Archive of the Conceptual Art of Odesa in the 1980s

At the beginning of 1980s the conceptual art circle emerged in Odesa, Ukraine. Artists worked independently and in collaborations creating the first examples of performances, paradoxical objects and drawings.

In this project we primarily focus on the circle of artists consist of Sergei Anufriev, Yuri Leiderman, Pertsi group (Ludmila Skripkina and Oleg Petrenko), Leonid Voisekhov, as well as Larisa Rezun-Zvezdochotova, who wasn’t the active part of the group but had her conceptual art practice in Odesa and Moscow.

We also pay specific attention to Volodymyr Naumets artistic practice, who worked mostly independently and created a plethora of performances, happenings and conceptual drawings, developing metaphysics and spiritual concepts which was also one of the trends in soviet underground art.

In this project we will focus on the range of circumstances that influenced conceptual art practices in Odesa, namely specific location of borderline city-port, topography and landscape, “stagnation” period in economic and cultural development of 1980s in Soviet Union, influences from Moscow art scene and how can we analyze and percept those interconnections today.

The project involves collaboration of MSN Warsaw with different art institutions, galleries and collectors from Ukraine: Museum of Modern Art in Odesa, National Museum of Fine Art in Odesa, Dymchuk Gallery, Eugen Demenok Collection, Viktor Savkiv Collection.

All research materials and objects will be displayed via MSN website (the online archives). Project planned to be published in March 2024.

Curator and contributor: Nataliia Revko