Art Metropole

#14751

Anti-Shows: APTART 1982–84

Date

2017

Publisher

Afterall

Format

Anthologies

Size

15.6 × 21.5 cm

Length

256 pp

Genre

Art History

The latest title in the Exhibition Histories series examines APTART, a series of self-organised ‘anti-shows’ that took place in a private apartment and outdoor spaces in Moscow between 1982 and 1984.

With main essays by Margarita Tupitsyn and Victor Tupitsyn, additional texts by Alexandra Danilova and Elena Kuprina-Lyakhovich, Richard Goldstein, Sven Gundlakh, Ilya Kabakov and Valerie Smith, an introduction by David Morris and interviews with participating artists including Natalia Abalakova and Anatoly Zhigalov, Nikita Alekseev and Victor Skersis.

A collective of artists, a gallery and a movement, APTART was a series of self-organised ‘anti-shows’ that took place in a private apartment and outdoor spaces in Moscow between 1982 and 1984. These covert and anarchic actions, which soon came into conflict with the Soviet authorities, represent a collective attempt to rethink the politics of exhibition-making and the practice of making public in the absence of a public sphere. The first comprehensive publication on APTART, this book presents extensive photographic documentation of their activities alongside archival texts from contributing artists and documents from the time. Main essays by Margarita Tupitsyn and Victor Tupitsyn offer a detailed elucidation of the movement’s history and guiding concepts; and further contexts and analysis are provided through contributions by Manuel Alcayde, Alexandra Danilova and Elena Kuprina-Lyakhovich, Richard Goldstein, Sven Gundlakh, Ilya Kabakov, David Morris and Valerie Smith.

The Exhibition Histories series investigates exhibitions that have shaped the way contemporary art is experienced, made and discussed.

Published by Afterall Books in association with the Center for Curatorial Studies, Bard College, 2017.