Nottingham Contemporary

Uneven Geographies brings together the work of artists from five continents who find experimental ways of capturing the processes of globalisation, and its human consequences in various regions of the world. Curated by T.J Demos and Alex Farquharson

Éduardo Abaroa, Azzellini & Ressler, Yto Barrada, Ursula Biemann, Bureau d’Études, Öyvind Fahlström, Goldin + Senneby, Mark Lombardi, Steve McQueen, Cildo Meireles, George Osodi, Bruno Serralongue, Mladen Stilinović, Yang Zhenzhong

Uneven Geographies brings together the work of artists from five continents who find experimental ways of capturing the processes of globalisation, and its human consequences in various regions of the world.

Curated by T.J Demos and Alex Farquharson

What are the reference points for contemporary art in a global economy that creates enormous wealth as well as widening inequality. Our opening conference explores the many strategies artists use to reveal the processes and human consequences of the globalised market economy. Introduced by the exhibition’s co-curator T.J. Demos – writer, curator and lecturer at University College, London – the conference includes artists George Osodi, Ursula Biemann, Dario Azzellini, Oliver Ressler and Bureau d’Études.

Other speakers include Alfredo Cramerotti, author of Aesthetic Journalism and co-curator of the next Manifesta exhibition; Angus Cameron, the official “emissary” of artists Goldin+Senneby and a lecturer in Human Geography at the University of Leicester; Janna Graham, artist and curator; The University of Nottingham’s Alex Vasudevan and Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism; Is There No Alterative? Together they will examine the challenges of representing globalisation, and what’s at stake when artists engage with geopolitical issues.

Associate Professor Rolf Hellebust of the University of Nottingham will give an illustrated lecture on the history of Soviet space exploration as a symbol of utopian desire. Starting from the pre-revolutionary period of communist cosmic utopianism, it covers proletarian poetry and science fiction and the triumphs of the Soviet cosmonauts, together with the deconstruction of official mythology as the Soviet state toppled. Afterwards there will be a chance to explore the evening sky, courtesy of the NTU observatory and its telescopes with Dr. Dan Brown, Astronomy Development and Outreach Officer (weather permitting

The cuisines of communism and Eastern Bloc humour, Seth Graham of University College London will preside at a night of humour – and food. A smorgasbord of Eastern European cuisines will include Russian, Polish, Ukranian and Romanian delights. There will also be live Polish music

The cuisines of communism and Eastern Bloc humour, Seth Graham of University College London will preside at a night of humour – and food. A smorgasbord of Eastern European cuisines will include Russian, Polish, Ukranian and Romanian delights. There will also be live Polish music

During the period 1917 to 1945 artists, and subsequently the state, attempted to define the political role of art. Dr Mike O’Mahony of the History of Art Department at the University of Bristol traces this fascinating trajectory through the rise and fall of the Soviet avant-garde to the emergence of Socialist Realism - “intrinsically an art of the past, present and future.”

Viktor Misiano’s lecture focuses on the reawakening of interest in the mytical and revolutionary ideas of the Russian Cosmists in the work of leading Russian artists of the post-communist era: Dmitri Gutov, Yuri Liederman and Sergei Shutov. In particular, he examines the influence of the founder of Cosmism, Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed that modern science would soon bring about he resurrection of everyone who had ever lived and the colonization of other planets. Although Cosmism influenced the development of the Soviet space programme, its ideas were thoroughly suppressed under Stalin.

Misiano is one of the leading curators and critics of the Russian contemporary art scene. He is editor of ‘Progressive Nostalgia: Contemporary Art of the Former USSR’ (2008), a book that documents a number of international exhibitions he curated in recent years on how artists have responded to enormous social change in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“Byt” is Russian for everyday life. Dr Susan E. Reid of the Russian and Slavonic Studies Department, the University of Sheffield, will talk about Russian domestic life during the 50s and 60s.

The Khrushchev era in the Soviet Union (mid-1950s - mid-1960s) was a time of rapid modernization and intensive industrialized construction of standard mass housing for the Soviet people. The provision of new flats was accompanied by large quantities of advice about how to furnish, decorate and dwell in them in ways that were deemed modern, tasteful and socialist, such that the new apartments would not become nests of ‘petit-bourgeois’ private values but, rather, become the springboard for the final transition to full Communism. This illustrated talk will look at the way in which Soviet citizens who moved into new flats in the early 1960s negotiated standardization, shortages, and modernist taste prescriptions to make these standard spaces into home.

Russian Cosmism and Post-Soviet Art

Viktor Misiano

Viktor Misiano’s lecture focuses on the reawakening of interest in the mytical and revolutionary ideas of the Russian Cosmists in the work of leading Russian artists of the post-communist era: Dmitri Gutov, Yuri Liederman and Sergei Shutov. In particular, he examines the influence of the founder of Cosmism, Nikolai Fyodorov, who believed that modern science would soon bring about he resurrection of everyone who had ever lived and the colonization of other planets. Although Cosmism influenced the development of the Soviet space programme, its ideas were thoroughly suppressed under Stalin.

Misiano is one of the leading curators and critics of the Russian contemporary art scene. He is editor of ‘Progressive Nostalgia: Contemporary Art of the Former USSR’ (2008), a book that documents a number of international exhibitions he curated in recent years on how artists have responded to enormous social change in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union.

“Byt” is Russian for everyday life. Dr Susan E. Reid of the Russian and Slavonic Studies Department, the University of Sheffield, will talk about Russian domestic life during the 50s and 60s.

The Khrushchev era in the Soviet Union (mid-1950s - mid-1960s) was a time of rapid modernization and intensive industrialized construction of standard mass housing for the Soviet people. The provision of new flats was accompanied by large quantities of advice about how to furnish, decorate and dwell in them in ways that were deemed modern, tasteful and socialist, such that the new apartments would not become nests of ‘petit-bourgeois’ private values but, rather, become the springboard for the final transition to full Communism. This illustrated talk will look at the way in which Soviet citizens who moved into new flats in the early 1960s negotiated standardization, shortages, and modernist taste prescriptions to make these standard spaces into home

Dr Stefanos Katsikas of the History Department of Goldsmiths, University of London, revisits the Warsaw Pact and the Cold War.