Empty Action: Labour and Free Time in the Art of Collective Actions (Image) - Softcover

Marina Gerber

Softcover

ISBN 10: 3837640906 ISBN 13: 9783837640908

Publisher: Transcript Verlag, 2018

Synopsis

Collective Actions is one of the most significant artistic practices to emerge from Moscow Conceptualism. The group's enigmatic idea of 'Empty action' is the focal point for Marina Gerber's exploration of this practice in relation to labour in the late Soviet Union. Based on interviews with members of the group (Monastyrski, Panitkov, Alexeev, Makarevich, Elagina, Romashko, Hänsgen and Kiesewalter) she exposes the relation between their jobs, their individual art practices and their contribution to the collective in the context of post-Stalinist debates on labour and free time. Departing from the mundane fact that Collective Actions' practice took place in free time from work for the Soviet State, Gerber identifies Empty action as a form of 'art after work'.

About this title

About the Author

Marina Gerber (Dr.) has taught at Queen Mary University of London, Berlin University of the Arts and Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. Her research interests include modern and contemporary art and its relation to labour, free time and knowledge.

Edition details

• Publisher: Transcript Verlag
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 3837640906
• ISBN 13: 9783837640908
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 236