Philosopher Boris Groys delivers keynote speech at Berlin art congress

A host of well-known Russian artists have gathered in Berlin for Former West, a seven-day conference on contemporary art and theory through a post-communist lens. They include Chto Delat?, a Russian art and activism collective; Ekaterina Degot, an art writer, historian and curator; Boris Groys, a New York-based philosopher, art critic and curator; and Keti Chukhrov, an art theorist and philosopher.

In a keynote lecture to mark the opening of the congress yesterday evening, Groys spoke about the potential of art to change society. In his speech, Groys said that today’s artists had lost their role as the social outsider, preventing them from viewing society from an external position. “However, at the same time it allows the artist to experience complicity and solidarity with all members of society who are involved in any kind of productive and unproductive work.”

For their part, Chto Delat? will be staging a Brechtian play, Where Has Communism Gone?, on 21 March. Taking inspiration from the German playwright, the collective invited 25 participants to spend five days developing an educational performance centred on the direction communism has taken.

Former West is a six-year international research, education, publishing and exhibition project intended to reflect upon the world after 1989, a critical year that led to the collapse of the Soviet Union two years later. The project aims to rethink the concept of the “former East” by introducing its counterpart, the “former West”, a term never used in the wake of 1989 despite the geo-political shifts that led to a new world order. Former West further speculates about a “post-bloc” future that recognises a world of differences alongside the notion of “one world”.