Mythologies of Collecting and Modes of Thought in the Russian Culture of the 20th Century: History, Theory and Place in the European Context

This project reads collecting as fulfillment of social, aesthetic and philosophical programs that span centuries, infect individual and social imaginations and produce replicas in art, literature and science. This view runs counter existing interpretations of collecting that emphasize such isolated determinants of collector`s activity as individual psychology, social and economical status or political objectives. Instead of creating an overarching taxonomy, the project is concentrated on two prominent mythologies of collecting prevalent in the Russian culture of the Modernist age (1900-1917) and the subsequent Soviet time (1917-1991). One of them describes indiscriminate gathering of useful objects within the eyesight that is common for wandering philosophers, inner-city rag-pickers and impatient nouveau riches. Another emphasizes amassing exotic artifacts from unheard-of places and is archetypical for encyclopedic scholars, curiosity shop owners and museum founders. `Rag-picking` and assembling of curiosities are two poles, two extremes of collecting that fail to categorize - as such - a majority of accumulative practices. It is this extremely however that makes them noticeable, significant and ultimately productive in culture. Although the research is mainly focused on Soviet culture, its material is compared to and contrasted with the related trends in the European cultural thought and practice. Hence a comprehensive examination of Russian literary, artistic and philosophical works of the last century in the project is not limited to historical exploration and classification of the relevant archival, bibliographical and visual materials:it is aimed to define the peculiarities of the late Russian and Soviet response to the two major European mythologies of collecting.