About

In the history of Russian contemporary art — in particular for that movement beginning in 1970s known as Moscow Romantic Conceptualism — the archive plays a key role. On the practical side, collecting texts and works from those artists who were forced to live half-hidden in the podpol’e (underground) for non conforming to the ideological canons of Socialist Realism can be seen as primary “survival strategy” and a sort of “time capsule” to the future generations. Most importantly, the archive itself is quite often a work of art. This is the case of the Folders of the Moscow Archive of New Art. …