Since the beginning of the 20th century outer space adventures represented in Russian fiction, cinema and visual arts has been connected with actual space exploration. Konstantin Ciolkovskij, who is known as "the father of Soviet cosmonautics", wrote sci-fi novels dedicated to the space-flights and consulted the first Soviet sci-fi film Cosmic Voyage (1935) directed by Vasilij Zuravlev. In the film actual details of outer space travelling such as weightlessness and many others, were represented for the first time. Ciolkovskij created a series of drawings called Album of Cosmic Voyages (1933), in which he predicted exact details of future spaceflights such as space walks, and represented imaginary space habitats. Kazimir Malevic described weightlessness (bezvesie) as a basic principle of Suprematism and proposed to create a new Suprematist satellite between the Moon and the Earth. Bulat Galeev, artist and musician, pioneer of Soviet media-art and founder of his "Prometheus" Special Construction Bureau, constructed an automated audio-visual object for monitoring all systems and special apparatus for the Soviet space program to help cosmonauts to fight with long-duration flight sensory deprivation. Vjaceslav Kolejcuk, an artist, architect and musician and a key figure of Russian kinetic art, designed an original self-assembling Space Radio Telescope and a Hall of Outer Space Travelling at the Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics in Moscow (1981). The project Center for Cosmic Energy (2003) was created by artists il'ja and Emilija Kabakov and dedicated to the archeology of Russian cosmism, the avant-garde and the fate of utopia directed to outer space. At the end of the Soviet era, the New Artists were inspired by the cosmos. Timur Novikov organized his exhibition at the Cosmos Pavilion at VDNX in Moscow at the first Space Rave Gagarin Party (1991). The composer and founder of the orchestra Popular Mechanica Sergej Kurexin organized his Center for Cosmic Research (1992) in St. Petersburg. Artist Pavel Pepperstejn works today with the archeology of outer space utopia, combining Russian cosmism ideas, avant-garde prophecy and post-conceptual dreams.
Translated title of the contributionVISIONS OF THE FUTURE IN ART
Original languageRussian
Pages (from-to)114-122
Number of pages9
JournalWelt der Slaven-Halbjahresschrift fur Slavistik
Volume65
Issue number1
StatePublished - Jan 2020

    Scopus subject areas

  • Visual Arts and Performing Arts
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Literature and Literary Theory
  • Linguistics and Language

    Research areas

  • cosmos, spaceflight, weightlessness, Konstantin Ciolkovskij's Cosmic Voyage, Kazimir Malevies Suprematist Satellite, Kazimir Malevič's Suprematist Satellite, Spaceflight, Weightlessness, Cosmos

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