Moscow Conceptualism and "Shimmering": Authority, Anarchism, and Space

Abstract

To investigate the contemporary legacy of the 1970s circle of underground Russian artists and writers known as the Moscow Conceptualists, this dissertation explores the concept of “shimmering” from their lexicon. Shimmering describes a strategy of principled tergiversation between irreconcilable artistic and ideological discourses, such as the Russian avant-garde and Soviet Socialist Realism. The dissertation examines the paintings of Erik Bulatov (b. 1933), the installations of Ilya Kabakov (b. 1933), the performances of the Collective Actions group, and the works of other Moscow Conceptualists, tracing the development of shimmering into a vital means of artistic resistance to authoritarian ideology. In doing so, it establishes the importance of Moscow Conceptualism for contemporary political and oppositional art in Russia.