Art exhibitions in people’s own apartments, were a tradition born in the Soviet Union when public cultural life was strictly regulated by the state. People opened their apartments— private spaces— for public events, exhibitions and concerts.
Based on the idea of Nikita Alexeev
By creating our own apartment shows with neighbors and friends, we hoped for experimentation and dialogue that would go beyond our immediate circle of friends. We aim to transfer private space into public space.
Now, just like the original Soviet APTART, we plan to create a new space with new values that are not regulated by museums, markets, and galleries and do not require grants or sponsor support to function (although we adore support and care and it sure helps!).
We experiment with reproducible art. Imagine an exhibition that is not only viewable but where visitors can pick up their favorite pieces simply by downloading them from the website and printing them.
Nice!
That’s our vision for APTART. We’re starting with several exhibitions on activist art (check the related content—events, pages, content), and we will continue with exhibitions of artists and collectives whose work connects private and public spaces, especially the ones that were presented at Documenta 15 this year in Kassel, Germany.
We also plan to do several exhibitions about the late anthropologist David Graeber, including works from his private archive. The first such exhibition will be dedicated to David’s mother, Ruth Rubenstein, who was his most important intellectual and emotional partner.
