Participants Association Workshop:
Victor Linsky
Alexander Likhanov
Alexander Rodionov
Alain Sofkina
Julia Kapustyan
Elena Golubtsova
Eugene Rimkevich
Vasily Subbotin
Stepan Subbotin
Ihor Kharchenko
Julia Mark
Titov
Constantine Chekmarev
Anna Mikhailova
Constantine Zhurkin

A ctivities report
T he W orkshop co m m unity appeared in K rasnodar spontaneously after the
politically hot w inter of 2011-2012. A t that tim e the artists of K rasnodar
Institute of C onte m porary A rt beca m e civic activists taking part in the
P resident elections as election observers. A t the polling stations they m et
K rasnodar activists and other politically and socially a w are people. A t that
m o m ent tw o ideas beca m e apparent 1) the idea of uniting the people
according to the extent of their a w areness regardless of their involve m ent in
the artistic process 2) the necessity of extending the artistic m essage beyond
the bounds of art to real social situation. T he W orkshop that has existed for
half a year beca m e the research and practice ground for these tw o ideas
presenting this exhibition as an activity report.
C o m m unity-building
T he W orkshop is a group of people belonging or not belonging to the
conventional w orld of art, m aking a m ulti-authored state m ent in artistic as
w ell as social space. T o be m ore precise their actions and state m ents so w n in
the field of art gro w into real social life. T his at least w as the basic idea that
w as brought to life under the slogan found at the abandoned Z IP factory
over the entrance to one of the w orkshops “ T his w orkshop strives to be
exe m plary” – w hich co m bines so m e utopian, ironical, poetical and direct
m eanings. T his discovery provided the na m e for the report exhibition of the
W orkshop.
T he practice w as that different people (artists, journalists, social and political
activists, designers, architects, bloggers) ca m e to K rasnodar Institute of
C onte m porary A rt, discussed various proble m s and suggested w ays of their
artistic elaboration and non-artistic solution. O ut of all this differences
e m erged the united W orkshop co m m unity that did not just produce objects,
actions and exhibitions but w as in itself a “product” and object of research.
It w as all done w ithout a rigid progra m in the atm osphere of equality of all
the suggestion fro m all the participants and in co m pliance w ith the
principles of grassroots self-organization practiced earlier by so m e m e m bers
of the W orkshop (Z IP art-group, K IM A ) and ne w to the others.
B ey o n d th e a rt
T h e m a in a im o f th e W o rk sh o p w a s c ro ssin g o r sim p ly (th o u g h it isn ’t
sim p le a t a ll) ig n o rin g th e fo rm a l b o rd e r b e tw e en th e w o rld o f a rt an d th e
re a l so c ia l situ a tio n . P a rtia lly th is c ro ssin g w a s p o ssib le b e c au se o f th e v e ry
ty p e an d co m p o sitio n o f th e co m m u n ity (n o n -a rtists). A n o th e r ad v an tag e
w a s th e R u ssian p ro v in c e en v iro n m en t w h e re th e a rt d o e sn ’t ex ist a s a
sy ste m so th e b o rd e r lin e b e tw e en it an d o th e r sp h e re s is n o t so c le a r.
W ith o u t th is lin e k e ep in g th e a rtist in th e p ro fe ssio n a l en v iro n m en t h e o r sh e
h a s th e p o ssib ility to fu lfill n o n - co n v en tio n a l fu n c tio n an d b e in teg ra ted in
an y n e w sp a c e s, w o rk a s an eq u a l w ith a ll th e m e m b e rs o f “ so c ia l an d
p o litic a l fro n tie r” . F ro m th e v e ry b eg in n in g th e W o rk sh o p u n d e rto o k to
w o rk o n th e p rin c ip le o f in te ra c tio n w ith re a l sp a c e b y m e an s o f o rg an iz in g
a c tio n s, in co rp o ra tin g tex ts an d o b je c ts th a t w o u ld d ra w p u b lic a tten tio n to
c e rta in p ro b le m s an d in so m e c a se s in sp irin g to so lv e th e m in th e re a lity
b ey o n d th e a rt. W h ile D u ch a m p b ro u g h t th e re a lity in to th e a rt an d so c ia l
sp a c e is th e w o rk in g p la tfo rm o f a c tio n ists th an o n e o f th e W o rk sh o p ’s
o b je c tiv e s is to b rin g a rt in to th e n o n -a rtistic re a lity so th a t its life w o u ld
co n tin u e co n fo rm in g to th e re a lity la w s in d ep en d en t fro m th e au th o rs’ te a m .
A s a re su lt th e n a m ed p ra c tic e s a re m e rg ed an d tu rn ed u p sid e d o w n , an d it’s
n o m o re th e W o rk sh o p an d th e c re a ted o b je c ts th a t rep re sen t a rt b u t th e
w h o le situ a tio n o f d iffu sio n . N o t a ll th e p ro je c ts in flu en c ed th e o u te r
en v iro n m en t d ire c tly b u t a ll o f th e m h ad a g re a t im p a c t o n th e W o rk sh o p
m e m b e rs. T h u s n o t o n ly th e b o rd e rs b e tw e en a rt an d n o n -a rt w e re d e stro y ed
b u t a lso th e b o rd e rs b e tw e en o b je c t, su b je c t an d th e m a tte r o f a rt.
R e se a rch
T h e W o rk sh o p a c tiv itie s im p lied c e rta in a c tio n s fo r se lf-o rg an iz a tio n an d
co m m u n ity -b u ild in g a s w e ll a s in te ra c tio n w ith o u te r en v iro n m en t a im ed a t
ch an g in g it. T h e se a c tiv itie s w e re a t th e sa m e tim e a re se a rch o f a ll th e listed
p ro c e sse s. O n e o f th e m o st im p o rtan t re su lts o f th is re se a rch w a s th e
co n c lu sio n th a t in a c risis situ a tio n p eo p le c an h av e a rtistic , p o litic a l o r
c lin ic a l h y ste ric s o r u n ite , o rg an iz e th e m se lv e s an d th an ch o o se a lim ited
p a rt o f re a l w o rld (it m ay b e a co lleg e co rrid o r, a v illag e o r an y th in g e lse )
an d ch an g e th e situ a tio n in su ch a w ay th a t w o u ld trig g e r a ch a in re a c tio n o f
fu rth e r tran sfo rm a tio n an d d ev e lo p m en t.

Zones
One of our first experiments in the urban environment was the project called "Zones". In parks, on sidewalks, parking lots, crossings, tram and trolley stops, we used bright paint to outline empty squares with the name of the zone inside. Thus, zones of greed, creativity, resistance, aggression, stupidity, passion, wreckage, etc. appeared on the streets of Krasnodar. In the course of three nights we painted about forty "zones", and most importantly, they were working. For example, the zone of submission was painted on the tram stop, which was usually crowded. Now passengers stepping on or off the tram avoided the square and people waiting for transport also tried not to step inside the red zone of submission. Many tried to rewrite the text. Some zones of horror and anger have been turned into zones of happiness, smiles, good mood. People also like to play with our zones. For example, students whose college is neighboring the zone of aggression have fun jumping into the zone and reenacting a fit of anger, just as they like to play with the zone of passion. In the parking lot the zone of stupidity is mostly empty. Our task was to mark public spaces similar to smoking areas to attract attention and impose the rules of behavior within the marked area.
May Day
Right before the first of May we had a meeting of our Guild where we discussed the tradition of May Day Subbotniks (clean-up event). During the discussion we drew attention to the fact that we have a lot of shabby-looking Soviet monuments in our city. For example, there is a monument to Lenin at the service entrance of KrasnodarExpo, which can hardly be seen because of grass, bushes and simply trash in front of it. We decided to have our own subbotnik and on the first of May came to the monument. We painted Lenin white and the pedestal red. We also pulled out the bushes and cleaned the area. A few days later we decided to take some pictures, and when they came back to the place we were very surprised. The warehouse employees cut dry trees and cleared area around the monument. This gesture was important to us as the restoration of the symbol of Soviet era and social initiatives. It is important that our action caused a chain reaction.
The Landing
April 14, we went outside the city. In the fields along the road to Divny and Industrialny settlements we held an action called "Landing of the US State Department." We set a tent with a flag pole on the pea field, gathered firewood. We raised the American flag over the camp. The image of American invasion has always been a frightening legend in Russian mind. The landing took place in the open field and was clearly visible to drivers on the highway and the guards of the field. Right under their noses they could witness a strange spectacle. A group of people in high visibility vests in the middle of the day were setting a camp, burning bonfires and having a good time, with the American flag flying over all this. The media actively uses the image of America as the enemy, invader and manipulator, and by this action we tried to materialize it.
Information
Meetings of the Guild were held at the old KICA exhibition space which shared the building with a college and several offices. In KICA we often held lectures, meetings and exhibitions, so we put information stand in the lobby. But this initiative turned into an experiment. In addition to our usual announcements other fragments of correspondence began to appear on the information stand. We decided to put some markers next to the stand so that everyone could participate. The next day the experiment was over, with the stand broken, and the walls and the board covered with swear words. The lobby with the information stand became a party place and until we removed the stand it was always crowded with people. Perhaps people are attracted to the opportunity to speak anonymously in public space, as it was at first, but then the experiment turned into chaos.
Marx
There are often promotional events in shopping centers and hypermarkets during which people are encouraged to taste a new product. Visitors are treated with pieces of cookies, ham, bread or butter by brands available on the shelves. We built our own advertising stand that has a portrait of Karl Marx instead of a logo. We prepared some treats like muffins and cakes and went to Magnit hypermarket. With all this we went up the escalator to the shop floor and put the stand not far from the cash registers. We offered treats to the passersby, and they were asking us what goods we offered. But when they learned that we actually cooked them ourselves, people started complaining and asking weird questions like "Are you sure your cakes are not poisoned?" Our stand immediately attracted attention of the manager and security. They were clearly against our venture, so they escorted us out of the shopping center. After that we set the stand on a sidewalk not far from the parking lot of the shopping center. We were approached by passersby who ate our cakes, asked about our initiative, and were all in all less suspicious than in the shop. This ‘promotion’ was an intervention and a comparison between formal sales space and the one which is free of clichés.