А. Монастырский, Н. Панитков, И. Макаревич, Е. Елагина, С ...

S.H.: In conclusion, let‘s turn to the last action, Slogan-2005. Unlike all the other pieces in CA‘s
slogan series, this action removes the ―slogan-quality‖ of the slogan into the auditory sphere, if I am
not mistaken. The initial phase of the action consisted in listening to a reading of the Diamond Sutra,
playing on a tape recorder that suspended from a tree. The device of listening to an invisible voice is
reminiscent of the form practiced by ancient religious cults, where the sphere of the invisible is
associated with transcendental mystery. This tradition seems to shine through this slogan as a
background. Then again, the action also gave rise to the state of listening as such, which supports the
process of liberation from any concrete content that we were talking about before. This concentrates
all attention on the perception of the material-formal details of the slogan as an installation in nature.
One of the slogan‘s points of affixment 2 is marked by the fact that the tape recorder is fastened to the
tree with yellow scotch tape. Another point of affixment is marked by an orange tumbler-doll.
Between them, there are sheets of paper with scholarly commentary attached to the tree trunks. This
obviously accentuates the design or the format of the slogan. And again, the text machine has been set
into motion, producing text that branches out into various commentaries.
I don‘t only think that that this can stimulate a one-way-movement that leads to more and more
remote contexts that culminate in self-sufficiency. Instead, I imagine it as movement along a spiral
that could unexpectedly lead to aesthetic contact with the surrounding context of the new Russian
world.
A.M.: I have no idea about contemporary contexts of Slogan-2005 and what‘s more, I find them
completely uninteresting. Even if they are there, of course. For me, this slogan is, most importantly,
an abstract composition, a chromatic structure. It is like a piece of music. It is somehow related to
Daoist and Buddhist mentalities (and these might be quite contemporary and current, at least to CA).
What seems very strange is the inclusion of living elements, such as a bound bundle of branches that
took the place of the tape player, and the participation of a Pharaoh hound in the action‘s space. After
the preceding four actions on the theme of Russian cosmism, this last action does not awaken any
discursive desire to understand it at all. And that‘s a good thing.
Translation: David Riff
Sabine Hänsgen, Andrej Monastyrski
Dialog über die Losungen der „Kollektiven Aktionen“
S.H.: Die Bezeichnung der letzten Aktion „Losung 2005― verweist auf eine bestimmte Form des
politischen Designs in der sowjetischen Kultur, aber auch auf eine Tradition von Performances
innerhalb der Gruppe „Kollektive Aktionen―, bei denen Losungen verwendet wurden. Mir scheint es
interessant, am Beispiel dieser Losungsaktionen noch einmal die Bedeutung der spezifischen
Beziehungen zwischen äußeren und inneren Motivationskontexten für die Tätigkeit der Gruppe zu
diskutieren.
Ein wichtiges Sujetelement der „Reisen aus der Stadt―, die von den „Kollektiven Aktionen―
organisiert werden, besteht in der Überschreitung einer Grenze. Der Übergang aus dem städtischen
Raum in den ländlichen Raum ist dabei mit einer semiotischen Reduktion verbunden. Der ländliche
Raum – das in einem metaphysischen Sinn leere Feld – wird zur Bühne für minimalistische
Handlungen, die elementare raum-zeitliche Strukturen der Wahrnehmung thematisieren: Erscheinen
– Verschwinden, Annäherung – Entfernung, Gehen, Stehen, Liegen, Klang – Stille, Pause,
2 Trans. note: ―Point of affixment‖ is a specific term from the discourse of CA that may require some clarification.
To Andrei Monastyrsky, the point of affixment, usually considered as a purely technical moment (i.e. a nail), has a
central aesthetic value in defining the artwork‘s objectivity: it reveals the link of the artwork‘s material placement
(on the ―expositional sign-field‖ of exterior reality and ideological motivations) to the immanent, conceptual logic of
art. In other words, the ―point of affixment‖ supplies the artwork with its conceptual objectivity.