***This text is part of the TransitoryWhite Nr. 2 Not The East, which can be ordered via this e-mail. The issue contains several texts and poetry in five languages as well as photographic works by Sasha Kurmaz. The publication is supported by the Goethe-Institut in Moscow. Enjoy reading!***

This article is a result of Antonina's participation in the Art Activism Research Lab. The author expresses gratitude for Katrin Nenasheva, Tatyana Volkova, Pavel Mitenko, and Roman Osminkin for their productive work and discussions within the laboratory.

In one of his poetic activist works created during the pandemic, Roman Sergeevich Osminkin writes: "Citizens! The word quarantine can be used to compose not only the words ‘punishment’, ‘wound’ and ‘tyrant,’ but also the prefix anti to all these words". Through such a play on words, Roman Osminkin not only wants to give us hope but emphasizes that the role of a political artist during a pandemic does not disappear. Vice versa, it is an extremely important activity, since the coronavirus exposes social problems even more. Even though the Russian government uses COVID-19 as a convenient tool to distract us from political issues and make us worry about health and life outside the political and socio-critical context.

Techno-Poetry. From the video "Out of Politics" (2020)

Julia Kozhemyako

It is hard to say if the pandemic and the subsequent isolation have set up fundamentally new conditions for life and survival. Rather it revealed and exacerbated the problems and trends that were already present in Russia and worldwide. In this regard, the American researcher Judith Butler speaks of "the rapidity with which radical inequality, nationalism, and capitalist exploitation find ways to reproduce and strengthen themselves within the pandemic zones". In the situation of Russia, concerning the analysis of activist art during the pandemic, understanding of the access to public space appears to be an important category for reflection.

The access to public space, so fundamental for the practice of activist art, was limited not only due to the coronavirus restrictions but also due to the political situation in the country. The pandemic became a trigger and a convenient pretext for the authorities to restrict and in some cases to ban access to public space subjecting this procedure to maximum regulation Roman Osminkin's allusion that the word quarantine contains the words ‘wound’ and ‘tyrant’ underlines this idea.

In this sense, the restriction on participation in the protest movement, on stepping into and taking possession of public spaces, as well as the emphasis on the use of force in resolving the conflict had begun long before the coronavirus. However, it was the coronavirus that made many activist artists rethink the problem of access to public spaces and pay attention to the topics of inclusion/exclusion of certain social groups from the sphere of care, unequal access to privileges, and social injustice.

Party of the Dead. The Dead in the Dead City (2020)

Photo by Evgeny Kurskov

If we look at the art activist practices of the period of the onset of the pandemic and self-isolation, we will see how the body gradually disappears from the public space. Thus, on April 5, 2020, Party of the Dead held “The Dead in the Dead City” action – quite classic for Russian activist art. In St. Petersburg, a city deserted due to the introduced quarantine, a group of activists walked along its central avenues. The point of the action is simple: the dead, as the representatives of the most excluded and displaced groups, occupy the city, abandoned for their own safety by the living, hiding from the virus in their apartments. Party of the Dead uses the format of the party for its actions, in order to transfer issues and actions from the aesthetic sphere to the political sphere. They show how the most vulnerable, unprotected groups are excluded, and the quarantine or self-isolation itself cannot be universal, that is, doable for everyone.

However, already on April 25, the leader of the Party, Maxim Evstropov, mentioned in his Facebook post that the action left him with mixed and conflicting feelings. For activist practices, the choice between compliance with the isolation regime and going outside in the situation of coronavirus turns out to be equally problematic.

This radically politicized the very question of whether to go out or not. Maxim Evstropov wrote, “You can no longer just stay home or just go outside – neither is seen as neutral anymore, transforming into a political gesture.” Each of these choices carries its own ethical burden and any answer cannot be universal.

At the same time, the traditional division into private and public spaces itself, introduced by Hannah Arendt and dating back to the Greek polis as the political life ideal, in the situation of the pandemic and the rise of biopower requires radical rethinking. In a situation where "we are asked to sequester ourselves in family units, shared dwelling spaces, or individual domiciles, deprived of social contact and relegated to spheres of relative isolation", extreme diffusion and transparency of numerous processes can be observed. Thus, the expansion of online forms of meetings, lectures, concerts, and discussions presupposes the invasion of the public sphere into the private one. Behind the back of each participant of such a meeting, the intimate space of their rooms reveals itself.

Roman Osminkin. This is not a vacation (2020)

Photo by Roman Osminkin

Throughout history, the private sphere has been denied a political dimension, excluded to the periphery of any historical process, marginalized and pushed aside as “not prestigious” for classical academic philosophical analysis. Today, however, it can be seen that the private sphere, which includes not only the space of one’s dwelling, but also such fundamental characteristics as care, routine, and everydayness, is getting politicized. On the one hand, private structures and infrastructures provide the very possibility of the public sphere existence, on the other – they must be brought back to the political context. This process had begun long before the coronavirus.

In the absence of access to the public sphere, artists seek new or old-new ways and opportunities to work politically

They focus on those who cannot stay at home. The artists show that we stay at home because someone goes out, risking their lives and health. These are usually representatives of the medical sector or low-paid workers who cannot be unemployed because they have no savings. For example, Katrin Nenasheva and Gruz 300 are organizing an action "With love from isolated citizens", in the framework of which they post messages in the city that those who observe the isolation regime would like to leave. These messages in an empty city are intended to draw attention to the existence of those who cannot afford the luxury of working from home: couriers, medical workers who are forced to risk their lives. The central idea of work is to rethink the existence of unequal access to rest and remote work, the idea of invisible structures of care.

The consequences of unequal access to remote work and recreation "affected those employment sectors that can hardly be commodified, but are basic in the system of normal course of life. First of all, among them there is a sphere of domestic work and work of the care economy, which constitutes a huge part of the budget sector". For example, Roman Osminkin's project “This is not a vacation”, in which he poetically changed advertising on the asphalt, usually associated with the sphere of prostitution, into a politically charged message. During the coronavirus period, its focus shifted to an emphasis on unequal access to privileges, where one segment of the population is "forced to rest", whereas the other serves it.

Creative association “Nadenka”. May Day (2020)

Anastasia Makarenko

In general, many traditional activist events were forced to reformat. For example, the traditional May Day demonstration took place in a disjoined collectivity format and was almost completely or partially removed from public space. The creative association “Nadenka” placed their slogans and banners in a birch grove – in a deserted place. N I I C H E G O D E L A T made minimal models of their requirements for basic income and non-work on a laptop keyboard, against which videos of the May demonstrations of past years were shown.

In this regard, the boundary between the private and public spheres is reinterpreted. What has traditionally been considered private is being politicized, such as care infrastructures We see how artists use the practice of intercepting, capturing existing everyday practices, and converting them into political practices. An example of such a strategy can be the “Protest Aerobics” project of the ZIP group. On the one hand, due to the wave of isolation, interest in yoga and online sports services increased, on the other hand, the political climate in the country was aggravated over these several months. The grouping combines both trends characteristic of the pandemic into a series of physical exercises, among which there is the asana of Bullet Dodge, Anti-Gas, etc. The daily routine is politicized.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the restriction of access to the public sphere, isolation, emphasis on the forceful way of solving problems on the part of the authorities, reinforces the so-called left melancholy - a mixture of fear and apathy associated with powerlessness about the ability to change something. That is, on the one hand, we are witnessing the politicization of intimate and everyday spheres, on the other - fear and apathy, and as a result, internal migration, expressed in the phrase: “I am out of politics”. It is precisely this melancholy and apathy that the Techno-Poetry group is concerned about. As a protest against the referendum on constitutional amendments, the group released the song and video Out of Politics. In this video, they not only demonstrate the repressive political landscape of modern Russia but also show that it is impossible to be outside of politics.

ZIP group. Protest Aerobics (2020)

Visual by ZIP group

It is important to note that today's actions are simultaneously held in several spaces - virtual, public, and private. So, for example, the media activist project in support of the activist and artist Yulia Tsvetkova simultaneously uses various platforms and mediums - from traditional work with her own body and appearing in public space to Internet challenges. The purpose of such an action is the widest possible solidarity.

We can literally see that the existence of the public space is completely subordinate to and dependent on the structures of what is called the private sphere. This leads to the politicization of private space since the fragility of everydayness is being comprehended, as well as its dependence on a variety of institutional formations and actors. And then, according to Alla Mitrofanova, "politics is the formation of our everydayness". In this situation, artists turn to the topic of the politicization of care, and the awareness of inequality and privileges in the labor system during the pandemic.

Antonina Stebur is a curator and researcher. She studied visual and cultural sciences at the European Humanities University (Vilnius, Lithuania) and at the School of Engaged Art of the art group "Chto Delat? (Saint Petersburg, Russia). She is a member of the art-activist project #damaudobnayavbytu ("Woman comfortable in everyday life"), which examines the feminist agenda in the postsoviet contexts. She has curated a number of exhibitions in Belarus, Russia, Poland, France and China. Her research areas and curatorial interests are: community, re-composition of everyday practices, feminist critique, new sensibility, grassroots initiatives.

Edited by Lina Iliaeva and Ira Konyukhova