Fulvia Carnevale

Chto delat? St. Petersburg/Moskau

Founded in spring 2003 by the Petersburg artist Dmitry Vilensky, "What is to be done?" brings together artists, philosophers, and writers in a workgroup based in Petersburg, Moscow, and Berlin. By opening a cross-disciplinary space for a multitude of critical artistic positions, we hope to bring our contribution to an unfolding international discussion on the indelible connection between poetics and politics with a deep focus on the development of the situation of cultural production in Russia.
The main organ of "What is to be done?" is its newspaper (Russian/English), which is distributed for free as a take-away medium. 8 issues of the newspaper have appeared so far. The newspaper addresses issues and themes that are in demand of reconsideration in contemporary artistic practice and political activism. It is not a journal for art criticism in the conventional sense. Aside from general essays, it contains reprints of fundamental historical texts, current quotes, questionnaires, dialogues, comic strips, open-source texts, and art-documentation.
The workgroup also engages in a variety of art projects, including actions, manifestations, and artistic examinations of urban space. Its most recent exhibition was "Drift – Narvskaya Zastava", a community-examination of a constructivist-proletarian neighborhood in contemporary Petersburg.
Newspaper Issues
No. 1: What is to be done? August 2003
No. 2: Zones of Autonomy, October 2003
No. 3: Emancipation of/from Labor, February 2004
No. 4: International Now/here, April 2004
No. 5: Love and Politics, May 2004
No. 6: Revolution or Resistance? August 2004
No. 7: Drift – Narvskaya Zastava, September 2004
Links
www.chtodelat.org