Join us on Friday, 13 October for a lunchtime artist talk with Mykola Ridnyi in conversation with Prof Susanne Strätling, moderated by Dr Maria Chehonadskih. The speakers will discuss Ridnyi’s artistic practice, his new exhibition The Battle Over Mazepa on view at Pushkin House, as well as those cultural complexities that we need to address regarding shared histories during the Russian war in Ukraine.

Join us on Tuesday, 20 June for an artist talk by Katya Muromtseva, whose current exhibition Women in Black Against the War is on show at Pushkin House until 29 July. She will discuss her most recent series of portraits of activists and political prisoners as well her artistic practice in general.Katya explored political themes in her work long before the full-scale Russian invasion started. In her videos, watercolours and installations she reflects on historical memory, collective action, political representation and nostalgia. She has always experimented with various exhibition formats and explored the conditions in which culture is produced and presented.

Join us on Friday, 24th March for a conversation about art, activism, and forest ecologies of the Russian North, stimulated by the film, A Forest Tale, by Ruth Maclennan, currently on show at Pushkin House. A Forest Tale was filmed in Arkhangelsk region at the end of 2021 during an artist residency organised in collaboration with Ekaterina Sharova and the Arctic Art Institute. We will also be joined by writer and historian Charles Emmerson.

Join us on Thursday 20 October for an artist talk by Pavel Otdelnov. Otdelnov will share the story behind his exhibition Acting Out created specifically for the historical premises of Pushkin House. Initially conceived as a reflection on the complex legacies of the the Cold War and the arms race, the project has naturally evolved in the wake of the Russian invasion in Ukraine, representing ambivalent sentiment towards resentful sensibilities, political confrontations and toxic nostalgia.

Pushkin House invites you to an open conversation with Manu Luksch & Mukul Patel, creators of a new artist-guided walk – HEAR/HERE TO SEE – that shines light on the increasing prevalence of automated decision making systems in urban space and daily life. The 1.5km route narrates the buildings and public spaces around London’s Westminster through a conversation about the algorithms that can be encountered there, from the bell tower of the Abbey to street traffic lights, and from law courts to the Home Office. They will be joined by Dr Seeta Gangadharan, the founder of Our Data Bodies and Associate Professor in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

TOK Curators have decided to cancel event. Here is their statement:

‘The practice of TOK Curators has always included multiple projects aimed at collaborations and dialogue with cultural practitioners from Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia and other neighboring countries in the wider European region.

We condemn the invasion of the Russian forces in Ukraine, this war must be stopped! We are against the reproduction of political division, violence and ideological imperialism! We stand in solidarity with our Ukrainian colleagues and all the people of Ukraine and all those who protest this war.’

Pushkin House is proud to present a discussion with Desire International’s two artists, Yevgeniy Fiks and Ian Ginsburg. They will be joined by Denis Stolyarov, assistant curator at Pushkin House, and Yara Bubnova, Director of the Sofia National Gallery, which will receive parts of the exhibition once it leaves Pushkin House.

Desire International is a two-artist exhibition by the contemporary artists Yevgeniy Fiks and Ian Ginsburg exploring the utopianism of queer sensuality and imagination. This event will provide the opportunity for the artists to discuss their inspirations, motivations and visions behind the exhibition, and for the two curators to discuss the exhibition’s significance beyond Pushkin House and the UK.

Long Live, Queer Belarus! brings together the history and contemporaneity of queer communities in independent Belarus.

The opening lecture by Bahdan Khmialnitski is based on a case study of the capital of Belarus Minsk, introducing the stories, language, places and culture associated with its LGBTQ+ inhabitants. It focuses on the unique practices and vocabulary that the local queer people have developed despite and contrary to the current authoritarian regime.

Dr Margarita Kuleva and Pushkin House invite you to The Ball, an immersive party inspired by Plato’s Feast and aristocratic balls, Russian literature’s recurring mise-en-scène. Among the panellists will be artists and academics who explore Russian art or boundaries as social phenomena, and it will also focus on the interaction between The Guest (Margarita Kuleva) and The Host (Pohititel Aromatov, a queer UK-based artist and popular Russian video blogger).

Food and drink are included in the ticket price.

The Ship is the second of three performative lectures developed by Dr Margarita Kuleva as part of her project The Arrival.

The lecture will be given at an aircraft hangar. The recording will be published on the Pushkin House YouTube channel, with the direct link available on this page.

The Border is the first of three performative lectures developed by Dr Margarita Kuleva as part of her project The Arrival.

The first lecture will be held while crossing the English Channel, at the France-UK border. The recording will be published on the Pushkin House YouTube channel, with the direct link available on this page.

Join us via Zoom when artist Ekaterina Muromtseva will be in discussion with anthropologist Nikolai Ssorin-Chaikov about Muromtseva's work, the performative and symbolic significance of presents to the powerful, the relationship between people and their rulers in contemporary Russia and what artistic observation shares with the practices of academic field research. Muromtseva’s work A Tough Male Portrait forms part of our current exhibition Crevices in Myth.