Artists Must Unite. Co-authorships 1978–2016

Co-authorships 1978–2016

The second book of conversations between artist Vadim Zakharov and philologist and co-author of many projects Maria Porudominskaya is dedicated to the numerous collaborations of Vadim with well-known Moscow conceptual artists Igor Lutz, Viktor Skersis, Nadezhda Stolpovskaya, Yuri Albert, Sergey Anufriev, Pavel Pepperstein, Andrey Monastyrsky, Yuri Leiderman, Ivan Chuykov, and Sabina Hensgen from 1978 to 2009. The book also discusses the collaboration with composer Ivan Sokolov (1997–1998, 2006–2007) and the experience of working with German artist Niklas Nitschke (2010–2016).

The essence and purpose of this publication is to demonstrate the limitless flow of experiments in art, which often occurred parallel to, and sometimes in contradiction with, Zakharov's main creative activity described in the first book – 'The Artist Must Think!'. Without these experiments, regardless of their success or failure, it is hard to imagine complete creativity. Co-authorship is a method of escaping the author's deadlock, a deviation from the beaten path. In this book, we try to talk about the survival of the concept of 'freedom' in collaborative creative laboratories. According to Vadim Zakharov, co-authorship is the most democratic creative method one can imagine. It provides a much broader palette for creativity than self-contained practices. BUT! Co-authorship, like a strong drug, can lead to hospitalization.