Total Enlightenment

This comprehensive publication is devoted to the Conceptual Art movement in Russia, still relatively unknown in the West, of the late and post-Soviet period. The book owes its title to a 1974 essay by Boris Groys in which he notes that the special relationship of a few Moscow artists to Russian tradition sets them apart from their Western exemplars. Like their contemporaries in the West toward the end of the sixties, Conceptual artists in Moscow reflected on the existential experience of being part of a political concept. In a radical departure from the romantic image of the autonomous artistic genius, the viewer is included in the art; processes of production and conditions of reception are exposed. This volume features key works and paintings, drawings, photographs, and installations by the most important artists.   Exhibition schedule: Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, June 21–September 14, 2008   Fundación Juan March, Madrid, October 10, 2008–January 11, 2009