FRINGE Events

A Portal Not Only to Hell, But Also to Paradise: Park Zaryadye, The Sacred Centre of 21st Century Moscow

Where: Shchusev State Museum of Architecture, Moscow
When: 25 July-12 August 2018

Zaryadye Park is a multi-billion rouble Kremlin-abutting prestige project, designed by the architects of Manhattan’s High Line on the ruins of the gargantuan Brezhnev-era Hotel Rossiya. It was opened with great fanfare by Vladimir Putin in September 2017. “A Portal…" is a research-based exhibition, comprised of 15 contemporary Russian artists’ reflections, interrogations and provocations on the theme of Zaryadye Park, and its relationship to the aesthetic, political and economic new order of late-Putinist Moscow.

The exhibition emerges from “Zaryadyology", a collaborative research project, carried out by anthropologist of architecture Michal Murawski together with students and staff at the Vysokovsky Graduate School of Urbanism in Moscow. The artists selected to take part in the project have chosen the focus and titles of their works themselves, but they were asked to respond to the work-in-progress results of the Zaryadyological research process: to incorporate their interpretations of the ethnographic material presented into the conceptual and tangible substance of the Zaryadyological hells and heavens, which they have created.

Upcoming Events 2018/2019

Term 1

Protest and Performativity (in callaboration with UCL European Institute)
Book Launch 1: Remains of the Soviet Past in Estonia (by Francisco Martinez)

Term 2

On Neutrality (2019 Annual International Conference)
Book Launch 2: The (City) Centre Cannot Hold? (Ed. Jonathan Bach and Michal Murawski)

Past Events

FRINGE Annual International Workshop: Redefining Russian Diaspora (1918-2018): National Tradition and Transnational Contexts

Where: UCL SSEES and UCL Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)
When: 30-31 May 2018

In contemporary discourse inside and outside Russia, ‘Russianness’ has become a rhetorical and conceptual point of contention. Starting with the premise that there is no single ‘fundamental’ Russian cultural formation—all relationships are historically produced and need to be made—we propose to examine the strategies of discursive constructions of Russianness and the Russian identity as enacted through cultural production in the geographically, chronologically and culturally distinct locations (across Russia and diaspora). The workshop convener is Dr Maria Rubins. Programme

Book Launch: The Global Encyclopaedia of Informality, volume 1 and 2

Where: UCL Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)
When: 22 March 2018

Join the FRINGE Centre for this launch, which marks the first publication in the FRINGE Series. Prof Alena Ledeneva invites you on a voyage of discovery, to explore society's open secrets, unwritten rules and know-how practices. Entries from the five continents presented in this volume are samples of the truly global and ever-growing collection, made possible by a remarkable collaboration of over 200 scholars across disciplines and area studies. Read and download both volumes here.

Shame on You: Theorising shame, pride and community in contemporary culture

Where: Banqueting Hall, Chelsea College of Arts, SW1P 4JU
When: 9 February 2018

With shame still being used as a means of excluding groups on the basis of sexual identities, this event will explore the experiences of those that are marginalized and the ways in which excluded groups are using shame as a way of carving out new positive identities. With a focus of issues of gender, class, and pan-sexuality.

Crossing the Great Divide? Reassessing East-West Relations During the Cold War and After

Where: UCL SSEES and UCL Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)
When: 25 January 2018

Evolving and multivalent, Russia’s relationship to the West is not a simple one to uncover, let alone to evaluate. This panel discussion, with authors Dr Egle Rindzeviciute and Prof Irina Busygina, will shed new light on East-West relations by analysing sources of contemporary tension and evaluating little known areas of cooperation during the Cold War.

Revolutionary Dostoevsky: Rethinking Radicalism

Where: UCL SSEES and UCL Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS)
When: 20-21 October 2017

FRINGEr Dr Sarah Young brings together experts from literary studies, philosophy, theology and political science, to reassess the author’s status as ‘prophet’ of the revolution and explore new understandings of the notion of ‘the radical’ in all senses in his writing. This event is sponsored by The FRINGE Centre.

Launch of Global Atlas of Social and Cultural Complexity

Where: UCL Institute of Advanced Studies
When: 17 March 2016

The Global Atlas of Social and Cultural Complexity is the first multimedia online resource focused on under-researched practices across which are often seen as non-transparent or hidden to an outsider. The launch will provide a taster of informality, with short introductions that illuminate informal and invisible practices from across the globe.

FRINGE Launch

Where: UCL Institute of Advanced Studies
When: 3 December 2015