Andrei Viktorovich Monastyrski (born Sumnin; October 28, 1949, in Pechenga, Murmansk Oblast, USSR) is an author, poet, artist and art theorist, one of the leaders of the Moscow Conceptualist movement along with Ilya Kabakov.
Life and work
Andrei Sumnin was born in 1949 in the town of Pechenga in Murmansk Oblast.
After graduating in Philology from Lomonosov Moscow State University, he got his first job as an editor in the Moscow Literature Museum. In 1973, he made his first serial structures and minimalist audio compositions, before turning to poetic objects and actions in 1975. One of the founding members of Collective Actions, he initiated most of the group’s projects and documented them in their Trips to the Countryside. Andrei Monastyrski was among the core participants of the Apt Art movement and the Moscow-based Club of Avant-Garde Artists (CLAVA), and has taken part in many exhibitions in Russia and abroad. Several of his articles on the theory of contemporary art have been published by Russian and international journals.
In 2003, he received Andrei Bely Prize for his contribution to Russian literature. He was granted Soratnik Prize in 2008, and Innovation Prize (for Art Theory) the following year.
In 1975–77 he made a series of works under the general name Elementary Poems. This series of books and actions anticipated the aesthetics of Collective Actions, which was formed in 1976.
Since 1980 Andrei Monastyrski has edited a number of volumes documenting Collective Actions’ Trips to the Countryside.
In 1981, he edited the first issue of the Moscow Archive of New Art (MANI). From 1986 to 1990 he coedited four MANI issues with Joseph Backstein and one more with Sabine Hänsgen.
In 2008–2009 he was a member of KAPITON group with Vadim Zakharov and Yuri Leiderman.
In 2011, Andrei Monastyrski and Collective Actions represented Russia at the Venice Biennale.
Selected solo exhibitions
2014 – Carriers, XL Gallery, Moscow
2013 – Andrei Monastyrski, Charim Galerie, Vienna
2012 – Andrei Monastyrski and Collective Actions. Trips out of Town (1980–2006). Regina Gallery, London
2011 – Andrei Monastyrski and Collective Actions. e-flux, New York
2011 – Empty Zones. Andrei Monastyrski and Collective Actions. The 54th International Art Exhibition – la Biennale di Venezia, Russian Pavilion, Venice
2011 – Out of Town: Andrei Monastyrski & Collective Actions. Performa, New York
2010 – Andrei Monastyrski. Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Victoria Foundation – the Art of being Contemporary, Moscow
