Main / art / 1990 – 1992 «Э.Т.И.» / April 1991 – «E.T.I. - TEXT» (popularly – «ХУЙ», which means “dick”) / The action «E.T.I. - TEXT»

«E.T.I. - TEXT» (popularly – «ХУЙ», which means “dick”)

April 18, 1991

The venue: Red Square, opposite Lenin’s Mausoleum
Quantity of participants: 14 people

Formally, the action was coincided with the moral legislative act, which come into force on April 15, 1991. Among other things this law prohibited usage of foul language in public places.

The idea of action (besides its obvious meaning of the protest) was to combine two symbols with opposite statuses: Red Square as the highest hierarchical geographical point on the territory of the USSR, and the most prohibited marginal word. Actually, it is the most effective way of scandal. Most of the scandals are made that way: injection of something marginal, forbidden, repressed to the highest, sacred, official context.

With regard to the meaning of protest, it was a protest against rising of prices and almost a physical impossibility to exist and to work.

Before that we were doing our performances in some DKs (houses of culture), renting their spaces and collecting money for the rental from the tickets. But after the first price increase all DKs began to request 100% payment in advance. Sure, we didn’t have that money. Artistic life was completely frozen. People impressed in deep depression for a long ten years as well. In fact, none of the spectators was going to art exhibitions, performances or something else. Gorbachev era was over.

A criminal case was opened on article 205 part 2 “Disorderly conduct with particular cynicism and impudence” (it was also imputation in insulting Lenin) because of the action. The case was terminated in three month owing to the absence of elements of a crime.

The Soviet intellectuals helped in this issue. Famous people sent letters to our support. Poet Andrey Voznesensky offered to answer on imputation in insulting Lenin the next way: “You should say, that if you wish to insult Lenin, you would put a dash before the word”. We really didn’t want to insult Lenin. But it turned out on the photo that there was written “LENIN” on his Mausoleum and there was “written” “DICK” on a cobblestone.

According to experts, this action was the beginning of a new period in the history of Russian art – the period of Moscow street actionism. Actually, ETI were doing street actions long before the action on Red Square, but exactly this action marked the beginning of a new period by virtue of its extreme popularity and its scandalous.

The theory.

It must be said about the problem of borrowing. Almost immediately after our action, the group “Mukhomor” (“amanita”) was proving its “priority” for putting this sacramental word using human bodies. As it became known later, some year (long before ETI action on Red Square) “Mukhomor” “wrote” on the snow the word “dick” by using three people and photographed it.

In the era of postmodernism, any priorieties is something highly questionable. In this case, there are some evidences that conceptualists Gerlovin had made this gesture before “Mukhomor” (but the photo did not survive). And “Mukhomor” themselves started talking about their action just after action of ETI gained notoriety.

Here again works typically postmodern trope of changing the importance of cause and effect. Nobody would have realized the importance of “cause” (action of “Mukhomor”), and indeed its existence, without the “effect” (action on Red Square). Therefore, the effect is the cause of the cause. Context is more important than text.

It seems that for such “works”, which are simple in visual and content aspect, this dubious triviality is quite true. Put it otherwise, the word “dick” was laid out exactly on Red Square, and it contained a contextual accuracy of the gesture.

“Innovative sense” (“surplus element” if we use the term of Malevich) in the action was not in writing some words using human bodies, but in realizing the action on Red Square. Moreover, the “background” (cobblestone of Red Square) for this action was as well very important along with the “message”.

Certainly, ETI had some continuity (at least in the formal aspect). Conceptualism in all its forms, from its “comic” version (“Mukhomor”, “Gnezdo” and others) to “analityc” (“Collectivnie deystviya” – “Collective action”) was important historical phenomenon for ETI. The principal difference was more in ideological (political) aspect. Radical left discourse (in its various forms) was important for ETI. Political was conceptualized as an important part of the activity. For conceptualists so-called “formal moment” was more important.

But the most important aspects of new period were publicity and direct relationship with mass-media (in some sense, newspapers and television were documenting all actions).

The preparation and realization of the action

We needed 14 people to come. 13 people for writing the “text”, and the 14th (G.Gusarov) had to cover us and to distract cops.

Five people came to the meeting. It were art critic Alexander Obukhov and Milena Orlova, anarchist Max Kuczynski and I (Anatoly Osmolovsky) with Grigory Gusarov.

Then we went to look for people near to a monument to Gogol on the subway station “Arbatskaya”. There we persuaded a few hippies and punks (only eight people) to go with us. We were 13 people and we had to find one more, otherwise Gusarov would have lie down with us.

When I put all them and lay down myself, the last was a passerby, who turned out to be thirteenth.

We must lay a minute or something. The photographer was a correspondent of the newspaper “MK”, he was the one, who posted the next morning the article with the famous photo. There is no good photo or negative nowadays (or they lie somewhere in archives).

^ Все фотографии

Activists of ETI movement after arrest near to Red Square police department

Периоды творчества

1987 – 1990 («Министерство ПРО СССР»)

1989 – 1992 (Э.Т.И.)

1992 – 1994 (Necesiudik)

1992– 2001 (Personal projects)

1997 – 2000 (Против всех)

2000 – 2002 (Нонспектакулярное искусство)

2002 – 2012 (Personal projects)

12/02/2015
Artist’s Talk: Anatoly Osmolovsky

Artist’s Talk: Anatoly Osmolovsky

27 Feb 20156:30 pm | Nash & Brandon Rooms | £8.00 to £10.00

Book Tickets

Russian artist, writer and theorist Anatoly Osmolovsky delivers a lecture examining the history of Russian Actionism and its value system. Osmolovsky began his career as a writer in the (then) Soviet Union and has been engaged in radical publishing and collective art-making throughout his career. The artist was involved with the Radek Community of the 1990s and early 2000s, collectivising Moscow Actionist-inspired artists who made a number of key public protest performances. Osmolovsky lead the younger artists in actions like Barricades (1998) and Against Everyone (1999), for which the group stormed the Lenin mausoleum, unfurling a banner with the titular words printed in large letters. Osmolovsky has since founded the independent art school Institute BAZA (2012).

Post Pop: East Meets West

26 November 2014 - 23 February 2015

Post Pop: East Meets West The exhibition brings together 250 works by 110 artists from China, the Former Soviet Union, Taiwan, the UK and the USA in a comprehensive survey celebrating Pop Art's legacy. Post Pop: East Meets West examines why of all the twentieth century's art movements, Pop Art has had such a powerful influence over artists from world regions that have had very different and sometimes opposing ideologies.

The exhibition celebrates the art being produced in these four distinct regions since the heyday of Pop, and presents them in relation to each other through the framework of six themes: Habitat; Advertising and Consumerism; Celebrity and Mass Media; Art History; Religion and Ideology; Sex and the Body.

Mike Nelson selects from the V-A-C collection:
Again, more things (a table ruin)

Known for his atmospheric, immersive installations British artist Mike Nelson (b. 1967) transforms the gallery with sculptures drawn from the V-A-C collection.

The space, with a rough wooden floor and mass of modelled figures, is suggestive of an artist’s studio, but it is filled with sculptures of the body by some of the 20th century’s greatest artists.

Displayed on this common ground, Constantin Brancusi’s The First Cry (1917) dissolves the human form into elliptical shapes, and Alberto Giacometti’s Femme Debout (1957) elongates a woman’s body into abstraction. While contemporary artist Pawel Althamer’s depiction of three figures around a campfire becomes a focal point around which the other sculptures – by artists including Petr Galadzhev and Anatoly Osmolovsky - seem to be gathered.The display highlights the V-A-C collection, Moscow, as part of the Whitechapel Gallery’s programme of opening up rarely seen collections from around the world.

The publication for this exhibition will available from the end of September. More (press-release)

Thomas Brambilla gallery is proud to announce on Saturday 31 March 2012 the opening of the
group show Blind hole, with William Anastasi, Lucio Fontana, Udomsak Krisanamis, Anatoly
Osmolovsky, Nathan Peter, Grayson Revoir.

31/03/2012 – 04/06/2012
Opening: Saturday 31 March 2012 h.18.30.
Opening hours: Tuesday - Saturday h.14:00-19:00.

Thomas Brambilla
Via Casalino 25
24121 Bergamo Italia
Ph: +39 035 247418
www.thomasbrambilla.com
info@thomasbrambilla.com

07/07/2011
Ostalgia VIP Preview Invite

New Museum will present “Ostalgia,” an exhibition that brings together the work of more than fifty artists from twenty countries across Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Republics. Contesting the format of a conventional geographical survey, the exhibition will include works produced by Western European artists who have depicted the reality and the myth of the East.

The exhibition takes its title from the German word ostalgie, a term that emerged in the 1990s to describe a sense of longing and nostalgia for the era before the collapse of the Communist Bloc. Twenty years ago, a process of dissolution began, leading to the break-up of the Soviet Union and of many other countries that had been united under communist governments. From the Baltic republics to the Balkans, from Central Europe to Central Asia, entire regions and nations were reconfigured, their constitutions rewritten, their borders redrawn. “Ostalgia” looks at the art produced in and about some of these countries, many of which did not formally exist two decades ago. Mixing private confessions and collective traumas, the exhibition traces a psychological landscape in which individuals and entire societies negotiate new relationships to history, geography, and ideology.

2010-10-16

Fotoreportažas iš Rusijos šiuolaikinio meno projekto parodos „Estetika VS Informacija“ atidarymo (paroda veiks iki lapkričio 14 d.)...

Презентация и обсуждение первого номера журнала "БАЗА" состоится 12 сентября в 20.00 в книжном магазине "Гилея" по адресу: Тверской бульвар, 9. Вход свободный.

Уважаемые участники круглого стола, к сожалению я не могу принять участие в обсуждении, так как в этот момент нахожусь в поезде Москва-Вильнюс. Будучи первым обладателем премии Кандинского мне, конечно, не безразлична судьба этой в высшей мере благотворной инициативы, потому я предлагаю вашему вниманию собственные соображения.

Газета «Коммерсантъ» № 180 (4480) от 29.09.2010

Выставка "Модерникон" счастливо соединила деньги олигархов с креативностью художников.

Журнал о современном искусстве БАЗА, № 1 В сборнике публикация центрального эссе немецкого философа Гарри Леманна «Авангард сегодня». Подборка статей и лекций Клемента Гринберга. Новый поэтический цикл поэта Дмитрия Пименова. Полиграфические художественные проекты С.Огурцова и С.Шурипы. А так же аналитические статьи современных российских художников по теме «Произведение искусства».

23 сентября–27 февраля,Выставка «Модерникон.Современное искусство из России», Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Турин,Италия) Этаблированный фонд с шикарным выставочным залом Sandretto Re Rebaudengo (Турин, Италия) и новый российский фонд «Виктория — Искусство быть современным» (Москва) показывают выставку русских художников сегодняшнего дня, кураторами которой выступили Франческо Бонами (художественный директор фонда) и Ирене Кальдерони. Выставка исходит из гипотезы (навеянной идеями Анатолия Осмоловского), согласно которой русское искусство раньше имело радикальную и провокационную эстетику, а ныне вступило в новую фазу своего развития, где прямое действие уступило место более эстетическому подходу.

23/09/2010
Печатные издания Радек
Поступили в продажу печатные издания группы Радек
Read more…

13/09/2010
«Тупые, наверное. Книжек не читают»

Ирина Постникова /03 сентября 2010

Художник, куратор, философ Анатолий Осмоловский политике никогда не был чужд. Более того, всегда считал себя оппозиционером — и власть публично критиковал. Тем не менее, месяц назад Осмоловский поучаствовал в молодежном форуме «Селигер», чем изрядно всех удивил. Сам он, впрочем, считает, что степень его оппозиционности от пребывания среди прокремлевских активистов не уменьшилась. Потому что не контекст красит человека, а человек — контекст.

ММ: Анатолий, мне интересно, как начиналась Ваша творческая деятельность?

АО: Я сам из Москвы, начинал как литератор, как поэт. В 17-18 лет, когда здесь началась перестройка и была объявлена свобода и гласность, я читал стихи в публичных местах, на улице. Но дело в том, что российский литературный круг в интеллектуальном смысле достаточно примитивен, и довольно быстро меня и моих друзей эта деятельность перестала удовлетворять. Постепенно я стал смещаться в область перформанса, а потом и изобразительного искусства.

Во время летнего путешествия по Уралу мы – я, Александр Липницкий и Светлана Баскова – проездом посетили Свияжский Успенский собор. Собор этот известен сохранившимися фресками 16 века. В России совсем не много сохранившихся фресок 16 века. За исключением Ферапонтова монастыря кое-где сохранились небольшие фрагменты, да и то в крайне плохом состоянии. Фрески Успенского собора сохранились в большом объеме. Качество фресок выдающееся. В некоторых фрагментах видны отголоски «дионисиевого» письма.

«E.T.I. - TEXT» (popularly – «ХУЙ», which means “dick”)

April 18, 1991

The theory.

The preparation and realization of the action

Периоды творчества

Post Pop: East Meets West

Mike Nelson selects from the V-A-C collection: Again, more things (a table ruin)

Mike Nelson selects from the V-A-C collection:
Again, more things (a table ruin)