2017 marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, an event of such historic resonance we are still contending with its ramifications today. All through the year, Telekommunisten is producing a series of interventions: workshops, assemblies, congresses, performances and other events, working out emancipatory visions to contemporary conditions, re-engaging with the hopes and convictions of socialist pasts and exploring the lessons of the experience of the socialist movements and projects.of the ensuing 100 years (encountering the contradictions, difficulties, and disappointments) to help inform and inspire the next 100 years of work; towards a society where the conditions for the development of each are the conditions for the development of all.
The Russian revolutions of 1917 released an explosion of radical art. The very understanding of art as a specialized realm of representation was blown open to reveal the creative potential in every aspect of society. As labour, essential for the reproduction of society, finally began to benefit from the attention it had long deserved, not only the subject of art but also artistic practices began to transform.
80 years earlier… Karl Marx worked to extend the philosophical project of communism and sketch out a contemporary vision for a society the world had never seen before. Such a society is immanently possible and emergent, since, as he described, society is being reproduced materially every day. This imagination was based not merely on hope but on an extensive study of the conditions under which people toiled to survive and thrive throughout history. Telekommunisten attempt to take up this approach for today, elaborating contemporary modes of addressing capitalist and patriarchal normativity, institutional inequality of opportunity, economic and environmental injustice, and the oppression of human potential.
Putting the political back in economics to analyse and understand our contemporary technological environment, we produce performative and participatory objects and events. These engagements are conceived to generate new research, practices and cultural reference points to support and sustain new generations striving for an unprecedentedly just world.
Upcoming events:
Feb. 18th 2017 Telekommunist International (100th anniversary of the Putilov Strike)
Apr. 9-17th 2017 Revolution Revisited : Lenin’s train to Petrograd (100th anniversary of Lenin’s train journey)
