Private Moon in Paris, 2009

Solveig. Landscape of My Memory.

Solveig. Landscape of My Memory, video installation at Nina Lumer Gallery, Milan, until 31 January

Sk(y)ier

Sk(y)ier, video, 1999
at Nina Lumer Gallery, Milan, until 31 January 2011

The Wish Machine

 

Wish Machine, cinetic installation, 2010
on The Little Prince in Moscow show
at PL Gallery, M.Dmitrovka, 29
23 December - 1 March 2011

Exhibition at Nina Lumer Gallery, Milan

Private moon, 2003, light object, plastic, LED


Sk(y)ier, 1999-2007, video


Solveig. Landscape of My Memory, 2004, video, salt, glass, wood, music of Edvard Grieg

Journey of the Private Moon in Italy

The Hunting of the Snark

Portfolio "The Hunting of the Snark" in 500 copies with Leonid Tishkov's 58 illustrations
of 1990, reprint book of Lewis Carroll by 1876 with ill. Henry Holiday, CD with music of Lev Gutovsky and book of texts by Tishkov. Gutovsky and publisher Pavel Rabin. Also 10 copies of the portfolio has original ink pictures of Leonid Tishkov, 2010.

tv culture

Journey of Private Moon in the Arctic

Clasters

Leonid Tishkov
Clasters, installation: old found cloth from artist's family, photographs from family album, video projection of photographs, electric lamps, metal, fan. 2010 on III Prigov fest: Assemblage Point in
NCCA, 6 - 28 November, 2010

Private Moon in the Urals

Private Moon at old Water-cooling tower in the VIZ factory on
First Industrial Biennale in the Urals, Ekaterinburg

Leonid Tishkov, Private Moon, 2003-2011
Mobile Installation. Light box

Private Moon is a visual poetic installation, open for interaction with humans and space. In its unusual position within a land­scape, in a stretch of open country, inside some deserted accommodation or water-cooling towers, the artificial moon sheds its light on surrounding objects and offers viewers as they arrive or occasional pass­ers-by a chance to experience the fairytale nature of our existence. When a viewer goes inside the installation, he or she becomes both a subject and an actor in the performance, and enjoys a poetic insight within our prosaic post-industrial real­ity. Private Moon signifies the return of the romantic project into the topical scope of contemporary art, which could definitely profit from more of the poetic and the
humane. As an added benefit, this project allows everyone who wanders into its story to feel like an artist or a co-author with Leo­nid Tishkov. The need for such a project is evident in Ekaterinburg, with its indus­trial landscape, deserted habitats, aban­doned spaces, and the lack of the poetic that drives the locals into depression. This is why Private Moon has come to the Urals, bearing a handful of poetry in its silver palm.

Private Moon in Frankfurt

Concert for the Private Moon
on Playing the City II

Multimedia Art Museum Moscow opening

Sk(y)ier, installation: video, steel, acrilic glass, electric lamps, 1999-2008, collection of MMAM

I AM STILL ALIVE

I AM STILL ALIVE, photo and video projection on a glaicer, Spitsbergen, 2010

PLAYING THE CITY II

9 September - 29 September 2010

SCHIRN Kusthalle Frankfurt

THE SCHIRN'S "PLAYING THE CITY 2" PROJECT ONCE AGAIN TRANSFORMS CENTRAL FRANKFURT INTO A SHOWPLACE FOR A RANGE OF ACTIONS AND PERFORMANCES

Following last year's success, the exhibition project Playing the City 2 once again presents a wide range of artistic activities in public space, involving the city and its inhabitants in a variety of ways. From 8 to 26 September 2010, central Frankfurt will see new actions taking place daily, from performances to installations to "guerrilla actions". At the heart of the project lies an intense debate about public space and the "participatory turn" within contemporary art. Around 20 collaborative and participatory works are planned, some specially conceived for the project, by Nina Beier, Clarina Bezzola, Julien Bismuth, Clegg & Guttmann, Cosalux, Christoph Faulhaber, For Use / Numen, Swetlana Gerner, Jördis Hille, Christoph von Löw, Josef Loretan, Jan Lotter, Annika Lundgren, Lee Mingwei, Ivan Moudov, Anny and Sibel Öztürk, Paola Pivi, Plural Art Collective feat, Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, Reactor, Annika Ström, Leonid Tishkov, Gavin Turk and Vanja Vukovic. In parallel a project office, the "Zentrale", will be set up in the Schirn's exhibition spaces, from where the project team will pursue its work in public, fine-tuning the website, answering questions on the exhibition, and organising and documenting all the activities. Playing the City 2 can also be followed via the internet, in a digital extension of public space. The website developed for the project, www.playingthecity.de, assembles all the latest videos, texts and visual material, an exhibition calendar and a blog, and will also be networked beyond the physical venues via numerous social media networks. It is thus a catalogue, exhibition forum and platform for discussion all in one.

Playing the City 2 opens up public space as a collective, free arena that can be moulded, that questions its boundaries, and that involves its inhabitants. The site-specific actions take place within a time-limited framework in which they are produced and can be experienced, and in which production and reception are closely connected. The traditional definitions of a work and of its authorship are negated: both terms that have been questioned since the 1960s, not least through action art. Many of the works developed for Playing the City 2 can only be realised through the involvement of the public; whether they are actions that provoke fortuitous street confrontations or sculptures that invite use. But at the very least they are intended to create a confrontation and a dialogue with the – sometimes randomly generated – audience, and to transform public space into a playing field with rules that are tested collaboratively. Can the public space really be taken as a place of different opinions and voices? What constitutes public opinion? What do we understand by public space? These are some of the questions raised by the Playing the City 2 project.

The concept that Playing the City 2 realises, on various levels, is a continuation of the ideas of the major avant-garde movements of the twentieth century. In the early twentieth century, the Dada movement rejected "conventional" art and art forms as well as bourgeois ideals, taking to the street instead. It is also worth mentioning Guy Debord's Situationism, which 50 years later still has a strong influence on the contemporary art scene, notably on "Public Art", and which has inspired theoreticians such as Michel de Certeau to define space as a "practised place" and to locate its significance in the activities taking place within it. The urban researcher Armando Silva argues similarly, differentiating the city into the architectural fact and a performance consisting of human interactions. For artists of so-called relational aesthetics, processes such as intersubjectivity and interaction are both the starting and endpoints of their artistic work. According to Nicolas Bourriaud, the utopian potential in developing artistic spaces in this way lies in being able to provide alternative forms of sociality, critique and happiness. They have all turned away from the transformative potential of grand narratives, and instead see opportunity for change in the direct encounter with people.

Playing the City 2 offers a look into the wide varieties of current participatory and collaborative art: one large-scale installation by the Austrian-Croatian design collective For Use / Numen fills the architecture of the Schirn with a walk-in cocoon of transparent adhesive tape. Since the installation can be experienced and entered, it becomes a fixed component and can be used as such by the inhabitants of public space. The installation by artist duo Michael Clegg & Martin Guttmann, "Open Debate Station, Frankfurt", questions the structure and function of public debates. They design a discussion platform that, through fixed furniture and established rules of play, becomes a place for a public, structured and fair exchange of opinions. In this work, the two artists refer both to the tradition of Talmudic interpretation and to the history of the Frankfurt School. The Italian artist Paola Pivi will engineer unexpected situations on Frankfurt public transport as part of her work: during rush hour, an individual actor first starts to sing a song, and then gradually – apparently at random – more musicians will join in, singing or playing instruments, thereby disrupting the everyday situation of a silent trip by bus or tram.

The title of Annika Lundgren's project, "The Stock Is Rising", is a historical reference to a 1967 action, in which a group of 20,000 peace demonstrators led by Abbie Hoffmann gathered before the Pentagon in Washington D.C. and sang loudly to drive evil spirits from the building, as part of a protest against the Vietnam War. The action planned by Lundgren for Playing the City 2 is a response to the international financial crisis and will start by publishing information on the website www.stockisrising.com about the action, about Abbie Hoffman, about levitation as a form of parapsychological practice in which the pure force of thought overcomes the gravity of objects, and about the financial crisis. On 21 September 2010, between 15:00 and 17:35, participants in the action will gather in front of the Alte Börse (former stock exchange) in Frankfurt, and make the building hover. This action will be networked worldwide via the website.


DIRECTOR: Max Hollein

CURATOR: Matthias Ulrich


Interview Matthias Ulrich with Leonid Tishkov

Public space is a closely contested realm. Michel de Certeau moreover describes this space as the result of all activities occurring within that space. Why is it important as an artist to participate in these public struggles or activities, and what is there to be gained?


Art introduces utopias, contructs models of the world, rocks existing connections and thus creates the conditions for the break-up of social concepts and opens up new paths for social development. An artist’s discriminating glance sees something else, buried under the dense mass of the ruling ideology. Artists and poets – and they are part of society – can see what lies hidden, take note of the small and insignificant, detect glimpses of poetic beauty in piles of rubbish, return to trampled fields and break down invisible walls. They’re an important part of society even though the state pens them up in reservations, which is happening right now in Russia.


Saskia Sassen distinguishes between public space and publicly accessible space. What are your expectations of public space? Antiquity’s agora or modern mall?


Art can exist anywhere – in a drop of water in the fountain on the square, in the white cube of the gallery, in a mall or on the roof of my studio. Yet this existence is tantamount to the existence of art on Saturn, right up to the moment when the heart of the viewer responds to it (the art) and it settles in their memory, somewhere, on a chemical level. Public space, to me, is merely the place and opportunity to turn to one person, whoever is in front of me.


In recent years, the term social turn has been discussed in art theory. It stands for the integration of social processes and their alteration through artistic interventions and activities. How do you and your work refer to social turn?


Such a ‘turn’ had already been indicated at the beginning o the 20th century, namely by Vladimir Tatlin under the motto “Art into Life”. He claimed that art should actively participate in politics, economics, technology, science – human life in its totality. One of the first mobile sculptures in the world was the memorial for the III. International – and it was constructed by a multitude of people like a mass action or performance. In 1925, it moved in Leningrad as “izoustanovka” (art installation), adorned with utopian mottos, and the artist appeared as the “initiative unit”. The model of “Letishkov” I created in 1998 in Stockholm with the help of Swedish craftsmen, the theatrical performance at the Faerg factories during the same year, where more than 40 actors took part – those projects were based on Tatlin’s ideas of the structures of limitless technological and scientific progress and the organic, ‘natural’ way of living of humans. In my case, a kind of revision occurred, but the poetic-utopian part remained unchanged.


French philosopher Jacques Rancière puts emphasis on the creativity of the viewer, which an artwork could initiate. Shared creativity between the artist and the viewer, arranged in the participatory work of art, offers opportunities for new activities. Does this practice – sooner or later – render the artist redundant?


Every piece of art is charged with its creator’s energy, and if we are touched by a picture or sculpture of an artist – even if they’ve been dead for a long time – we feel that charge. Maybe new art has more opportunities to transmit this charge, with its experiences in theatre, cinema and the media. Within the industry there is the figure of the ‘animator’ who enlivens the inert masses waiting for entertainment. This experience is being utilized by contemporary art, assuming not only the role of the “craftsman”, but also the “clown”. But key is the creative energy of the artist. What does it mean, what’s its significance, its effect on a passive viewer. So a future without artists is not possible – their number increases, but their presence less noticeable. Art becomes more and more democratic, free, more ‘humanistic’ due to the education, communication and availability of the means of production.

What does it mean to you, if the production as well as the appropriation of art work includes the activity of other people – artists, non-artists, the audience?

Art as an open system has always been very attractive to me. In the early 1990 I worked for a project called “Dabloiden” with disabled children, at the beginning of the following decade I organized exhibitions and actions on the roof of my studio in collaboration with other artists; the central theme was not just location but also the idea of art as a free zone. And if the market dictates the rule of the supermarket, the recognizability of its style, repeatability of its name, endless self-citation, so that’s why. Working with other authors (often not artists) I don’t just get the unforeseeable result, but true inspiration as well.

What are your experiences so far with projects that have required the active participation of the public, particularly in relation to their production and realization?

The last large project – the performance “Die Fabrik der Dabloiden” (The factory of the Dabloids) which happened in a factory in Ekaterinburg with the support of the NCCA (centre for contemporary art). The disused factory floor had been equipped for the production of the Dabloids (I have been working with these creatures for 20 years); this work was undertaken by workers who previously had worked at this factory. I paid them the average wage they had earned before being made redundant. Following my instructions, approx. 10 people – spectators could join in – made over 30 objects during a five day period. This social action now exists as an installation containing video, the comments of the participants that are registered as artists. With this project I realized the idea of “Art into Life” by communication my creativity as an artist and conveying the means of production and money. In this case, the artist not only exchanges energy with the audience, but appears as a responsible member of society and transforms the initially meaningless creative act into a radical social gesture.

Within participatory art we can differentiate between performers and co-creators. Art as an idea and the result as social work?

I call the artist an “initiative unit” – after Tatlin – he or she is the leader of any creative practise. The curator is a commissioner (as in the soviet army), universal figure of the ‘helper’. They’re needed as an interpreter for the artist to communicate his activities to the audience. The artist, the one generating the idea, can be ‘actor’ or not! In my project “Private Moon” I allow the celestial body to go on an autonomous journey, it is handedover from on to another viewer within a set timeframe. They receive the object and create the installtion themselves, immerse it in their habitat. Poetry plays an important role in this tale, it is being materialized by the moon having descended from its celestial place. Participants feel it, because they have ‘received’ the moon. How and where, what they feel when they receive the object, how they interact – all this is part of the project. “Private Moon” is poetry in action. Implementation of utopian ideas into our sphere. And I declare: poetry changes the world for the better!


Jean-Luc Nancy is critical of community in the sense of its creating a common-being, having been awarded a quasi religious identity. Pluralism, according to Boris Groys, is the principal value created by a participatory practice. Apart from another successful operation of the communication of the art system, why do contemporary artists cooperate, collaborate, and work with artist’s collectives?


There is no shartage of communication – to the contrary! But we’re lacking creative power! Art has to be a free zone, where artists – using their imagination, poetic responsibility – create a new world where people can live without religious or national prejudice and without national borders. And this is why in future current international artistic experiences can be applied to the whole of mankind.

A large part of participatory art refers to happening or theatre. The invisible theatre, a form of discourse originated in 1920’s Soviet Union, entirely relinquished the separation of actor and audience. How do you and your work relate to theatre?
Some of my theatrical performances end with me leaving behind decorations and objects as an installation in the exhibition hall. Viewers in this hall don’t see any activity, the game is already up. But sometimes they correlate with the objects through touch, play, photography, and so they become a part of the installation, too. However, I am more interested in the long term relations with the viewer, he has to somehow continue my art long after the initial encounter with it. In 2006, for example, a group of young people organized the production of Dabloids – I wasn’t even part of it. Approx. 50 people gathered at the Moskva-River and produced – publicly, in front of an audience – the Dabloids. And then one of them flew into the sky… I was invited to this action as a viewer – nothing more. And I feel it is a real privilege, simply being a spectator in your own world!
How much importance do you attach to affecting the behavior of others with your art? What do you expect from the audience in general?
I absolutely can not take the role of a dictator! It’s about violence, and to me, only love matters. Only love renders our world feasible, it creates art and justifies its existence. And my viewers are those people who need love. That is to say everyone living on Earth!

1)Der offentliche Raum ist ein von Interessen umkampfter Raum. Michel der Certeau beschreibt den (offentlichen) Raum uberdies als Resultat der darin vorkommenden Aktivitaten. Warum ist es wichtig, dass sich Kunst in diesen Kampf, in diese Aktivitaten einmischt, und welche Siege kann sie dabei erzielen?
Die Kunst stellt die Utopien vor, baut die Modelle der Welte auf, schaukelt die feststehenden Verbindungen und schafft damit die Bedingungen fuer den Aufbruch der gesellschaftlichen Konzepte und oeffnet dabei die neuen Wege der gesellschaftlichen Entwicklung. Kuenstler mit seinem distanzierenden Blick sieht das Andere, was unter der dichten Masse der herrschenden Ideologie begraben ist. Kuenstler und Dichter — und die sind ein Teil der Gesellschaft - koennen das Geheime sehen, das Kleine und das Unwesentliche beachten, die Binkel der Poesie aus dem Muell entziehen, zu zertretenen Felden zuruekkehren und die unsichtbaren Waende brechen. Dabei sind die ein wichtiger Teil der Gesellschaft, obwohl der Staat sie in die Reservationen eintreibt, was jetzt in Russland passiert.

2)Saskia Sassen unterscheidet offentlichen Raum von offentlich zuganglichem Raum. Welche Erwartungen verbindest du selbst mit dem offentlichen Raum? Antike Agora oder moderne Mall?
Die Kunst kann ueberall existieren — in einem Tropfen des Brunnens auf dem Platz, im weissen Saal der Kunsthalle, in einem Mall oder auf dem Dach meines Studios. Aber diese Existenz ist der Existenz der Kunst auf Saturn gleichbedeutend bis zu dem Moment, wann das Herz des Zuschauers auf sie (die Kunst) antwortet und sie setzt sich dann in seinem Gedaechtnis, irgendwo auf dem Niveau der chemischen Reaktionen. Der oeffentliche Raum ist fuer mich nur Platz und Anlass um mich an einem einzigen Menschen anzuwenden, der mir gegenueber steht.

3)
Man spricht in der Kunst seit ein paar Jahren vom social turn. Gemeint damit ist die Einbeziehung von sozialen Prozessen und ihre Veranderung durch kunstlerische Aktivitaten. Inwiefern wurdest du deine Arbeit mit dem social turn assoziieren?

Solcher «turn» wurde schon am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts im revoltunaeren Russland vorgegeben und zwar von Vladimir Tatlin mit seinem Motto «Die Kunst ins Leben!» Er behauptete und forderte, dass die Kunst sehr aktiv an Politik, Wirtschaft, Technik, Wissenschaft, Betrieb — an das menschliche Leben insgesamt — teilnehmen muss. Eine der ersten mobilen Skulpturen in der Welt war das Denkmal der III Internationale - und es wurde auch von vielen Menschen aufgebaut wie eine Massenaktion oder Performance. Und 1925 bewegte es sich in Leningrad als «izoustanovka» (kuenstlerische Anlage) mit utopischen Mottos geschmuckt und der Kuenstler trat dabei als die «intiative Einheit» (iniziativnaya edinica) auf. Das Modell von «Letishkov», das ich 1998 in Stockholm mit Hilfe der schwedischen Handwerker geschaffen habe, das teatrale Performance an das Zentrum der aktuellen Kunst Faergfabriken in demselben Jahr, an dem mehr als 40 Schauspeler teilgenommen haben — diese Projekte basierten sich auf Tatlin's Ideen der Zusammensetzung des grenzlosen technichen und wissenschaftlichen Fortschrittes und der organischen, «natuerlichen» Lebensweise der Menschen. In meinem Fall gab es in gewissem Sinne die Revision, aber der poetisch-utopische Teil blieb ungeaendert.

4)
Die Kunst verfugt, nach Jacques Ranciere, uber einen emanzipatorischen Rahmen, innerhalb dessen der/die BetrachterIn die eigene kreative Vorstellung uben konne. Geteilte Kreativitat zwischen KunstlerIn und BetrachterIn, wie in partizipatorischen Arbeiten, eroffne Moglichkeiten zu neuen Handlungsweisen. Macht sich der/die KunstlerIn durch eine solche Praxis nicht uberflussig a la longue?

Jedes Kunstwerk hat die Ladung der Energie seines Schoepfers und wann wir von einem Bild oder einer Skulptur eines sogar lang gestorbenen Kuenstlers beeindruckt sind, bekommen wir diese Ladung. Vielleicht hat die neue Kunst mit Erfahrungen in Theater, Kino und Media mehr Moeglichkeiten um diese Energie zu uebergeben. Aktuelle Industrie schlaegt uns die Figur des “Animators” vor, der die inerte Gruppe der Menschen, die auf “entertaiment” warten, anzuendet. Diese Erfahrung wird auch von der aktuellen Kunst benutzt, die der Gesellschaft nicht nur die Figur des “Handwerkers”, sondern auch des “Clowns” vorschlaegt. Aber das Wichtigste liegt in der kreativen Energie des Kuenstlers. Welchen Sinn hat sie, welche positive Bedeutung, wie sie auf einem passiven Zuschauer einwirkt. Und eben deshalb ist die Zukunft ohne Kuenstler unmoeglich – die Anzahl wird groesser, aber ihre Praesenz wird nicht so merkbar (sichtbar). Die Kunst wird mehr und mehr demokratisch, frei, “humanistischer” dank der Ausbildung, Kommunikationen und Erreichbarkeit der Produktionsmittel.

5)
Welche Bedeutung hat jene Kunst fur dich, zu deren Herstellung und Verwendung andere Menschen – Kunstler oder Nicht-Kunstler, das Publikum – involviert sind?

Kunst als ein geoeffnetes System war fuer mich immer attraktiv, noch am Anfang der 1990-er Jahren arbeitete ich fuer das Projekt “Dabloiden” mit behinderten Kindern, Anfang der 2000 organisierte ich mit einigen Kuenstlern und Musikern Ausstellungen-Aktionen auf dem Dach meines Studios, die alle nicht nur mit dem Raum vereinigt waren, sondern auch mit der Idee der Kunst als Freiheitszone.
Und wenn uns das Markt die Regel des Supermarkts diktiert und zwar Erkennbarkeit des Stils, Wiederholbarkeit des Namens, unendliche Selbstzitierung, so dementgegen waehrend der Arbeit mit anderen Autoren (haeufig auch nicht Kuenstlern) bekomme ich jedesmal nicht nur das unvorsehbare Produkt, sondern auch echte Inspiration.

6)
Welche Erfahrungen hast du bei deinen bisherigen Projekten gemacht, die die aktive Beteiligung des Publikums, insbesondere die Herstellung und Realisierung der Projekte betreffend, erfordert haben?

Das letzte grosse Projekt — Performance «Die Fabrik der Dabloiden», das in Ekaterinburg mit Unterstuetzung der Uralischen Filiale des Zentrum fuer aktuelle Kunst (NCCA) in einer Fabrik stattfand. Die leer stehende Werkhalle wurde fuer die Produktion der Dabloiden (Objekte-Klischee, mit denen ich schon 20 Jahre arbeite) ausgeruestet und dafuer nahm ich in Dienst die Arbeiter, die frueher von dieser Fabrik entlassen wurden. Ich zahlte ihnen den durchschnittlichen Lohn, den sie bevor der Entlassung bekamen. Nach meinen Anweisungen haben circa 10 Personen — und jeder Zuschauer konnte hinzutreten — waehrend 5 Tage mehr als dreissig Objekte gemacht. Jetzt existiert diese gesellschaftliche Aktion als Installation mit Video, Ausspruechen der Teilnehmer, die als Kuenstler gemeldet sind. So habe ich in diesem Projekt die Idee «Die Kunst ins Leben» realisiert, indem ich als Kuenstler meine Kreativitaet und dann Produktionsmittel und Geld mitgeteilt habe. Und in diesem Fall tauscht der Kuenstler mit dem Publikum nich nur mit der Energie auf, sondern tritt er als ein verantwortlicher Mitglied der Gesellschaft und wandelt den urspruenglich sinnlosen schoepferischen Akt in die radikale gesellschaftliche Geste um.

7)
Innerhalb der partizipatiorischen Kunst kann man zwischen Ausfuhrenden und Mit-Schaffenden unterscheiden. Die Kunst als Idee und das Resultat als soziale Arbeit?

Ich nenne den Kuenstler – nach Tatlin – die “initiative Einheit”, er hebt die Welle auf, natuerlich ist er Fuehrer in jeder schoepferischen Praxis. Kurator ist ein Kommissar (wie in der sowietischen Armee), universelle Figur des “Hilfers”. Man braucht sie als einen Dolmetscher fuer den taubstummen Kuenstler, der seine Aktivitaeten dem Publikum erklaert. Der Kuenstler, also derjeniger, der die Idee generiert, kann selbst “Taetiger” sein und kann nicht! So zum Beispiel in meinem Projekt “Der private Mond” lasse ich den Himmelskoerper in autonome Reise ab und er wird von Zuschauern- Teilnehmern waehrend der festgestzten Zeit von Hand zu Hand uebergeben. Sie bekommen das Objekt und machen selbst die Installation, tauchen es in ihren Lebensraum ein. In dieser Geschichte ist es Poesie sehr wichtig, die durch den vom Himmel herabgestiegenen Mond materialisiert wird. Alle Teilnehmer der Aktion a priori fuehlen es, weil sie den Mond “angenommen” haben. Wie und wo, was fuehlen sie, als sie das Objekt bekommen, in welcher Weise wirken sie mit ihm zusammen – das ist alles ein Teil des Projekts. “Der private Mond” - das ist Poesie “in action”, Durchsetzung in unseren Raum der utopischen Ideen. Und ich erklaere: die Poesie wechselt die Welt zum Guten!

8)
Jean-Luc Nancy kritisiert die Gemeinschaft in ihrem Gemein-Sein, einer quasi religios gestifteten Identitat. Vielfalt, so Boris Groys, sei der primare Wert, den die partizipatorische Praxis herstelle. Worin besteht nun eigentlich dieser Trend zu Kooperationen, Kollaborationen, Kunstlerkollektiven – abseits einer erfolgreichen Kommunikation innerhalb des Kunstsystems?

Wir haben keinen Mangel an Kommunikation – ganz im Gegenteil! Aber uns mangelt die schoepferische Kraft! Die Kunst muss die Zone der Freiheit sein, wo die Kuenstler mit ihrer Einbildung, poetischer Verantwortung vor der Zukunft die neue Welt schaffen, wo die neuen Menschen ohne religioese, nationale Vorurteile und ohne staatliche Grenzen leben werden. Und deshalb kann in der Zukunft die aktuelle internationale kuenstlerische Erfahrung fuer die ganze Menschheit benutzt werden.

10)
Vieles der partizipatorischen Kunst referriert auf Happening oder Theater. Eine dieser Diskursformen, die aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion der 1920er Stammt, namentlich das unsichtbare Theater, hob radikal die Trennung von SchauspielerIn und ZuschauerIn auf. Welche Beziehung hast du und hat deine Kunst mit dem Theater?

Einige meine teatrale Perfomaces beenden sich damit, dass ich die Dekorationen und Objekte als Installation in einer Ausstellungshalle lasse. Als die Zuschauer in diese Halle eintreten, sehen sie keine Aktivitaet, das ist schon die Zone des beendeten Spiels. Aber manchmal wirken sie mit den Gegestaenden durch Beruehrung, Spiel, Photo zusammen und so werden sie ein Teil der Installation. Aber viel interessanter fuer mich sind die langfristigen Beziehungen mit dem Zuschauer, er muss auch nach dem Begegnen mit meiner Kunst sie irgendwie fortsetzen, weiter spielen. So zum Beispiel organisierte 2006 die Gruppe der jungen Leute die Gesellschaft fuer die Produktion der Dabloiden – ich nahm daran ueberhaupt nicht teil. Circa 50 Personen sammelten sich am Ufer des Moskva-Flusses und machten - oeffentlich, vor dem Publikum – die Dabloiden. Und dann flug einer hoch in Himmel... Ich wurde zu dieser Aktion als Zuschauer eingeladen – nichts mehr. Und das ist ein echtes Privileg deine eigene Welt nur als Zuschauer zu sehen!

10)Wie wichtig ist es dir, mit deiner Kunst auf das Verhalten der anderen einzuwirken? Von welchen Erwartungen (d)eines Publikums gehst du normalerweise aus?
Auf keinen Fall kann ich auf sich die Rolle des Dikators aufnehmen! Darin gibt's Gewalt, fuer mich ist allein die Liebe wichtig. Nur die Liebe macht unsere Welt moeglich, nur sie schafft die Kunst und rechtfertigt ihre Existenz. Und meine Zuschauer sind die Menschen, die die Liebe brauchen. Das heisst alle, die auf der Erde leben!


17 August 2010
Copyright: SCHIRN Kunsthalle

http://www.playingthecity.de/
http://www.wechselausstellungen.de/aktuelle-pressenews/playing-the-city-2/

Diver LightHouse. Balaclava bay. August 2010

http://www.unian.net/rus/news/news-391292.html

http://ic.vc/nc/0816/6627.html

http://ncca-moscow.livejournal.com/99296.html

http://nefakt.info/8221/

http://inforotor.ru/news/6017844

Sky in the Art

12 August 2010, Russian Museum, Benois Wing

PLAYING THE CITY II

After the project’s success in the previous year, “Playing the City II” presents another fabulous range of artistic activities in public space, involving the city and its inhabitants in very different ways. Over a period of 18 days, the Frankfurt city center will be the site of regular new actions and activities. The specially conceived works will be created by 20 international artists in collaboration with the general public. Collaborative and participatory works are expected from national and international artists such as Nina Beier, Clarina Bezzola, Julien Bismuth, Clegg & Guttmann, Cosalux, For Use / Numen, Swetlana Gerner, Josef Loretan, Jan Lotter, Annika Lundgren, Lee Mingwei, Ivan Moudov, Anny und Sibel Öztürk, Paola Pivi, Plural Art Collective, Reactor, Leonid Tishkov, Gavin Turk, and Vanja Vukovic. At the heart of the project lies the artistic engagement with public space and with concepts such as the social turn and community-based art. In parallel, an office will be set up in the SCHIRN’s exhibition space, providing information on the artists and video documentation of all the actions.

Curator: Matthias Ulrich (SCHIRN)

09 SEPTEMBER - 26 SEPTEMBER 2010
OPENING HOURSTUESDAY, FRIDAY - SUNDAY 10 AM - 7 PMWEDNESDAY AND THURSDAY 10 AM - 10 PMCLOSED ON MONDAYS


http://www.schirn-kunsthalle.de/index.php?do=exhibitions_detail&id=103&lang=en

„LICHTFLÄCHE“ VON LEONID TISHKOV

http://www.barbarian-art.com/exhibitions_list.php

Photographie de la nouvelle Russie

La Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, organise à Paris jusqu'au 29 aout 2010, une exposition qui cherche à montrer "la polyphonie et l'extraordinaire vitalité de la photographie russe contemporaine".

http://www.mep-fr.org

http://www.mep-fr.org/expo_1.htm

http://www.photo.fr/blog/1048-Photographie-de-la-nouvelle-Russie-1990-2010-.html

http://www.lefigaro.fr/publiredactionnel/2010/07/23/06006-20100723ARTWWW00427-des-cliches-et-des-signes-de-liberte.php

CREATURES in OkNo Gallery Chelyabinsk

CREATURES
9 June - 27 June 2010
Installation, objects, drawings, video

http://www.oknogallery.ru/en/

Private Moon in Zurich

Sihl river, view from Sigi-Feigel- Terrasse

May 27th - August 24th 2010

Private Moon in Children Art Museum_Kaohsiung_Taiwan

http://colorfuldye.blogspot.com/2010/05/blog-post_25.html

GASTRÄUME. KUNST AUF ÖFFENTLICHEN PLÄTZEN ZÜRICHS

LEONID TISHKOV, «DER PRIVATE MOND», 2003
SIGI-FEIGEL-TERRASSE , BARBARIAN ART GALLERY

27 May - 27 August

Unter dem Titel «Der private Mond» schlägt der russische Künstler Leonid Tishkov, der von der Galerie als „Neo-Romantiker einer postindustriellen Gesellschaft“ beschrieben wird, die Aufstellung einer Leuchtskulptur in Form einer Mondsichel vor, gefertigt aus Kunststoff, Metall und LED-Elementen, gegebenenfalls auf einem Stab montiert. Die Plastik will die Geschichte des Mondes erzählen, der eines Tages vom Himmel auf die Erde fällt, dort von einem jungen Mann freundlich aufgenommen wird und so „unsere Einsamkeit im Universum überwindet und viele von uns miteinander verbindet“.
Der Jury gefällt die einfache Poesie der Arbeit, die subtile Dekonstruktion romantischer Stereotypen im Grossstadtdschungel. Sie rät jedoch, die technische Machbarkeit und Fragen nach der Sicherheit gegen Vandalismus zu prüfen, bevor eine allfällige Installation ins Auge gefasst wird. Als alternativer Standort werden die Bäume vis-à-vis der Sigi-Feigel-Terrasse oder der Brückenbogen erwogen.

http://www.stadt-zuerich.ch/ted/de/index/oeffentlicher_raum/kunst_oeffentlicher_raum/kunstprojekte_uebersicht/gastraeume.html

http://www.zuonline.ch/sda/storys.cfm?vID=5216

First South-Russian Biennale_Rostov_2010

Solveig: The Landscape of My Memory
Installation, 2004: salt, glass, video, sound, 230 x 200 cm

Memory is a desert which we populate with the imaginary
In the landscape of my memory, one can see snow-covered fields and mountains, a small figure of a boy skiing along the shore of a frozen lake, and the traces of his skis in the snow. Following those traces, I travel into the past, restoring my ideal universe in which childhood is a time of spiritual depth and endless dazzling white snow. The vast sky above is like a window into childhood on which frosty patterns live, the northern lights glow, and huge stars fall. Snow is the time, the white imaginary landscape in which I settle my personal memories. It is there, at that hardly visible line of the snowy horizon, that the earthly and the transcendent spheres meet.

My Mother's Dress / Dematerialization
of Memory
10 photographs, 60 x 85 cm
Video, 3'
2006

After my mother's death I was left with her clothes: dresses,

scarves, blouses, underwear. The lonely dresses hung in the

wardrobe, silent on their wooden hangers. One of them
was the conservative black woollen dress of a primary-school

teacher. A colorful one of crepe de Chine was what she wore

on holidays. What was I to do with all that had been left after

her passing? Recalling how my mother had shredded old

clothes into strips to make carpets, I cut her dresses to ribbons,

to one endless ribbon, and spooled it into a ball. I cut

everything into "fringes," as my mother used to say.

Thus the clothes were dematerialized, converted into balls,

like atoms wound from electrons that hold
the nucleus of matter inside. "What beautiful material —

I shall make myselfa dress out of," my mother would say.

In the title of my work, "dematerialization" plays

on the similarity of the Latin roots for "matter" and "mother."

When I was done all that remained were the shadows

of dresses on the closet walls, bare hangers on nails, heartache

and a velvety photo album. And many colourful atoms

thatnow make up my reality, a peaceful

home fortified by love and memory.

Opening 21th May in Rostov Museum of Art

http://biennaler.ru/

CV LEONID TISHKOV

Leonid Tishkov’s poetic and metaphysic oeuvre is realised in a diverse and often unconventional range of media, including installations, sculpture, video, photography, works on paper and books. Tishkov started his career making cartoon like works in the 1980s that focused with ironic, black humor and political aspects. Since the beginning of the 1990s, however, his work moved increasingly towards large-scale installations that aimed to engage the viewer into absurdist situations with fictional cartoon characters and an admixture of theatrical action. This theatrical performances "Dabloids", "Deep Sea Divers", “Living in the Trunks”, who after turned into installations ( “Dabloid Factory”, “Divers” bronze sculptures ). At the same time Tishkov drawn to the theme of memory, creates a set of objects, videos and photos about his native place - the Urals and late mother, using different kinds of folk art and found materials – clothing and household utensils ( “The Knitling”, 2002, “Divers from Heaven”, 2004). Since 2000 the artist intensifies the romantic, even magical tradition, which was fully manifested in a series of performances "Anthology of Heaven '(1999-2002), carried out on the roof of the artist's studio and a long-play history of "Private Moon "(2003 - 2010). For the first time made the light object in shape of crescent Moon to the installation for open space, traveled to different countries and continents including Russia, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, Austria, France and Switzerland. From 2000th the artist taking part in many light festivals with light installations as Lights On Romania, Fjord Oslo, LUNA Leeuwarden and made large light public art sculptures in Russia, China, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

Leonid Tishkov was born into a school teacher’s family in small town of Russia, Urals in 1953, and now lives and works in Moscow. He has participated in numerous important group exhibitions including Berlin-Moscow Moscow-Berlin 1950-2000, Berlin, Martin Gropius Bau (2002), Eye on Europe, 1960 to Now - MoMA - Museum of Modern Art, NY (2006), Fabric of the Myth, Compton Verney Gallery, UK (2007), Singapore Biennale (2008) and Moscow Biennale (2009). Solo exhibitions include Nasher Museum of Duke University , Durham (1993), Museo de Arte Contemporeneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Venezuela (1995), Block Museum, Northwestern University, Evanston (1996), Fargfabriken, Center for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden (1998), Center for Contemporary Art Uajzdowski castle, Warsaw (2007), Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan ( 2009), Moscow Museum of Modern Art (2010).

Solo Show

2021

Arctic Diary & Journey of the Private Moon. Norilsk Museum of Art

2020

Premonition of the Space. Leonid Tishkov. Kaluga Cultural Innovative Center

2019

Cosmism of Leonid Tishkov. Personal Exhibition. Belyaevo gallery, Moscow
2018
Private Moon. Personal exhibition. Savina Museum of Contemporary Art, Seoul, 1 November - 31 January 2019
Cosmism of Leonid Tishkov. Personal Exhibition. Belyaevo gallery, Moscow
2017
Look At Your Home. National Contemporary Center of Art, Arsenal, Nizhny Novgorod
2016
Light All Around. Historical Architectural Museum of Tula, Russia
Look At Your Home. State Art Gallery of Perm
Look At Your Home. Krasnoyarsk Museum Center
Look At Your Home. Nizhny Tagyl Museum of Fine Arts
2015
Look At Your Home. Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts
Journey of the Private Moon in Romania. Personal exhibition. National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, Bucharest
2014
Private Moon, SMENA art center, Kazan
Journey of the Private Moon in Formosa, Pechersky gallery, Moscow
2013
Diver-Lighthouse, Krokin gallery

Homecoming, HKLAM gallery, Voronez

2012
Private Moon in Taiwan, Kaohsiung Museum for Fine Arts, Taiwan
Derelict Utopias, Jiri Svestka Galley, Prague
2011
Derelict Utopias, Jiri Svestka Galley, Berlin
Whitesnow gallery, Aukland, New Zealand
Arctic Dairy, Krokin Gallery, Moscow
Leonid Tishkov, Nina Lumer Gallery, Milan
2010
Leonid Tishkov LICHTFLACHE, Barbarian Art Gallery, Zurich
Ballade lumineuse, Taiss gallery, Paris
Leonid Tishkov IN SEARCH OF THE MIRACULOUS, Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Private Moon, Children Art Museum, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Leonid Tishkov Creatures, OkNO gallery, Chelyabinsk, Russia
2009
Private Moon, Kaohsiung Museum for Fine Arts, Taiwan
"Light All Around", Krokin gallery, Moscow
“Origin of Species”, Ravenscourt gallery, Moscow
2008
"House of Artist", Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Deep Sea Divers", Center for Contemporary Culture, Ekaterinburg University
2007
"Look Homeward", Center for Contemporary Art Uyazdovsky castle, Warsaw
"Homework", Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Solveig", the Van Ho Culture and Art Centre, Hanoi, Vietnam
"Divers from Heaven", Central House of Artists, Moscow
2006
"Ladomir: utopian objects". Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Private Moon". Novosibirsk art museum, Russia
"Automatic letters". Pinakoteka magazine, Moscow
2005
"Creatures". State gallery of Izhevsk, Russia
"Paintings 80th". Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Creatures". Yasnaya Poliana gallery, Tula, Russia
2004
"Vodolazy". Krokin gallery, Moscow
"Apokryfos", National Contemporary Center for Art. Moscow
2003
"Leonid Tishkov & Igor Macarevich: Masters of Russia Contemporary Mythology". Gallery K, Washington, USA
2002
"Communal Pulp",gallery of the MuHA club, Moscow
2001
"Vodolazes (Deep Sea Divers)". District of Columbia Arts Center, Washington, USA
"Farewell to the Christmas tree". TV-gallery, Moscow
"Creatures of the Soft World". Russian State museum of Applied art, Moscow
"ZhZL". Gallery of the MuHA club, Moscow
"Tishkov Festival". Cultural Center DOM, Moscow, Russia
2000
"Dabloids & another creatures". Nonmuseum, StPeterburg, Russia
1999
"Crystal Stomach of the Angel". Gallery Dziga, Lviv, Ukraine
"Creatures". Contemporary Art Center Nizhniy Novgorod, Russia
"Creatures". Yaroslavl' Art Museum, Russia
1998
"Dabloid Teater". Fargfabriken, Center for Contemporary Art, Stockholm, Sweden
1997
"Prothodabloids". ArtMedia Center, TV-gallery, Moscow
1996
"Creatures". Center for Contemporary Art, Chelyabinsk, Russia
"Creatures". State Art Gallery, Novosibirsk, Russia"Anatomia of Russia". Spider & Mouse Gallery, Moscow
1995
"Creatures". Museum of Art, Ekaterinburg, Russia
"Beast (TVar')". TVgallery, Moscow
"Dabloids and Elephants". Mary and Leigh Block Museum, Evanston Ill. USA
1994
"Creatures". Museo de Arte Contemporeneo de Caracas Sofia Imber, Venezuela
"La Route du Coeur". Epreuve d'Artiste gallery, Lille, France
"Stomaki". L-gallery, Moscow
"Reproduction". Center House of Artists Moscow, Moscow
1993
"Creatures". Duke University Museum of Art, Duram, NC, USA
1992
"Hard and Soft". Velta Gallery, Moscow
1991
"Not only Dabloids". Alyance Gallery, Moscow

Selected group exhibitions:

2021

LUNA multimedia art fest, Leeuwarden, Netherlands
2020

Ichihara Art-Mix Art Triennale, Japan

Minus 20 degree contemporary art fest, Flachau, Austria

Fjord Oslo Light Fest, Norway
2019
Seoutochi Triennale, Japan
The Moon. Royal Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London, 22 July - 5 January 2020
La Lune. Grand Palais, Paris, 1 April - 22 July
Ticket to the Moon. Krems kunsthalle, Austria, 14 July - 3 November
Alanica Simposium, NCCA Vladikavkaz
2018
Human condition. Searching for the Place. Judish Museum, Moscow, 12 June - 19 August 
Premonitions of the Space. NCCA, Moscow
LightOnRomania, Cluj, Romania, 16 November - 31 December
No Man's Library/La Biblioteca di Tutti, Sassari, Italy, 11 May - 30 June 
2017
Man as Bird. Pushkin Museum in Venice
Ichihara Art Mix, Japan
Art Innovation prize, Museum of Architecture, Moscow
2016
Around The Square. Yaroslavl Museum of Modern Art.
The Worker and Kolkhoz Woman. Personal Case. Museum and Exhibition Center ‘Worker and Kolkhoz Woman’. Moscow.
Russian Cosmos. Moscow Art Multimedia Museum
2015
Balagan!!! Nordwind Fest. Kuhlhaus, Berlin. Shards of the War. National Center for Contemporary Arts, Baltic branch, Kaliningrad
Intertext. Erarta Museum, St.Peterburg
Birds and figires. Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Real in Inreal. Wooyang Museum of Contemporary Art, Gyeongju, Korea
2014
Waking Dreams, Nanjing, China
Todi festival, Private Moon, Italy
Ichihara Art Mix, Japan
Space LUCIDA, NCCA
TV gallery in NCCA, TV'ar
Playing the Circus, Moscow Museum of Modern Art
Are you ready to fly, Moscow Museum of Modern Art
The Moscow Art Map: Our Scale, Garage Center for Contemporary Culture, Moscow
2013
Republic of the Moon, Bargehouse, London
Russia XXI, Contemporary sculpture from Russia, Museum Beelden aan Zee, The Hague, Nederland

Kunstenfestival Watou, Belgium
The Sky, Planetarium, Krokin Gallery, Moscow Sluisen: Changing Poles, NCCA
2012

II Industrial Urals Biennale, Ekaterinburg
Folklore and Naive Traditions in Contemporary Art, NCCA in Tcaritcino Museum, Moscow
2011
Republic of the Moon, FACT, Liverpole
Russian Cosmos, Museo d'Arte Contemporanea - Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy.
Proximity, Docks on the Seine, Paris
Paper Time, NCCA, Moscow
Home Video, Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Russia
Illusion, Arsenal, NCCA, Nizhny Novgorod
9 Museum Biennale, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
ArtSound, RAM radiomobile museum, Roma, Italy
Blizzard, Arsenal, NCCA, Nizhny Novgorod
Earth.Cosmos.Gagarin. Krokin Gallery, Moscow
First Industrial Biennale in the Urals, Ekaterinburg
To See the Sound, NCCA, Moscow
Easter at Chekhov’s House, PL gallery, Moscow
2010
Playing the City II, Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
VOIS CE QUE J'ENTENDS, Center Des Arts Enghien-Les-Bains, France
Photographie de la nouvelle Russie, La Maison Europeenne de la Photographie, Paris
History of Russian Video Art, volume 3, MMoMA, Moscow
Photobiennale - 10, Moscow House of Photography
Summa Summarum, National Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
KoMMissia, M'Ars Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennale, Russia
2009
3 Moscow Biennale, Russia
Reflection: The World Through Art, Dojima River Biennale 2009, Osaka
Thrill of the Heights, OK center, Linz, Austria
I Was Russia, Dunedin Art Museum, New Zealand
That Obscure Object of Art, collection of Stella Art Foundation , Palacco Ca' Rezzonico Venice
Past Future Perfect, Calvert22, London
Another Mythology, NCCA, Moscow
Russian Dreams…, Bass Museum of Art, Maiami
Walking a Fine Line. Russian Video Art, Monkey Town, NY,
SCOPE art fairs, NY, CU Art Museum, University of Colorado at Boulder ,USA
ARCO, Madrid
Alice in Wonderland, PL Gallery, Moscow
History of Russian Video Art, volume 2, MMoMA, Moscow
Russian Video Art, Egon Schiele Art Centrum Cesky Krumlov
Tales of Brothers Yung, Laboratory Gallery, Moscow
2008
"Stars of Russian Video Art", North West Film Forum, Seattle
"Singapore Biennale", Singapore
"The Fabric of Myth", Compton Verney Gallery, GB
"A(rt)R(ussia)T(oday)-index", Latvian National Museum of Art
"Teleport Teleport Fargfabriken", Fargfabriken Norr, Ostersund, Norway
"100 Years of the Tungussky Meteorit", Krasnoyarsk Museum Center, Russia
"Fest of Private collection", Ravenscourt Gallery, Moscow, Russia
"This not Food", ERA Foundation, Moscow, Russia
"IMPRINT, Russian artist-publishers" Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels, Belgium
"Dots", Museum of Contemporary Art, Rostov, Russia
"REVERS DU REEL", l'espace Michel Journiac, Sorbonne, Paris
"Moscow News", Art Center "Gallery", Izhevsk, Russia
"Process & Alchemy", Civilian Art Project, Washington DC, USA
"Radikale Alltдglichkeit", Culture Xchange Center, Wien, Austria
History of Russian Video Art, volume 1, MMoMA, Moscow
Process & Alchemy, Civillian Art Project, Washigton DC, USA
ArtParis
2007
"Photobiennale", Branly Museum, Paris
"Adventure of the Black Square", State Russian Museum
"Progressive Nostalgia", Centro per l'arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci Prato, Italy
"The Time of storytellers", KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
"Return to Memory", KUMU Museum of Contemporary Art, Tallinn, Estonia
"Architecture Ad marginem", State Russian Museum, St.petersburg
"Avanto,videofest", KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki
Krasnoyarsk Museum Biennale
"Barocco", Moscow Museum of Moderm Art
"Big Water Art Fest", Art Gallery of Yugra, Hanty-Mansyiask, Russia
"Words and Image", NCCA, Moscow,
"Tired Snow Videofest", Rodina Cinema Center, St.Peterburg
2006
Eye on Europe,MoMA, Museum of Modern Art, NY
Contemporary Russian Photography,Fotomuseum, Antwerpen,
Russian Book art XX century, Bibliotheca Wittocania, Brussel
Innovations,State Center for Contemporary Art, Moscow
Photobiennale 10, Moscow,
Codes of culture, Video Art from 7 Continents, ArteBA 2006, Black box/white cube video-space by The Project Room N.Y., Buenos Aires, Argentina
Moscow artist's message, Private moon,Nanto cultural center, Japan
2005
7 sins,Museum of modern art, Lubliana, Slovenia,
Beyond of red horizon: Moscow-Warsaw,Center for contemporary art Uyasvyadosky zamok,Warsaw
Moscow Breakthrough, Contemporary Russian Artists,Bargehouse, London
2004
Moscow-Berlin1950-2000, State Historical Museum,
MoscowDirection: South-North,Manez, Moscow, KINO gallery, Moscow
IX Art Forum,New Manez, Moscow
I International contemporary art exhibition,Bishkek Art Museum, Kirkizstan
2003
Moscow-Berlin1950-2000, Martin Gropius Bau, Berlin
Direction:West,KINO gallery,New Manez,Moscow
Paracrafts,Cheboksary Art Museum, Graphic art of XXth century,Tretyakov Gallery, MoscowArtMoscow Studio, Moscow
Detende: Russian Contemporary Art Video Format,Slought Foundation, Philadelfia
Invisible Cities,Queen's University, Belfast
Artkliazma Fest, Moscow
2002
ArtMoscow Studio, Moscow VII Art Forum,New Manez,Moscow
2001
The View from Here, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, VA,USA
VI Art Forum,New Manez,Moscow,
Direction:East,New Manez, KINO gallery,Moscow
2000
View from Here,Tretyakov Gallery,Moscow
The Body Memory,Petropavlavski krepost',SPb
Serials,Manez,Moscow
1999
Russian videoart,Kuntshalle Faust,Hannover,
Cinematexas, video festival
Russian Samizdat & Artist's books,Grafeion gallery,Praha,Contemporary Art Museum of Andy Warhol, Slovakiya
Space of a Book,Yaroslavl Art Museum,
RussiaArtit's books 70th-90th.Pushkin Art Museum, Moscow
1998
Praprintium,State Berliner Library, Bochum Museum, Furniture of Sven Lundh's Studio,Fargfabriken,Center for Contemporary Art,Stockholm
Sences Test Station,International Forum of ArtNew Maneze,Moscow
Art Books of the 90th,Montpelier Art Center, USA
1997
Portfolios for Portfolio Kunst,Albertina Museum
Russian Silkskreens from Moscow Studio,Corcoran Art Gallery, USARussian Artists from Moscow Studio,Mimi Ferst Gallery, NY
Dablus & Do press,UFSA University Library, Antwerpen,Belgium
SAMIZDAT East Europe, Douglas F.Cooley Memorial Art Gallery, Reed College, USA
1996
Moscow Conceptual Aritsts,Duke University Museum of Art
Contemporary Russian Artists` Books, Aberystwyth Art Centre, Boise, IDAHO,USAGlyn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea, GB The John Rylands University Library,Manchester, GB
Nordgrafia 96,Gotland Konst Museum, Visby, Sweden
1995
Contemporary Russian Artists` Books,Stormont Rooms, Rye, GB
Avanguarde Russian Books,British Museum's LibrarySAGA 96, Alain Buyse Editeur, Paris
Russian Comics Strip,Centre Belge de la Bande Dessine, Brussel
1994
For Memory of Kashirka,Spider & Mouse Gallery, Moscow
Artists Books,Ekaterinburg Art Museum, Russia,Paper Theatre, Anna Akhmatova Museum, Peterburg,
SAGA 95, Alain Buyse Editeur,Paris
1993
A Time of Transition,City Museum and Art Gallery, Bristol, GB Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, GB New Territory of Art ,Art Center of Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Livres d'artistes Russes et Sovietiques,Art center of Userch, France
1992
International Exhibition of Visual Poetry,Pankow Gallery,Berlin
Russian Artist's Books,Lyric-Cabinette, Munich
1991
Furmanny's Artists,Martigni Art Center, Switzerland,Agasphere, Moscow Yung Palace
1990
Transfuture.International Visual Poetry,Hauptmanschule,Kassel,
Concrete.International Exhibition of Visual Poetry,City Museum of Gotha



 Everlasting returns

Leonid Tishkov’s works have come into being in our culture through nearly all fundamental artistic strategies – objects, paintings, installations, video art, performance, artist’s books. There is no denying that this body of work could be examined as a matrix, a model of an "autobiographical" phenomenon in contemporary integral art. The organic ties of this monolith, stemming from non-aesthetic sources, such as: the Ural mountains - the artist’s birthplace and the boundary between the East and the West; the topography of this very place – its mountain ranges and valleys; Tishkov’s peasant roots, which reach far back and are connected with his rustic sense of culture, which was later reinforced by basic knowledge resulting form his contact with educational institutions; the profession of a teacher, practiced by his father, as well as his own, that of a medical doctor, which influenced the geophysical character of the artist’s oeuvre. All of the above-mentioned factors shed only a little light on the determinability of the auto-biographical semantics of his, seemingly autonomous, artistic life. Cultural context transforms Tishkov’s work, and his very existence, into an uniform text which reveals its meaning with reference to completely different traditions and categories that the artistic reality in its basic form. Tishkov breathes and sways in a borderline situation, between art and life, transforming into an "opus" (the auto-bio-graphy described extensively by Valerij Podoroga’s artistic group), converting himself into a condition of the work’s existence, and refusing the contemporary "here-and-now". In one of his video works Leonid Tishkov, slowly, as if in a child’s dream, climbs the Kukan mountain – the mountain in the foot of which he spent his childhood. "Waving his wings", like Yves Klein once did, he ascends into the Great Nothing. Where, as he often says himself, everything is "upside down" and exists in the binary system: the up and the down, the color and its lack, sound and silence, myth and reality. Tishkov’s love for the "fabric", the "matter", constantly drives him to the process of materializing issues from the sphere of ideas – towards the “rag dolls from his childhood", towards the greater form of touch, when all human organs are able to feel the world, towards crating Cosmos as a refuge for all that is born. The connection between the matter, the mother, the womb and the continent (Russian "matka" and "matierika") in Tishkov’s artistic system illustrates the real depth of his mythical-poetic consciousness. The artist reconstructs his birth “place”, conveys its matrix-like aspect, its predilection to divisions, to duplications, to dabloidation. The phenomenal aspect of this space is realized in objects, the holy amulets of the primeval, as in the case of Joseph Beuys’s birth of prime-objects which accumulate the space around them and, as Martin Heidegger wrote "make it possible for a man to live among objects".For Leonid Tishkov, descending into the "underworld" is situated on the opposite pole of the tradition of journeys to the kingdom of death, described by Dante Alghieri in his "Divine Comedy". In the sacred center of the "underworld", the "crystal stomach of an angel" opens before the artist – an image which is symmetrical to that of a stone flower found in Bazov’s fairy tales from the Ural region. It is one of Tishkov’s best video works, referring to complete good, communion and blessedness. The way from the "underworld" becomes a way to heaven. It is – in the philosophy of Laozi – "all-encompassing, fixed, clear and high". Those features become visible in a Zen koan, in the flapping of wings, in the overcoming of time and space, in the evolutionary circle in which Leonid Tishkov’s work is located".
Text by Vitaly Patsyukov

Private Moon_Journey to Paris

More than simply dead…Homage to Marie Laurencin
Abandoned moon in a refuse bin – they no longer needed it, only you

Tokyo PalaceHotel for one on the roof of a palace.

But not for you, moon – you tap at the window in vain, they won't open up.

Louvre at night
The moon has laid a silvery trail across the celestial ice.

I'll give her a star found in the yard among rubbish,

leaves and discarded memories.

Moon – despairThe moon fell from the clouds, unaware this railroad was abandoned long ago.

Now she has a companion in misfortune!

Warming my hands in the moonlightThe moon is warmer than this night in La Défense,

where the wind tears hats and leaves from passing trees.

Moon and rain
Mist and rain. Tonight the moon got soaked and fell on the roof of Pen's house in Le Marais.

All around the damp nocturnal air is filled with milky light,

hopefully not dissolving my contours altogether.

Star in a refuse sack
Seeking the star in a refuse sack, you fail to see the moon behind you

Noël
Christmas is here at last!
I will ride to the fairand sell the moon for a handful of silver

Moon concert
Is such happiness really possible –

the moon in the Tuileries Garden shines on you alone

Moon and Vénus callipyge
Homage to Georges Brassens
Moon and Venus, the wind stole your clothes in the night!

Paris, you must judge, who is most beautiful now?

Today’s moon is yesterday’s sun
Homage to the Pioneer Mitya Abrosimov

An accident on the railroad like yesterday's sun

Brassaï’s moonOn the steps of Montmartre you suddenly meet the moon,

leaning on a lamppost to rest as it rises to the sky – the wonder of the night!

Metaphysical landscape with moon
Homage to Giorgio de Chirico
Worked like an office troll till late at night,

here’s the reward – the moon on the street!

Nocturnal parking lot

Stop, car, the moon is sleeping here, don’t disturb it!

Three moons
Homage to Henri Cartier-Bresson
Behind the Saint-Lazare station
six in the morning by the lunar clock.
You leave the moon forever,

the moon will never abandon you

Farewell to the moon

Don’t stop the moon, it will climb to the sky on a beam from the Eiffel Tower

Ringing the moon
The moon is here on the balcony,

but still she is far away and won't hear you ringing.

Interdit sauf la luneForbidden except to the moon,
Only the moon can settle here,
Build towers right up to the sky –
Endless floors with a hint of sorrow and tenderness,

Open to the clouds, the rain and poets who wander in by chance

Moon in the cathedral

On Christmas Eve the moon has found shelter at the Virgin Mary’s feet

Private Moon_Journey to Paris_2009

All images and text by Leonid Tishkov