Anton Vidokle and the Institute of the Cosmos public programme

Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland is currently presenting the exhibition Anton Vidokle and the Institute of the Cosmos, which features four films by Vidokle informed by Cosmist ideas and a specially designed Institute of the Cosmos reading room. The exhibition utilizes the expansive themes of Cosmism as a lens to explore biopolitics, immortalism, interplanetarianism, revolution, nutrition, resurrection, and museology.

Sirius Arts Centre is organizing a public programme to accompany this exhibition that engages with Vidokle’s practice and Cosmist themes. This public programme includes a series of events—screenings, performances, and discussions—and a reading group involving responses and commissioned, newly made works by artists and scholars based in Cork City and County.

Irish premiere of the film Citizens of the Cosmos, with a discussion led by Maximilian Le Cain, and of the film Gilgamesh: She Who Saw the Deep (co-directed with Pelin Tan), with a discussion led by Pádraig Trehy
September 30 and October 6, 2023, 8–10pm

The film Citizens of the Cosmos narrates the manifesto of Biocosmism, written by Alexander Svyatogor in 1922, presenting an imagined community voicing the historical desires of Cosmism. The film Gilgamesh: She Who Saw the Deep reflects on the perennial pursuit of immortality, reimagining the story of Gilgamesh, a hero in ancient Mesopotamian mythology. These screenings are followed by discussions exploring the works’s key topics, references, and aesthetics, as well as Vidokle’s approach to filmmaking led by filmmakers Maximilian Le Cain and Pádraig Trehy.

Speculative analysis of the Timeline of Cosmism, led by Miguel Amado
October 14, 2023, 3–5pm

The Timeline of Cosmism is a chronological mapping of critical developments in art, literature, science, politics, technology, and philosophy pertaining to Cosmism. SIRIUS director Miguel Amado examines the impact of Cosmist-related incidents and imagines future events on this trajectory.

“Maybe It’s Time for Another Colourful Metaphor,” a performance by BAN-EEE-UKT
October 14, 2023, 5–6pm

BAN-EEE-UKT is a partnership between artists Lynn-Marie Dennehy and Nic Flanagan. This performance highlights the absurdity of striving for immortality while potentially harming the precarious condition of our planet, questioning the environmental consequences of a human-centric approach to scientific advancements.

“The Waters of Silence,” a performance by The Quiet Club
October 20, 2023, 8–10pm

The Quiet Club is a collaboration between artists Danny McCarthy and Mick O’Shea. They employ various sound-making devices, from homemade instruments to field recordings. They perform a probing, improvised sound piece inspired by Cosmist ideas and the role sound plays in Anton Vidokle’s films.

“Institute of the Microcosm: Death and Dreams,” a lecture-performance by Sarah Long
October 28, 2023, 7–8pm

The artist and writer Sarah Long considers Cosmist ideas through the lens of the Irish cultural context. This lecture-performance includes readings from Long’s autofiction pamphlet “Death and Dreams,” and reflects on narratives that continue to haunt and shape the Irish psyche, including the Famine, colonization, the relationship between religion and mythology, and the personification and politicization of the land.

Anton Vidokle’s Onward to the Stars!, a play performed by Eibhlís Beirne
October 2028, 2023, 8–9pm

Onward to the Stars! is a play by Anton Vidokle based on excerpts from Nikolai Zabolotsky’s poem “Mad Wolf” (1931) and passages from Svetlana Fedorova’s doctoral dissertation on Cosmist ideas. The play, presented for the first time in Ireland, is performed by the artist Eibhlís Beirne. Beirne draws from extensive research on Cosmism-related aesthetics to embody the various characters, including a wolf and a bear, through voice and movement.

Cosmist Reading Group, led by John Thompson and Catherine Harty, in dialogue with Miguel Amado
September 2–November 2, 2023, Saturdays and Thursdays (online), 12:30–2pm and 6:30–8pm

The Cosmist Reading Group explores publications archived at the Institute of the Cosmos online and housed in the Reading Room of the Institute of the Cosmos at Sirius Arts Centre. It considers translations of primary essays by the early Cosmist and Cosmist-inspired authors, writings by adjacent authors influenced by Cosmism or expressing resonant notions, and contemporary commentaries and analyses by scholars and artists. It is delivered by scholar John Thompson and artist Catherine Harty.

The sessions focus on the interaction of Cosmist texts with several disciplines and fields of action, from philosophy to politics to art. They cover the following topics: “Nikolai Fedorov’s Common Task;” “Cosmism and Philosophy #1 and #2: Materialism and/or Idealism? and Esotericism and/or Orthodoxy?;” “Cosmism and Politics #1 and #2: Communism and Bio-cosmism and Anarchism;” “Cosmism and Art #1 and #2: A Cosmist Aesthetics and Pavel Florensky and The Role of Museums and Futurism;” “Cosmism and Contemporary Art #1 and #2: Ilya Kabakov and Moscow Conceptualism and Anton Vidokle, Hito Steyerl, and Arseny Zhilyaev;” “Cosmism and Alternative Futures: Science Fiction and Beyond.”

Anton Vidokle and the Institute of the Cosmos is produced by Sirius Arts Centre and curated by Miguel Amado, director, in dialogue with Anton Vidokle. The public programme accompanying the exhibition is curated by Amado with Sarah Long, critic in residence.

About Sirius Arts Centre
Sirius Arts Centre in Cobh, County Cork, Ireland, approaches art through the lens of society. It organizes focused, artist-driven projects and collaborative, community-oriented projects. It facilitates the production and presentation of, and public engagement with, art and knowledge, and offers professional development opportunities to artists through commissions and residencies. It operates across all art forms—visual, performing, live, film, sound, vocal, written, and born-digital—programming a mix of exhibitions, performances, events, activities, and publications both on-site and online.

Sirius Arts Centre’s operating capacity and programming are made possible with public funds from the Arts Council of Ireland and Cork County Council.