What is to be done? Do it yourself!

Dmitry Vilensky became famous in St. Petersburg in the early 1990s due to his creative activities and organization of photo exhibitions associated with the beginnings of St. Petersburg photography as an independent artistic trend. In 1995, he established a PHOTOpostscriptum, a union in cooperation with other Petersburg photographers. In 1997, Dmitry departed for Germany, where he joined the left intellectual circles. Vilensky returned to Russia with clear convictions about the role and purpose of art as a form of social action. He started a collaborative project Chto Delat? (What is to be done?).

Chto delat/What is to be done? was founded in early 2003 in Petersburg by a workgroup of artists, critics, philosophers, and writers from Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod with the goal of merging political theory, art, and activism. Since then, Chto delat has been publishing an English-Russian newspaper on issues central to engaged culture, with a special focus on the relationship between a repoliticization of Russian intellectual culture and its broader international context. These newspapers are usually produced in the context of collective initiatives such as art projects or conferences. Each newspaper addresses a theme or problem central to the search for new political subjectivities, and their impact on art, activism, philosophy, and cultural theory.

Organised by the Department for post-conceptual art practices (pcap) and the Faculty for Art Education (IKL) at the Academy of fine Art Vienna.

Lecture held in English. Discussion in English and German. Open to general public.