About the group "COLLECTIVE ACTIONS"

The group "Collective Actions" (CA) , working in the genre of performance, was founded in March 1976 within the framework of Moscow conceptualism by N. Alekseev, G. Kizewalter, A. Monastyrski, and L. Rubinstein. The latter participated only in the first action Appearance on March 13, 1976, and left the group right after due to family circumstances. The second action, Lieblich, on April 2, 1976, was organized by the three remaining members: N. Alekseev, G. Kizewalter, and A. Monastyrski. The next year, N. Panitkov joined the group starting with the action Comedy on October 2, 1977. In 1979, three more members—E. Elagina, I. Makarevich, and S. Romashko—joined the group, starting with the action Place of Action. In 1985, S. Hänsgen also joined (during the action Translation on March 6, 1985).

Starting in 1980, all sorts of documentation from the actions were collected in samizdat volumes Trips Out of Town. Each volume included a short introductory text titled “From the Authors”, a preface (written by A. Monastyrski), descriptive texts for all actions, a section titled “Stories from participants” (narratives), appendices containing various materials (diagrams, photographs, discussions, and more), and a section with articles (discourse).

This website is organized according to a system of volumes in which the actions are arranged chronologically.

The group "Collective Actions" had and still has a circle of regular viewers-participants, whose names are mentioned in the descriptive texts including lists of authors and co-authors of the actions`plots and their realization.

CA’s actions have been most often conducted in suburban spaces in the outskirts of Moscow, in fields and forests, but also in urban areas (In 2007, Monastyrski introduced "CA Maps" using Google Earth maps with markers to indicate action locations).

The content of CA actions can be summarized as follows:

"In CA, we demonstrated:

Just sound — "Lieblich" action, 1976

Just light — "Lantern" action, 1977

Just color — the red canvas in Kalistovo's Peschanka in the action "Two Slogans,
Part 1", 2019 

These are the fundamental foundations of our perceptions—the auditory, visual, and chromatic lines connecting the subject and the object and creating the duality of our worldview.

In addition, we demonstrated:

Just appearance

Just withdrawal

Just disappearance

Just indistinctiveness

and other states and phenomena of our worldview.

All of these elements were presented in our actions within the framework of the spatial-temporal experience, in the aesthetic moment of "art after philosophy" of that contemporaneity and that time and place when and where they were created.

In 1977, the group participated in the Venice Biennale, and materials from CA’s first four actions were published in Flash Art magazine. In 1997, CA was shown at the exhibition titled CA: An Investigation of Documentation at the Exit Art gallery, New York. Additionally, the group participated in the Venice Biennale in 2011 at the Russian Pavilion.

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A. Monastyrski, with the participation of S. Hänsgen

2023