Artistic Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev, and dOCUMENTA (13) Agent, Member of Core Group, Raimundas Malašauskas, engage in researching the practices of a number of artists and other intellectuals. Invited to participate are artists Viktor Alimpiev, Alexandra Galkina, Alina Gutkina, Alice Ioffe, Taus Makhacheva, Alexandra Paperno, Sergey Sapozhnikov, Alexandra Sukhareva, David Ter-Oganyan, Anya Titova, Arseniy Zhilyaev, and Alexei Penzin andKeti Chukhrov of the group Chto Delat. Other invitees include curator Daria Parkhomenko, geneticist and seeds expert Konstantin Sidoruk, solar and alternative energy specialist Alexander Gordienko, mathematician and neuroscientist Mikhail Burtsev, the psychologist and psychotherapist Natalya Rivkina, who employs hypnosis and trance techniques in her work, theremin expert and great grandson of Leo Theremin, Peter Theremin, and biologist and monkey language researcher Anna Smirnova.

The event takes place in the apartment which once hosted the studio of renowned Russian artist Ilya Kabakov from 1968 to 1988, after which time he left the city and emigrated to Long Island, New York, where he currently lives. The Studio is today owned by the Moscow Union of Artists, and maintained by Joseph Backstein, co-host of the “Moscow Research Program.”

This performative research event is realized in collaboration with V-A-C foundation (VICTORIA — the Art of being Contemporary) and the Moscow Biennale.

VICTORIA — the Art of being Contemporary is a young institution founded in Moscow in 2009 committed to supporting contemporary art in Russia. With a focus directed towards contemporary art and cultural practice, and the aim of providing a ground for creativity in a wider sense of the word, the V-A-C foundation strives to be actively engaged in artistic production, art education development and in helping young Russian art.