Authors

Katerina Pavlidi¹;  ¹ University College Dublin, Ireland

Discussion

The performance group Collective Actions and the Moscow Conceptualist circles in which it was formed during the 1970s often serve as the examples of Russian postmodernism par excellence. However, the incorporation of religious texts, practices and teachings in their artworks tends to lack the postmodern playfulness, irony and detachment that otherwise imbues their artistic creations. In this paper, I explore how Buddhism informs selected participatory performances by Collective Actions from the late 1970s and early 1980s. I demonstrate that these performances implement meditative practices, such as mindfulness and mantra recitation and, by doing so, they invite the participants to experience and reflect upon concepts such as “emptiness” and “impermanence” which are central to Buddhist teachings. By drawing on writings by Andrei Monastyrskii -- one of the masterminds behind the performances of Collective Actions and known among the Conceptualist circles for his spiritual quests -- I contend that the meditative and participatory form of the Collective Actions’ performances restores a premodern understanding of what qualifies today as “art”: the process of artistic creation becomes a collective practice of meditation aimed at achieving a unification with what in Buddhist terms is known as “Oneness” or what in Abrahamic religions is known as “God”. I conclude my paper by pondering the significance of interweaving aesthetics with religious practices and teachings for our understanding of Russian postmodernism and for our knowledge about late Soviet culture. In this context, I argue for the plurality of postmodernisms in Russia and I propose nuancing the term “postmodernism” itself: what makes the postmodernism of Collective Actions unique is the restoration of a premodern approach to artistic creation as inseparable from religious practices. Finally, I suggest that it is the shift in the perception of history and time as neither linear nor progressive that made the emergence of such an approach to art possible during late socialism.