Tracings out of Thin Air at the Hermitage
At the Youth Education Centre of the State Hermitage Museum, the Forum of Slavic Cultures presented Tracings out of Thin Air, a book that discusses the shaping of oppositional practices and collaborative communities in art and culture. Both Slovenian and Russian authors took part in the presentation, among them Marina Gržinić, Darja Zaviršek, Alexander Ivanov, Joana Monbaron and Ayman Eckford.
The presentation took place in St. Petersburg in the framework of the 11th Cyberfest, festival that promotes emergence of new forms of interaction between art and high technologies, and forges new relationships between artists, curators, engineers and programmers from across the world.
“Through this publication we enter that area of activity of the Forum of Slavic Cultures that allows us all to broaden our horizons in culture, art and society, and to look into the ways in which all of us could live our lives in dignity, freedom and equality. This is our attempt at offering a constructive contribution to the discussion on a better future for all of us, members of many Slavic nations who are at the same time Europeans in every sense of the word, as well as the citizens of the world,” stressed Ms Andreja Rihter, Director of the Forum of Slavic Cultures, at the presentation ceremony. Marina Gržinić, one of the editors and authors of the publication, added: “The focal point of the book is a reflection on oppositional practices that involve collaborative communities in art and culture. To this end we propose that different histories and experiences of Europe be analysed.”
Ilya Ermolaev, Assistant to the Director General of the State Hermitage Museum, agreed that handicap studies and their interaction with culture, art and social work play a vital role in the time we are living in.
The book was published and issued by the Forum of Slavic Cultures, the introduction offers content summaries in four languages (Slovene, Russian, Serbian and English) and the texts are written in English.