interdisciplinary project about work, leisure, and contemporary culture
Idle Encounters
at the New Tretyakov Living Room and Arzamas.Academy
Is it possible to imagine a world in which people no longer work, but instead devote themselves to idleness?
Can art propose alternative economic models that would free us from the need to worry about earning a living, or are such visions merely utopias incapable of affecting reality? What distinguishes the labor of creative practitioners, and should we listen more carefully to their critique of work itself? After all, there is a growing belief that soon all forms of labor may become creative — and if so, the questions surrounding creative work will become relevant to everyone.
In collaboration with Arzamas.Academy, the Living Room of the New Tretyakov Gallery launches Idle Encounters, a new project dedicated to work and leisure. The Living Room is conceived as a space of recuperation beyond the sphere of work, but also as a setting for unhurried conversation, leisurely readings, slow walks through the exhibition of the New Tretyakov Gallery, performances, games, and artists’ portfolio reviews. Above all, it is a place where one can simply do nothing — sitting in soft chairs, leafing through books, and allowing time to pass.
Can art propose alternative economic models that would free us from the need to worry about earning a living, or are such visions merely utopias incapable of affecting reality? What distinguishes the labor of creative practitioners, and should we listen more carefully to their critique of work itself? After all, there is a growing belief that soon all forms of labor may become creative — and if so, the questions surrounding creative work will become relevant to everyone.
In collaboration with Arzamas.Academy, the Living Room of the New Tretyakov Gallery launches Idle Encounters, a new project dedicated to work and leisure. The Living Room is conceived as a space of recuperation beyond the sphere of work, but also as a setting for unhurried conversation, leisurely readings, slow walks through the exhibition of the New Tretyakov Gallery, performances, games, and artists’ portfolio reviews. Above all, it is a place where one can simply do nothing — sitting in soft chairs, leafing through books, and allowing time to pass.
Anna Belousova, series from the project No Place
Labour and Art: Embracing Idleness and Imagining Alternative Economic Models
The first Idle Encounter will take place on December 5 at 7:00 PM. During the evening we will discuss whether the museum is becoming a total space of recreation; why so many contemporary artistic projects are currently devoted to labour and leisure; and what is happening to the working conditions of cultural and creative professionals. We will also ask why artists critique capitalism — and whether they are able to propose alternatives.
Participants:
Anastasia Dmitrievskaya — artist, manager, and writer on contemporary art. Her research focuses on the organization and politics of labour in contemporary art, particularly their relationship to infrastructure-building and gender theory.
Ivan Isaev — curator and initiator of Slaboe Mesto.
Pavel Mitenko — researcher and performer, co-author of The School of Fools and the Bureau of Unusual Services.
Dmitry Chevozyorov — performer and participant in the Bureau of Unusual Services.
Dasha Yuriychuk — dance artist and researcher of visual culture, co-founder of the anti-capitalist performance-platform The Caries of Capitalism (Meyerhold Center).
Maria Kuzmina — curator of recreational spaces at the New Tretyakov Gallery and curator of Idle Encounters.
Anna Belousova, series from the project No Place
How Not to Burn Out: A Conversation on Art, Rest, and Work
In his text Laziness as the True Truth of Humanity (1921), Kazimir Malevich reconsiders doing nothing as a genuine good — something a free person should aspire to. But do we actually know how to rest and be idle? After all, engaging in any activity, including creative work, requires physical and psychological resources.
At the Living Room of the New Tretyakov Gallery, together with Arzamas, we will gather for another Idle Encounter to speak with a psychologist and cultural practitioners about questions that matter:
- Can art provide the resources necessary for recovery and renewal?
- How can we establish boundaries between work and rest?
- Should we be afraid of laziness and procrastination?
- What do escapism and impostor syndrome have to do with it?
- How can we stop engaging in self-exploitation, and why is it important to learn how to care for one another — in creative communities and beyond?
Participants:
Maria Sarycheva — cultural worker.
Tatiana Volkova — art historian, curator, body-oriented psychologist, and author and host of the program Practices of Self-Support.
Vik Lashchenov — choreographer, performer, screenwriter, and stand-up comedian
Olga Demina — psychologist, Gestalt therapist, and art historian.
Maria Kuzmina — curator of recreational spaces at the New Tretyakov Gallery and curator of the project on labour and leisure Idle Encounters.
Imposture Lab
“We cannot promise healing, but we believe that won’t stop you!” — say the founders of the Imposture Lab.
At the final Idle Encounter of the year in the Living Room of the New Tretyakov Gallery, organized together with Arzamas, visitors will be invited to take part in the Imposture Lab. The project offers audiences an unusual experience of encountering an artwork as active participants, while reconsidering imposture as a possible strategy for navigating a rapidly changing contemporary world.
Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which a person perceives their achievements as the result of luck or coincidence rather than their own abilities, knowledge, or effort. People experiencing impostor syndrome often feel that they occupy a place that is not truly theirs and tend to diminish the value of their accomplishments.
To be an impostor, by contrast, can be understood as adopting an active stance toward life: entering unfamiliar situations, taking responsibility for oneself, and carrying a task through to completion—even without knowing at the outset exactly how to proceed. In this sense, the impostor often learns through doing, inventing new strategies along the way and drawing on available resources, experience, intuition, and opportunity.
The Imposture Lab is an artistic project that engages with the often uncomfortable feeling of being an impostor in contemporary life. Participation invites visitors to experience imposture in a positive way through embodied and communicative practices, as well as exercises involving imagination.
Authors: Dmitry Volkov, Vera Shchelkina, Vik Lashchenov
Dramaturg: Katya Ganyushina
Project website: http://imposturelab.tilda.ws
The authors of the Imposture Lab express their gratitude to Tanya Kovalevich and Zhenya Evstigneeva for their contributions to the project’s development. The project was developed with the support of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation residency for contemporary dance choreographers “Ruza 2017” and GROUND Khodynka Gallery.
At the final Idle Encounter of the year in the Living Room of the New Tretyakov Gallery, organized together with Arzamas, visitors will be invited to take part in the Imposture Lab. The project offers audiences an unusual experience of encountering an artwork as active participants, while reconsidering imposture as a possible strategy for navigating a rapidly changing contemporary world.
Impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon in which a person perceives their achievements as the result of luck or coincidence rather than their own abilities, knowledge, or effort. People experiencing impostor syndrome often feel that they occupy a place that is not truly theirs and tend to diminish the value of their accomplishments.
To be an impostor, by contrast, can be understood as adopting an active stance toward life: entering unfamiliar situations, taking responsibility for oneself, and carrying a task through to completion—even without knowing at the outset exactly how to proceed. In this sense, the impostor often learns through doing, inventing new strategies along the way and drawing on available resources, experience, intuition, and opportunity.
The Imposture Lab is an artistic project that engages with the often uncomfortable feeling of being an impostor in contemporary life. Participation invites visitors to experience imposture in a positive way through embodied and communicative practices, as well as exercises involving imagination.
Authors: Dmitry Volkov, Vera Shchelkina, Vik Lashchenov
Dramaturg: Katya Ganyushina
Project website: http://imposturelab.tilda.ws
The authors of the Imposture Lab express their gratitude to Tanya Kovalevich and Zhenya Evstigneeva for their contributions to the project’s development. The project was developed with the support of the Union of Theatre Workers of the Russian Federation residency for contemporary dance choreographers “Ruza 2017” and GROUND Khodynka Gallery.
performance Imposture Lab
Laboratory of the Living Constitution
On Constitution Day, the second Idle Encounter of the project devoted to labour and leisure will take place. This time, the Living Room of the New Tretyakov Gallery, together with Arzamas, will host the Laboratory of the Living Constitution.
In everyday life, the Constitution often appears distant, as though it operates separately from the processes of our daily lives. In reality, however, its influence is present in almost everything around us. The performance is structured as a game in which participants assume the roles of various objects and subjects relevant to a given situation. These may be ordinary, everyday scenarios — for example shopping in a store, planning a holiday trip, or navigating workplace relations. Through this process, participants investigate the situation, performatively transform it, and explore how the text of the Constitution might be applied in specific circumstances.
The Laboratory functions as a simulator — an imagined environment and a safe space for practicing action. It offers a way to reveal issues characteristic of different social groups, while also making the Constitution more accessible and understandable.
The Laboratory of the Living Constitution is conceived as a contemporary discursive practice that draws on the life-building ethos of the Russian avant-garde. Through artistic means, it seeks to restore the viewer’s active role, dissolving the boundary between art and life.
Authors: Anna Belousova and Vik Lashchenov.
In everyday life, the Constitution often appears distant, as though it operates separately from the processes of our daily lives. In reality, however, its influence is present in almost everything around us. The performance is structured as a game in which participants assume the roles of various objects and subjects relevant to a given situation. These may be ordinary, everyday scenarios — for example shopping in a store, planning a holiday trip, or navigating workplace relations. Through this process, participants investigate the situation, performatively transform it, and explore how the text of the Constitution might be applied in specific circumstances.
The Laboratory functions as a simulator — an imagined environment and a safe space for practicing action. It offers a way to reveal issues characteristic of different social groups, while also making the Constitution more accessible and understandable.
The Laboratory of the Living Constitution is conceived as a contemporary discursive practice that draws on the life-building ethos of the Russian avant-garde. Through artistic means, it seeks to restore the viewer’s active role, dissolving the boundary between art and life.
Authors: Anna Belousova and Vik Lashchenov.
performance Laboratory of the Living Constitution
