Contemporary Nomadism: Neo-Traditional, Philosophical And Artistic
A series of short presentations delivered, organized and hosted by TSUULL University and made accessible for all.
Nikolay Smirnov is an artist, geographer, curator and researcher working with spatial practices and representations of space and place in art, science, museum practices and everyday life. His practice is aimed at analysis and implementation of complex narratives in form of text, exhibition dispositive and film. Nikolay Smirnov participated in the main projects of the 5th Ural Industrial Biennial (2019, curator Xiaoyu Weng) and The 2nd Riga Biennial (2020, curator Rebecca Lamarche-Vadel). In 2021 Nikolay received a Frame curatorial research fellowship, in 2018 Pernod Ricard Fellowship.
Residencia: Para Site (Hong Kong, 2019), Villa Vassilieff (Paris, 2017-2018)
There are two main dimensions of nomadism today. The first is a concrete nomadism, for example, stock-raising nomads of the Eurasian steppes, Berbers, or Nenets of the Arctic tundra. The second is nomadism as a philosophical and artistic phenomenon, which can be called “nomadism of the philosophers” or philosophical nomadism. It became especially significant during postmodernism, in the second half of the 20th century.
In progressivist discourse, stateless nomads were usually considered to be inferior to settler cultures. In today’s globalized world—with its tourist industry, “biennalization”, labor migration, and endless supply chains—mobility and lack of belonging is highly valued. Buzzwords like “digital nomads” and others romanticize this notion, while uncritically and ahistorically appropriating it. In fact, many existing nomads are accustomed to modern technologies, some of them work for the tourist industry, meticulously constructing this way of life for the foreign gaze. Some nations even construct their identity on the nomadism, trying to paradoxically ‘settle on nomadism’. But this phenomenon of contemporary post-nomadic societies unites various nomadisms and can tell us something important about the human condition and contemporaneity in general.
The research was produced in the frame of the grant program for the study of Qatari history and culture, 2022.
Date: October 27, 2022, 14:00 – 15:00 (Thursday)
Location: TSUULL University Building, Room 212
Speakers: Nikolay Smirnov
Language: English
Organizers: TSUULL University
Audience: Free and Open to the Public
Area: Art, Сultural Studies, Anthropology, Philosophy, Sociology, Contemporary Art, Digital Humanities
For more details please RSVP to interdep@navoiy-uni.uz
CREDIT: Nikolay Smirnov, Petr Zhukov