Russian Cosmism: Online Event Series

Rampa in Porto, Portugal, in coproduction with SIRIUS, presents Citizens of the Cosmos, an exhibition by Anton Vidokle featuring four films that explore Russian Cosmism through cinematic devices and an engagement with biopolitics, universalism, utopia, revolution, and museology.

Russian Cosmism is a constellation of theories and projects—philosophical, artistic, scientific—informed by the writings of the Russian philosopher Nikolai Fedorov (1829–1903). It brings together discourses of Marxism, Russian Orthodox Christianity, Enlightenment, and Eastern philosophy. Furthermore, it involves conceptions of technological immortality, resurrection, and space travel, and speculates on how these might be materialized through artistic, social, and scientific means.

  

ONLINE EVENT SERIES

An online event series examining the potential of Russian Cosmism for political and artistic discourse as well as scientific advancements and challenges has been devised by SIRIUS director Miguel Amado in collaboration with Porto-basec curator Alexandra Balona and Anton Vidokle. It includes Zoom talks and discussions with the thinkers and artists Marina Simakova, Raqs Media Collective, Boris Groys, and Michael Marder. It explores topics such as Russian Cosmism’s call for immortality and the museum as a place for transhistorical reunification beyond death as well this movement’s relevance today, when philosophical speculation is again entangled with scientific and technological imagination.

 

All sessions are free to attend, but advance booking via Eventbrite is required (Zoom invitation in ticket order confirmation).

https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/anton-vidokle-citizens-of-the-cosmos-online-event-series-tickets-169142691343

 

Marina Simakova

A Modern Match between Science and Religion? A Few Notes on Immortality in the Russian Cosmism

Thursday, 16 September, 19.00

Exploring Russian Cosmism’s “optimistic materialism,” Marina Simakova elaborates on how technology and tradition as well as reason and faith were once fused within a daring project of hopeful modernism.

Marina Simakova is a scholar and doctoral researcher at the European University Institute, Florence.

 

Raqs Media Collective and Anton Vidokle

Thursday, 23 September, 19.00

Raqs Media Collective dialogues with Anton Vidokle on the cinematic features of his films through an engagement with questions of time, technology, ecology and politics, using “kinetic contemplation” as their mode of inquiry.

Raqs Media Collective is a New Delhi–based collective formed by Jeebesh Bagchi, Monica Narula and Shuddhabrata Sengupta, working at the intersection of art, philosophy, history, and curation.

 

Boris Groys and Anton Vidokle

Thursday, 30 September, 19.00

Boris Groys dialogues with Anton Vidokle on Russian Cosmism’s ambition to create not merely new art or philosophy but a new world, inspiring the Russian intellectual and political vanguard.

Boris Groys is a scholar and a professor of Russian and Slavic studies at New York University; senior research fellow at the Academy of Design, Karlsruhe; and a professor at the European Graduate School.

 

Michael Marder

Universal Kinship as the Foundation of Russian Cosmism: The Case of Nikolai Fedorov

Thursday, 7 October, 19.00

Through the lens of contemporary ecological thought and political theory, Michael Marder elaborates on the role of other-than-human nature and webs of universal kinship in Russian Cosmism.

Michael Marder is a scholar and a Ikerbasque research professor of Philosophy at the University of the Basque Country.