About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherDuke University Press

ISBN-100822371278

ISBN-139780822371274

eBay Product ID (ePID)242841984

Product Key Features

Number of Pages160 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameWhat Does It Mean to Be Post-Soviet? : Decolonial Art from the Ruins of the Soviet Empire

SubjectHistory / Contemporary (1945-), Art & Politics, Russian & Former Soviet Union, Colonialism & Post-Colonialism

Publication Year2018

TypeTextbook

Subject AreaArt, Political Science

AuthorMadina Tlostanova

SeriesOn Decoloniality Ser.

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.2 in

Item Weight8.8 Oz

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2017-054363

ReviewsIn this provocative and poignant book Madina Tlostanova expands her examination of the melancholia of postsocialist peoples as 'problem people' facing the 'void' of where to go when material conditions have collapsed amid the intensity of lived-experience, of sensing, feeling the, in a word, aesthesis of scarred temporality. The paradox of imagination, embodied in fiction and art, is the proverbial leap, without preordained outcomes, into the openness of decolonial responsibility and the possibility of belonging to a genuinely global future whose boomerang effect could be a transformed understanding of the present. Read this book and think. Read this book and imagine. Read this book and be inspired to create and, despite proverbial fear and trembling, act!, The author's theorizing on decoloniality and art hits the mark as an invigorated way to interpret the achievements of recent 'activist art' in and around the Russian Federation and important multi-media work from the former Soviet empire's periphery ... The results are diverse and illuminating. What will eventually emerge from 'the Soviet empire's ruins'? Tlostanova does not prognosticate, rather she sets the stage for asking such questions in cogent, original, and revealing terms., What do most postcommunist countries--which almost thirty years after the end of the Soviet Bloc still deal with antagonizing feelings of loss, nostalgia, trauma, and never-ending transition, as well as with neocolonial domination of today's neoliberal world--all have in common? In her outstanding book, Madina Tlostanova defines these common experiences as a futureless ontology that reveals the social disorientation of post-Soviet identitarian collectivities. In so doing, she suggests that post-Soviet politically engaged art practices known as artivism offer a possible solution to this futureless ontology., More than anything else, What Does it Mean to be Post-Soviet? ultimately reads as an invitation to artists and thinkers from the post-socialist space to use their voice and inspire a more inclusive public sphere. In showing that regained critical awareness of heritage and affirming individual agency by giving a voice to imagination and affect are necessary conditions for countering narratives of oppression, Madina Tlostanova weaves what may become a model for critical theory of the 21st century., Madina Tlostanova's search for decolonial art in the unlikeliest of places, vividly illustrated and peppered with live and virtual interviews with the artists themselves, makes the theoretical claims of the first three chapters come to life in the best possible way. Any reader curious about why art matters in what is indeed stereotypically thought as 'the ruins of the Soviet empire,' even those for whom this is a first primer into the debates of 'post-' and 'de-,' would understand the point of keeping those debates alive., Well researched and insightful. . . . Thought-provoking and compelling. . . . A valuable addition to any academic library that supports research in contemporary art, as well as institutions that support research in Slavic studies.

Dewey Edition23

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal700.4

Table Of ContentAcknowledgments vii Introduction. A Futureless Ontology? 1 1. The Decolonial Sublime 25 2. Decolonial Aesthesis and Post-Soviet Art 33 3. A Woman Who Has Many Selves and Takes Over Many Spaces: A Conversation with Liina Siib 65 4. Beyond Dependencies: A Talk with Vyacheslav Akhunov, the Lonely Ranger of Uzbeck Contemporary Art 84 5. Reflecting on Time, Space, and Memory with Afanassy Mamedov 106 Conclusion. People Are Silent . . . 119 Notes 129 References 135 Index 141

SynopsisIn What Does It Mean to Be Post-Soviet? Madina Tlostanova traces how contemporary post-Soviet art mediates this human condition. Observing how the concept of the happy future--which was at the core of the project of Soviet modernity--has lapsed from the post-Soviet imagination, Tlostanova shows how the possible way out of such a sense of futurelessness lies in the engagement with activist art. She interviews artists, art collectives, and writers such as Estonian artist Liina Siib, Uzbek artist Vyacheslav Akhunov, and Azerbaijani writer Afanassy Mamedov who frame the post-Soviet condition through the experience and expression of community, space, temporality, gender, and negotiating the demands of the state and the market. In foregrounding the unfolding aesthesis and activism in the post-Soviet space, Tlostanova emphasizes the important role that decolonial art plays in providing the foundation upon which to build new modes of thought and a decolonial future., Madina Tlostanova traces how contemporary post-Soviet art mediates the post-Soviet human condition through analyses of art and through interviews with artists and writers, showing the important role that radical art plays in building new modes of thought and a decolonial future.

LC Classification NumberNX180.P67T56 2018