Alexei Penzin is Reader at Faculty of Arts of the University of Wolverhampton (UK), and Research Fellow at the Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow. His major fields of interest are philosophical anthropology, Marxism, Soviet and post-Soviet studies, and the philosophy of art. He lectures widely on these topics and has participated in many international research projects, seminars, and symposia such as dOCUMENTA(13) and Former West congress. Penzin has written numerous articles and is author of Rex Exsomnis: Sleep and Subjectivity in Capitalist Modernity (Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2012). He is a member of the group Chto Delat [What is to Be Done?], which works in the space between theory, art, and political activism. Penzin is also a member of editorial boards of the journal “Stasis” (Saint-Petersburg) and the Moscow Art Magazine. He currently lives and works between London and Moscow. 

In my talk I would like to discuss the theoretical and political contexts of the revival of the idea of the avant-garde, both in critical theory and artistic / activist experience, considering my collective Chto Delat as an important part and a bright example of this turn. In a deeper and historical perspective, I will also discuss my research on the biopolitics of the Avant-Garde and its resistant presence in the continuum of capitalist modernity. I will present this research in terms of its belonging to this contemporary turn of radical thought and practice, aiming at rethinking of the contemporary theories of art and politics, in critical discussion with such theorists as Jacques Rancière and Boris Groys.

Alexei Penzin

Attendance note:  for Oxford University members only.