Yiddish Cosmos. Solo exhibition of Yevgeniy Fiks

Curator: Maria Veits  

The Center for Creative Industries Fabrica and Creative Associaiton of Curators TOK are  pleased to present ‘Yiddish Cosmos’, a solo show by NewYork-based artist Yevgeniy Fiks. The exhibition connects two seemingly unrelated stories: the process of the space exploration and the Soviet space program is juxtaposed with the history of Soviet Jews and their right for emigration. The show comprises series of prints, paper sculptures, video and archival materials and will open with a performance of Yiddish melodies on thereminvox played by Olesya Rostovskaya. 

In his multidisciplinary projects conceptual artist Yevgeniy Fiks focuses on the analysis of the Soviet era from the perspective of the post-Soviet experience in the contemporary context of collective amnesia and repression of ambiguous public memories. Most of his works are instigated by the research of micro-historical narratives of silenced or unresolved questions of the past. Like in his other projects, in Yiddish cosmos Yevgeniy Fiks again uses the tactics of historical revisionism and finds a place for a narrative that has been intentionally omitted from the official historical Soviet discourse throughout decades. Yiddish Cosmos offers an alternative view on the Soviet history - by looking at it from the position of the Soviet space conquest and Soviet Jewry, it creates a futuristic narrative where the ideas of technological development merge with the principles of Yiddish culture and reinterpretation of the figure of a Soviet refusenik and his struggle for liberty of movement. 

The critical approach to the process of constructing history employed by the artist, allows to fill in the void spaces in the Soviet and post-Soviet narrative when it comes to Jewish and Yiddish history. It brings the Jewish Soviet historical chapter into the realm of contemporary art where it has been hardly present until recently. Besides it is also an attempt to decolonize science and history and narrate the Soviet Space Program from a Soviet Jewish perspective:  in the Soviet and Russian public consciousness and ideological paradigm, space exploration has always been closely connected to Russian researchers and spacemen, while Jewish names have been rarely mentioned. Combining facts and fiction, the project speculates the idea that the Soviet Cosmos became the epitome of the Soviet Homeland for Soviet Jews, and therefore, defines the Soviet Jewish narrative as one of longing for scientific progress as a “homeland” that embraces them.

Yiddish Cosmos has been previously shown in New York and Paris, and in Russia it will be presented in a more expanded version that will also include new works. In addition to three stories linked with the Soviet Jewish cosmos - those of the co-creator of the modern aerospace science Ari Sternfeld, developer of the interplanetary AO language Volf Gordin and first Jewish cosmonaut Boris Volynov - the exhibition addresses the history of antisemitism in the USSR, connection between the Jewish and dissident movements, and attempts of the Soviet Jews to preserve the Yiddish culture despite governmental persecutions. Some archival materials and a new video work based on a conversation of the artist with the daughter or Ari Sternfeld, Ella Berman-Shternfeld, will also be a part of the show in Moscow. 

Read full curatorial text (In Russian)

Yevgeniy Fiks is a multidisciplinary, conceptual artist born in Moscow and based in New York City since 1994. His medium includes painting, drawing, performance, and book arts. Fiks defines himself as  "the Post-Soviet artist»,  one who has the responsibility to raise the proper understanding and critical reflection of Soviet history in order for Post-Soviet societies to move forward. His works explore the dialectic between Communismand "the West" and are based on historical research, usually of forgotten and unresolved Cold War narratives. Some of these topics include the shared histories of the Red and Lavender Scares during the McCarthy era; Communism in Modern Art; and African, African-American, and Jewish Diasporas in the Soviet Union. Fiks has exhibited internationally, including at the Museum of Modern Art, MassMoCA, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, and Museu Colecção Berardo in Lisbon. His work has been included in the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Biennale of Sydney and Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art.

The project is organized by CCI FAbrica and Creative Association of Curators TOK with support of Trust for Mutual Understanding, Asylum Arts and Congress for Jewish Culture.

The exhibition is one view from May 17 to June 23, 2019

Exhibition hours: Tue-Su, 12 p.m. - 8 p.m. Free entrance

Exhibition documentation on Facebook