Curators: Anna Zamriy, Irina Gorlova
Architecture: Alexander Brodsky, Natasha Kuzmina

From the mid-1930s onwards, works by artists now considered to be avant-garde disappeared from view: they vanished from museum displays, art books, and libraries. A campaign began against formalism, deemed alien to socialist society. Only twenty years later was the avant-garde spoken of again, yet it remained little known. From the late 1950s, research into the artistic movements of the early twentieth century began, though largely behind closed doors.

In this context, A-YA stands as a unique historical document. The journal presented the legacy of the Russian avant-garde from three perspectives: first, through the publication of materials from the early Russian avant-garde in its Heritage section; second, through the so-called “dialogue” of contemporary artists with the historical avant-garde; and third, through reflections on the avant-garde in contemporary art. The journal was the first to publish texts by Malevich, Filonov, Matiushin, and Shalamov. In doing so, it contributed to the rediscovery of many theoretical and artistic concepts of the early avant-garde at a time when Soviet publications were only just beginning to write about it.
The exhibition is built around the dialogue between the “first” and “second” avant-gardes as it unfolded in the pages of the journal, bringing together more than 350 works, including those by Kazimir Malevich, El Lissitzky, Pavel Filonov, Igor Shelkovsky, Erik Bulatov, Ilya Kabakov, Viktor Pivovarov, Francisco Infante, Oleg Tselkov, Ivan Chuikov, and others. Sometimes described as a “paper museum” (by analogy with “paper architecture”), the journal comes off the printed page and into space, giving visitors the chance to walk through the issues of A-YA and encounter original works and archival documents published in its pages.
Architects Alexander Brodsky and Natasha Kuzmina have fitted a pristine white “journal cube” within the circular plan of the exhibition hall. Inside this central structure, visitors will find a journey through the Heritage section across eight issues, seven dedicated to art and one to literature. Exhibition sections such as The Malevich Complex, Filonov’s Mythologem, A Chance Encounter, He Drew an Angel Again…, It Is Time for Art to Invade Life, The Window of Expanded Viewing, Self-Publishing Self, and Word of Honour lead visitors through the themes that preoccupied artists of both the 1910s–1920s and the 1970s–1980s. On the outer perimeter, beyond the cube, visitors can learn about the journal’s creation, its significance for both Russian and international art scenes, and the reasons why publication eventually ceased.
Nearly 40 museums and private collections have contributed to the exhibition, including the State Russian Museum, the State Tretyakov Gallery, the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, ROSIZO State Museum and Exhibition Centre, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the Mayakovsky State Museum, the AZ Museum, the Garage Archive Collection, MIRA Collection, Stella Art Foundation, Ekaterina Cultural Foundation, Alina Pinsky Gallery, the collection of Anton Kozlov, the collection of Igor Markin, and others.
A catalogue will accompany the exhibition: Conversations on Paper: On the Legacy of the Russian Avant-Garde and Unofficial Art of the 1970s–1980s in the A-YA Journal. It will not only document the exhibition project, but also present the curatorial research carried out in its preparation, while extending the discussion by engaging contemporary scholars and direct participants in the artistic scene of the 1970s and 1980s.
Alongside the exhibition, the public programme will offer lectures on the history of research into the early avant-garde and nonconformist artists. Workshops and practical courses on self-publishing, painting, and comic book creation will also be offered.
As is tradition, the exhibition will be accompanied by a musical programme. This time, the Studio for New Music will present a special concert created for the project.