Arseny Zhilyaev (born June 26, 1984, Voronezh) is a Russian contemporary artist best known for his projects that speculate on the possible future histories of art, using the museum as a medium.

Biography edit

Arseny Zhilyaev
 
BornJune 26, 1984 (1984-06-26) (age 39)
EducationVoronezh State University, Valand Academy
Known forInstallation art, conceptual art
Websitehttps://www.museumofmuseums.art/

Born on June 26, 1984 in Voronezh.

In 2006 he graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy and Psychology of the Voronezh State University. From 2006 to 2007 Zhilyaev studied at the Moscow Institute of Contemporary Art and in 2010 he graduated from the Valand Academy in Gothenburg, Sweden.

According to art critic Valentin Diaconov, by the end of the 2000s Zhilyaev became the "helmsman" of the New Boring generation. In early works (Rational Egoism, ‘Labour’ Market[1], 'October' Radio) he addresses the problems of cultural production and precarization of creative workers. Since 2011, he has been doing participatory and educational projects. The first exhibition using the museum as a medium Zhilyaev made in 2009 in Voronezh intitled New Museum of Revolution. Starting with Pedagogical Poem[2] and Museum of Proletarian Culture. The Industrialization of Bohemia[3], he turns to the study and re-actualization of the practices of early Soviet marxist museology, in particular to the experiments of the school of Aleksei Fedorov-Davydov. Since 2014, he has been making projects dedicated to the understanding of the museum in the philosophy of one of the founders of Russian cosmism Nikolai Fedorov. As part of a joint exhibition with Mark Dion Future Histories[4] showed a dystopian museum of the life origin organized on planet Earth after humanity has spread in outer space. In its halls, one could see "folk crafts" from different parts of the "intergalactic empire" of the Russian Space Federation, and in a souvenir shop it was possible to order a "vintage" body for the resurrection of Yuri-1. Since the late 2010s, the artist has turned to the study of time by means of LARPing and instuction-based art. HisThe Monotony of the Pattern Recognizer, according to Valentin Diaconov, "seems to position itself as the first, last, and only museum of this postcapitalist future" where "our laborless descendants may find that going inside will be too much work, and that museums are sites of the unpaid, qualified labor of recognizing and interpreting images"[5].

 
Russian artist Anatoly Osmolovsky participates in the performance of the Institute for Mastering of Time as part of Arseny Zhilyaev’s exhibition “Monotony of the Pattern Recognizer” in 2021

Zhilyaev is the editor of the anthology Avant-Garde Museology (e-flux, University of Minnesota Press, V-a-c Press, 2015)[6], the co-founder of the Institute for Mastering of Time (with Asya Volodina)[7][8] and the Institute of the Cosmos (with Anton Vidokle), a follower of the Museum of Museums, Venice and a member of Moscow Art Magazine's editorial board.

Lives and works in Venice.

References edit

  1. ^ Tate. "Labour' Market', Arseny Zhilyaev, 2011". Tate. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  2. ^ "Pedagogical Poem - Announcements - e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  3. ^ "Museum of Proletarian Culture. The Industrialization of Bohemia". Russian Art Archive Network. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  4. ^ "FUTURE HISTORIES: MARK DION AND ARSENY ZHILYAEV — Mousse Magazine and Publishing". www.moussemagazine.it. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  5. ^ "Arseny Zhilyaev's "The Monotony of the Pattern Recognizer" - Criticism - e-flux". www.e-flux.com. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  6. ^ "Avant-Garde Museology". University of Minnesota Press. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  7. ^ "1597 Seconds". www.bgc.bard.edu. Retrieved 2023-07-13.
  8. ^ Lisboa, Foco; Studio2424-Foco (2021-12-07). "Galeria Foco – Faf and Tsalar Honoring | Institute for Mastering of Time". Galeria Foco. Retrieved 2023-07-13.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)