Nonconformist Visions. Alternative Art and Culture in Central and East Europe: Descripting Papers of nonconformist Artists and their Artist’s Publications in the Archive of the Research Center for East European Studies.
Modern and Contemporary History
Final Report Abstract
The goal of the project "Nonconformist Visions. Alternative Art and Culture in Central and Eastern Europe," was to formally index the holdings in the archive of the Research Centre for East European Studies at the University of Bremen that represent the nonconformist art scene in Central and Eastern Europe and to make cross-national thematic references visible. In terms of content, the focus was on transnational networks of Soviet nonconformist art and the international mail art scene of the 1970s/80s. At the center of the project were personal papers and collections of important informal artists from the Soviet Union, including the artist couple Sergei Sigei and Ry Nikonova, the Moscow Archive of New Art (M.A.N.I.), compiled by conceptual artists, and personal papers Boris Groys with a collection on Soviet art, as well as the extensive collection of artists' publications from the Soviet Union, Poland, the GDR, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary assembled by the West German collector and artist Klaus Groh. With cataloguing in the FSO's archive database, important preconditions were created to be able to comprehensively answer questions about art as a cross-border contact space between East and West and the materiality of artistic products in the field of tension between dissent and consensus during the Cold War. In the course of indexing the materials of little-known or unknown Central and Eastern European artists, artists' groups and underground publishers, over 1600 persons and corporate bodies were recorded, some of which were not available in the Integrated Authority File (GND). The data is currently being imported into national and international catalogues. The presentation in field-related portals like osmikon and arthistoricum.net will significantly increase the visibility and usability for research.
Publications
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Between Art Practice and Protest: Russian/ Soviet Alternative Art in the Prism of archives of the Russian Art Archive Net (RAAN)/ Entre practiques artistiques et contestation: l'art alternatif russe et soviétique au prisme du Réseau des archives d'art russe, in: Critique d' art. Actualité internationale de la littérature critique sur l'art contemporain 57 (2021), 2, 188-215
Putz, Manuela & Tarasova, Anastasia
