-sites of borders. Moreover, the discussion of the dissemination of culture and the physical ability to travel is deeply rooted in the social history of Russian literature and art. The archetypal example is Alexander Pushkin: the poet who continues to embody Russian literature globally, and who never travelled abroad. How do borders transform cultural identities? What is the connection between the arrival of culture and physical arrival? Is it even possible to arrive in the context of new travel?
As a result of COVID (and partly Brexit), new travel not only causes anxiety and identity crises but also opens up a broader debate on how body and culture are connected at the liminal non-sites of borders. Moreover, the discussion of the dissemination of culture and the physical ability to travel is deeply rooted in the social history of Russian literature and art. The archetypal example is Alexander Pushkin: the poet who continues to embody Russian literature globally, and who never travelled abroad. How do borders transform cultural identities? What is the connection between the arrival of culture and physical arrival? Is it even possible to arrive in the context of new travel?
The Border, a performance in the UK
The Border is the first of three performative lectures developed by Dr Margarita Kuleva as part of her project The Arrival.
The lecture was held while crossing the English Channel, at the France-UK border.
The opening lecture is devoted to the notion of crossing borders in the context of new travel, with some historical parallels from Russian culture. Borders aren’t only anonymous non-sites to pass, but also social institutions, and crossing them is a ritual of transgression. Special attention will be given to gatekeepers and labyrinthine rules of crossing. The lecture presents an interdisciplinary patchwork woven from auto-ethnographic notes, historical examples, and recent stories of the new travellers.
The lecture was held while crossing the English Channel, at the France-UK border.
The opening lecture is devoted to the notion of crossing borders in the context of new travel, with some historical parallels from Russian culture. Borders aren’t only anonymous non-sites to pass, but also social institutions, and crossing them is a ritual of transgression. Special attention will be given to gatekeepers and labyrinthine rules of crossing. The lecture presents an interdisciplinary patchwork woven from auto-ethnographic notes, historical examples, and recent stories of the new travellers.
{min} enlightenment - The pool of fear, ethnography of collective swimming
On the 1st June 2021, Russia implemented the so-called law ‘On enlightenment activity’, regulating educational activity beyond official study programs. In respect to the new law, a team of students from the masters program ‘Media Communication and Media Studies’ and I, decided to explore what enlightenment means now. In this experimental project, we are not only reflecting on the contemporary situation in Russia but looking for less hierarchical and more inclusive forms of public education.
{min}enlightenment is a mini-series of performative lectures in unsuitable places: auto-repair garages, swimming pools and beauty salons. These new public-private spaces supplement the traditional ‘Salons of Enlightenment’, and as thus, the project aims to widen its definition beyond the traditional Eurocentric perspective. Places are noisy and busy with people who are concerned with their own occupations. In them, attention may not be focused purely on the speaker and by choosing such places, we challenge the traditional format of lecture or enlightenment.
This lecture focuses on the joys and horrors of swimming in 13 different countries, as recolected by Margarita herself.
Subtitles for most languages avaliable via auto translation
{min}enlightenment is a mini-series of performative lectures in unsuitable places: auto-repair garages, swimming pools and beauty salons. These new public-private spaces supplement the traditional ‘Salons of Enlightenment’, and as thus, the project aims to widen its definition beyond the traditional Eurocentric perspective. Places are noisy and busy with people who are concerned with their own occupations. In them, attention may not be focused purely on the speaker and by choosing such places, we challenge the traditional format of lecture or enlightenment.
This lecture focuses on the joys and horrors of swimming in 13 different countries, as recolected by Margarita herself.
Subtitles for most languages avaliable via auto translation
{min} enlightenment - People without a city
On the 1st June 2021, Russia implemented the so-called law ‘On enlightenment activity’, regulating educational activity beyond official study programs. In respect to the new law, a team of students from the masters program ‘Media Communication and Media Studies’ and I, decided to explore what enlightenment means now. In this experimental project, we are not only reflecting on the contemporary situation in Russia but looking for less hierarchical and more inclusive forms of public education.
{min}enlightenment is a mini-series of performative lectures in unsuitable places: auto-repair garages, swimming pools and beauty salons. These new public-private spaces supplement the traditional ‘Salons of Enlightenment’, and as thus, the project aims to widen its definition beyond the traditional Eurocentric perspective. Places are noisy and busy with people who are concerned with their own occupations. In them, attention may not be focused purely on the speaker and by choosing such places, we challenge the traditional format of lecture or enlightenment.
This lecture, performed by Ksenia Malich, focuses on architectural and urban planning visions for the life of machines during the 1960s and 1970s.
Subtitles for most languages avaliable via auto translation
{min}enlightenment is a mini-series of performative lectures in unsuitable places: auto-repair garages, swimming pools and beauty salons. These new public-private spaces supplement the traditional ‘Salons of Enlightenment’, and as thus, the project aims to widen its definition beyond the traditional Eurocentric perspective. Places are noisy and busy with people who are concerned with their own occupations. In them, attention may not be focused purely on the speaker and by choosing such places, we challenge the traditional format of lecture or enlightenment.
This lecture, performed by Ksenia Malich, focuses on architectural and urban planning visions for the life of machines during the 1960s and 1970s.
Subtitles for most languages avaliable via auto translation
(No) Future Institution, 2020
The above video is a short extract form the (NO) Future Institutions event held in Istanbul between the 15-17th December 2020. Supported by the Centre for German and European Studies, St Petersburg State University and Bielefeld University and the 'Digital Art History' Research Group (HSE University), the conferance focused on the economic, ecological, political and pandemic-related issues that have challenged and continue to challenge the creative sector in the 21st century. A full outline of events, alongside with recordings can be found in the links below.
Moscow, 2020
Photo taken during a research trip to Moscow, further exploring the trans-locality of art scenes alongside investigating feminist perspectives on Soviet and Post-Soviet art
Hipster city! 2020
Photo taken from the recent student-academic research project 'The Hipster City is Born. Cultural Production of St Petersburg in the 2000s', exploring cultural change in Russian cities in the 2000s
Oxford, 2017
Presenting 'The Dynamics of Professional Prestige in Fashion Industries of Europe and the US' with Daria Maglevania in 2017
Creative labour in Russia and Britain, 2019
Lecture as part of the HSE Art and Design School lecture series (RUS)
History of the Tusovka: to drink, walk and watch in St Petersburg, 2000-2010s, 2018
Part of the New Holland Island lecture series (RUS)
(dis)order, what dirt and cleanliness tells us about culture in Russia
Part of the New Holland Island lecture series
(Round table) Sociology vs. Art History: the battle for contemporary Russian art, 2019
Part of the Garage MCA lecture series (RUS). English subtitles avaliable below
Dis/order podcast (ENG)
Podcast recorded in Nairobi, Kenya with Usha Seejarim, Bruno Moreschi and Jackline Kemigisa in relation to the theme of (dis)order
PiraMMMida
'Cyber-PiraMMMida is a transdisciplinary, transmedia project devoted to ridiculing, tricking, twisting, queering, resisting – and perverting – the pyramidal spectres and structures which haunt the worlds of architecture, art, academia and the everyday.'
The essay linked below explores the 'pyramid' as a spatial metaphor for making social inequalities in the arts more visible.
The essay linked below explores the 'pyramid' as a spatial metaphor for making social inequalities in the arts more visible.
The privilege of presence
Exploring the pandemic on creative industries in Russia, using the pandemic as a 'crash test' to explore deeper issues in the arts
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