‘ARTIST TALK WITH ARTEM LOSKUTOV’

This summer BOZAR focuses on the themes of revolt, freedom, human rights and equality, marking the 50th anniversary of the students protests that erupted in Paris in May 1968. In the framework of the exhibition RESIST! The 1960s protests, photography and visual legacy, Russian artist-actionist from Novosibirsk Artem Loskutov presents a site-specific installation at the façade of the Centre for Fine Arts as well as a display of the photographs and videos documenting his Monstrations.
Loskutov is mostly known for organizing annual Monstration rallies on the May Day in Russia. Blithely replacing obsolete Soviet ideology with Dadaist absurdity is a more honest and adequate reaction to contemporary reality in Russia, according to the artist. In fourteen years Monstration, a colorful artistic happening with absurd and comic slogans, has become a public mass movement. Despite several attempts by officials to ban the event and repeated arrests of the organizers, it has spread to 20 cities in Russia, from Moscow and St. Petersburg to Krasnoyarsk and Vladivostok.

The artist talk of Artem Loskutov will be moderated by the curator of the exhibition Christine Eyene (UK). They will discuss contemporary art practices of visual resistance as a means to deal with socio-political controversies and the importance of such practices for our troubled times.