e-flux: Elementary Poetry
We have to start this blog with an announcement for our Breakfast Clubbers:
All Things Project starts “FFF” (Fourth Friday Film!) - a new film series this week. The first screening Paris Blues takes place this Friday 7:00 pm on Jan 31st at our usual location in the village.
Now, I can report our last Friday outing...
Book launch:
Andrei Monastyrski, Elementary Poetry
Friday, January 24, 2020 at 7 PM – 9 PM
e-flux
311 E Broadway, NYC
Free admission, first come first served
About the author:
In recent years Andrei Monastyrski has received international recognition for his work with Collective Actions, a group of artists who have organized actions in the fields around Moscow since 1976. Though his poetry is less well known, that is where it all began. After writing poetry in the manner of Russian modernists, newly available to Soviet readers during Khrushchev’s thaw, Monastyrski’s interest in John Cage and ideas about consciousness from Western and Eastern philosophical traditions led him to deepen his dialogue with poetry of the past through experiments with sound, form, and the creation of artistic environments involving carefully conceived objects and situations. Elementary Poetry collects poems, books, and action objects from the ’70s, tracing a genealogy of the art action in poetry. (text from the publisher’s site)
About Andrei Monastyrski’s artwork The Balloon (1977):
https://www.moma.org/collection/works/122028
About the artwork Finger (1977)
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/monastyrski-finger-t14133
(note: you can scroll down to see “YOU MIGHT LIKE” on the Tate page via the link above)
About the book:
https://uglyducklingpresse.org/publications/elementary-poetry/
We went to a book launch event in Lower East Side for a newly translated artist’s book, from Russian to English.
At first, the young publisher came out to the mic and apologized to us that the author didn’t make it to the event because of some flight problems. He then mentioned that it was great to see so many people for a very modest book event by a very small press.
The audience wasn’t expecting that, but the only reason why people showed up appeared to be the same reason why I showed up...Boris was supposed to talk about poetry, form, sound, performance, etc, so everyone was calm. I knew Boris Groys as a big name who often writes articles for e-flux issues, but obviously he was a distinguished Professor at New York University.
Suddenly Boris stood up and started his talk.
Next moment, I saw our favorite waitress from laika bar by e-flux on the floor so was very tempted to offer her a seat but also noticed that there were 2 folding chairs next to her (bottom left in the photo below)
Brian Droitcour and Yelena Kalinsky were the translators of the book and also the performers of the night:
They read from this book of classical Russian concrete poetry in English.
See the slide above...there was a socially-charged meaning for the word “Balloon” there because the author produced an artwork (film) with the same title as one of the longest surviving artist collective, the Collective Actions Group (CAG):
< https://www.calvertjournal.com/articles/show/5838/collective-actions-group-soviet-nonconformist-kabakov >
and MoMA purchased it.
The slideshow on the background was informative and helpful (the content is from the book).
They explained to the audience later that certain translations of the poems are intentionally not accurate.
This diagram below is...
for this painting with the best title I’ve never seen in my life (below)
Moving onto the next section...
Curator Ksenia Nouril joined for the panel discussion and Q&A with the audience.
Pages I like:
I tend to title each of my paintings with a concrete poem, so this looks very familiar to me in the way...
Before I realized it, we were at the restaurant ordering our usual Thai green curry. I felt as if those squares and circles from the book and performance were embodied in our meal:
white “cone” mountain on the white square plate (robert ryman?)
This shrimp reminded me of something I just saw...:
HERE is a video of the artist talking if you need it.
HERE is an article about the Balloon that entered MoMA collection.
reported by
NK 2020