Dilettantism of Our Age

Sixteen musical sketches with scores based on graphic works by Vadim Flyagin.

The poetics of St. Petersburg’s New Blockheads Cooperative, of which Vadim Flyagin was a member, drew on the eccentricity of the Futurists and the absurdism of the OBERIU movement.

Active from 1996 to 2002, the Cooperative ignored the art market and paid little attention to documenting their own work. The participants’ performances dissolved into the urban environment—whether it was erecting a monument to a mosquito or exploring the pits and ditches of Liteiny Prospekt.

Borey Gallery was the collective’s base, where they conceived and staged actions and performances and where Flyagin also lived for several years. He dedicated his Abstract Diary to his gallery mate, Samson the cat. This series comprises small works on paper placed around the perimeter of the space, just above the baseboard, and is currently on view in open storage at Garage.

Kate nv’s track is a tribute to the New Blockheads Cooperative and their art, which existed on the periphery of history as a whole, yet captured its anxieties and hopes, its apathy and euphoria.

About the artist

kate nv (Katya Shilonosova) is a member of the bands Glintshake (ГШ) and decisive pink. She is a musician, composer, performer, and simply a strange person.