articles

BASTA! A new special issue of the newspaper What Is To Be Done?

By Thomas Campbell, 28 February 2008

We would like to announce the release of BASTA!, a special Russian-only issue of the art/theory/activism newspaper Chto Delat? (What Is to Be Done?), which is produced by an eponymous workgroup of artists, philosophers, writers, and activists from Saint Petersburg, Moscow, and Nizhny Novgorod. The new number addresses such pressing issues as the fight against racism and facism, the new Russian labor movement, the resistance to runaway “development” in Petersburg, the prospects for student self-governance and revolt, the potential for critical practice amongst academics and contemporary artists, the attack on The European University in St. Petersburg, and Alain Badiou’s aborted visit to Moscow. Authors include Artemy Magun, Kirill Medvedev, Dmitry Vilensky, Dmitry Vorobyev, Alexander Bikbov, and Oleg Aronson. The number also features a centerfold map of Petersburg documenting the numerous racist attacks and demolitions of historic buildings that have occurred in the city over the past five years.

All articles from the new number will be translated into English in the coming days and weeks. Several of them are already available for viewing at Chtodelat News:

chtodelat.wordpress.com

The entire issue may be downloaded as a .pdf file at the Chto Delat workgroup website:

www.chtodelat.org

Here you will also find selected texts in Russian and in English, as well as the full run of previous issues of the newspaper and more information about the workgroup's activities.

BASTA! Front page of BASTA!, the new special issue of the Russian art/theory/activism newspaper Chto Delat? (What Is to Be Done?).